Protöthea is a top-down game from Ubisoft that takes a shot at the ultimate gaming genre: Shoot'em Ups.

This game is fun for a variety of gamers. It’s easy to play, but difficult to master. It’s everything required to be a great shooter plus much more. The gameplay is fast-paced, fun, and very innovative.

With ten levels spanning four worlds, the game proves to be an immersive and expansive experience. Each level ends in a boss or mini-boss, each more difficult than the last.

A staple of the shoot'em up genre is the ability to collect power-ups for your vessel's weapons. Protöthea is no different. Power-ups include a flamethrower and extended laser ammunition for air combat. In addition, your ship is also equipped with bombs designed for ship-to-ground combat. Yeah, that’s right, ground combat! So watch your back… and your underside!

Unless, of course, you’re good enough to build up your shield and become temporarily invincible. Then you can die into the fray and unleash a torrent of punishment upon your enemies without fearing the consequences!

That being said, Protöthea is not without its drawbacks. In fact, the biggest innovation in this game is its biggest drawback: the Wii controls.

Players control the movement of their ship with the Nunchuk and move the weapons cursor on-screen by pointing with the Wii Remote. This control scheme can get confusing in hectic battles, where your cursor can easily get lost in the maelstrom of carnage. And because the ship and the on-screen crosshairs are roughly same size, it is sometimes difficult to keep track of which is which.

Thankfully, this weakness is not a showstopper and simply becomes part of the game's charm. Besides, when things get really hectic and you’re lost in the fog of the exploding enemy ships, just slow down time. Yes, I said slow down time! With a touch of the Z button, everything on the screen instantly things slows to half-speed thus giving you the advantage. But be careful, it only lasts a short time and takes a significant amount of time to recharge!

The bottom line is that any fan of the shoot'em up genre simply must own
this WiiWare title. If you’ve ever even thought about trying a shoot'em up game, this is a good place to start. If you want something to waste time with and blow things up, here you go! It’s great fun any way you cut it.