The Wii, it becomes more and more clear to me, is a thoroughly Japanese system. Where the PS3 and the Xbox 360 might play games that have big involved storylines or lots of explosions and sociopathic destruction in general, much like American cinema in general, the Wii has the games that are the most out of left field. I say this having watched several dozen Japanese movies and, in many cases, being positively baffled by what I watch. Don’t believe me? Go get a copy of Crazy Lips some time and see if that end sequence makes your eyes pop too. But I digress. Once again, I’ve found a Wii game that steadfastly refuses all known conventions in favor it its own sheer bizarrity. That game, specifically, is Help Wanted.
In Help Wanted, you play a young man, or a young lady, whichever, who has a serious problem. Their grandfather has discovered that an enormous meteor is heading straight for Earth and will destroy all life as we know it unless it can, somehow, be stopped. But rather than call the police or the government or something, the old codger instead looks to his grandkids to—get this—take a series of odd jobs so that they can save enough money to buy various things from a series of home shopping networks that they can use to attack the meteor.
No, seriously.
That’s the entire plot of Help Wanted—the world can only be saved by cheap child labor. Not that these kids’ labor is exactly cheap; many of the jobs you take on can net you as much as a hundred bucks a day or more. And while you’re earning that money, you can spend it with a series of home shopping channels for new uniforms (allowing you to unlock new jobs), trophies of your previous jobs (which increase the amount of “shopping points” you get), support items (which make your jobs easier) and stuff to affect the meteor, either delaying its arrival or causing damage to it which will eventually make it break up and no longer pose a threat to Earth.
You’ll rapidly find, as you play Help Wanted, that there are some jobs you enjoy more than others, and some jobs you’re better at than others, and some jobs you just plain old can’t stand, just like in real life. I, for example, found I was a positively crackerjack fisherman and action hero. You may well discover a gift for babysitting and teaching, two things that some say aren’t that far removed. But the key thing here is, there’s a lot to do and a lot of different THINGS to do. Nothing really has a chance to get old or stale because you can switch to something completely different almost at will.
Sure, the graphics are a little low-end, as is the standard with the Wii, where its games are ported to the Playstation TWO rather than the three. Sure, the characters couldn’t be much more chibi and cutesy. But there’s a lot of humor here, and some of the cut scenes are a riot. Consider the dog that runs away because he’s tired of playing the villain in the younger siblings’ games. Upon his return, he’s given a special treat—a makeover and upgrade to hero. This is not where the strangeness ends, but rather, is merely the beginning.
There’s a lot to like about this game—its constant variety and a soupcon of comedy besides—but I’ll caution you that it really is just another collection of mini games. But this seems to be working out fairly well for the Wii. And you should be fairly entertained by the whole thing too.
