Hands-on: Overlord Dark Legend
by Alexander Sliwinski { Jun 8th 2009 at 1:00PM } Nintendo
Overlord Dark Legend is an all-new Wii adventure set in the fractured fantasy world of the dark lord and his minions. The game puts players in the steel shoes of a younger overlord in a more fractured fairy tale setting than those of the series proper.
Despite Dark Legend taking the minion's debauchery down a notch (they don't get drunk, vomit or pee), the core evilness is still present in the adolescent Overlord. The title is still a "core" gamer's game, which is part of publisher Codemaster's strategy for the console. For those who have never played an Overlord title before, Dark Legend brings the authentic experience in a new package.
Gallery: Overlord: Dark Legend
Now, the main thing the separates Dark Legend from the other Overlord console titles is the controls. Taking full use of the Wiimote and nunchuk, we'll go out on a limb and say -- from our brief time with the game -- that the controls are the best of any game in the series.
Using the Wiimote to point where the minions should go or just pointing at a spawn pool (rather than walking up to it) to summon the little gremlins is quite efficient. Once again, as with our time with Overlord II, we didn't get to control various types of minions, so we have nothing to say about how the game controls once the real insanity begins.
Further use of the Wiimote involves the "throttling" of minions. The feature was not part of the demo, but the idea is that players can grab a minion, shake the Wiimote to "throttle" it and turn the little beast into a "manic minion missile" with an explosive body.
Like the main Overlord series, this version was also written by Rhianna Pratchett, who places the young despot wannabe in a Cinderella situation as the forgotten child with his siblings attempting to take power away from their absent father.
From out time with the demo, it appears the controls are solid and the game is a fully-featured Overlord experience with proper Wii controls for the console.
