Last year, Call of Duty 4 took the world of first-person shooter games on next-gen systems by storm. Infinity Ward, the developers of COD4, produced a game that was in the running (if not, in my opinion, the #1 choice) for Game of the Year across the industry, driving forward with not only a mind-blowingly cinematic single player mode, which brought the series of COD games to new levels, but also unparalleled multiplayer action in the form of the level-based challenge/class system, which ensured that everyone in the team had a role to play.

First-person shooter fans knew a change was coming in the way they played FPS games, as the game quickly raised the bar in nearly every respect. On Wii, COD4 didn't make an appearance at all, but now that Treyarch - the company responsible for developing COD3, and the current "underdog" of developers when it comes to Call of Duty - is back to deliver the next in line, we're again getting a Wii effort, and it's one to be pretty proud of. Whether your perception of World War II games isn't as hot as it was during the Medal of Honor Frontlines, or if you're among those skeptical that Treyarch would bring any fun to a Wii port of an "in between" year of Call of Duty, think again.

The team at Treyarch has done some serious work not only on the 360/PS3 versions of COD5, but also in bringing that cinematic feeling over to Wii. Call of Duty: World at War is a serious (and at the moment, probably the only) contender in the world of Wii first-person shooters.

Activision has been pretty clear in its desire to have a new Call of Duty game every year from here on out, which means we'll be seeing alternating efforts from Infinity Ward (Call of Duty 1, 2, and 4) and Treyarch (Call of Duty: Big Red One, 3, and World at War) on a yearly basis, allowing two years for each of the games' development. So far we've seen both COD3 and World at War come to the Wii, and hopefully, regardless of how Nintendo develop the Wii system, we will see a release every year from here on out, as World at War is a testament to how impressive these games can be on the Wii console.

Call of Duty 5 - World at War on the Wii uses the same levels, the same character spawns, and overall the same core campaign as the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions do, and with the title running off an adapted COD4 engine on Wii, Treyarch's combined efforts with Infinity Ward's core engine means Wii gamers are getting something pretty special on their system this year.

It isn't always the highest-frame game (it never gets too annoying or persistent, but you will see a few dropped frames here and there), and World War II not only brings many of the same guns from dozens of games previous, complete with the same, drab green/brown/gray color set, but in the end World at War is a title that surpasses every other FPS on the system in terms of pure cinematic detail, on-screen action, and open environments.

One of the main shockers on Wii though - and really across any of the systems - is just how brutal and straight-to-the-point the game can be in its story telling. True to the COD series, real locations, facts, and situations are used to engrose the player in the game, and World at War is no different, with pre-level cinemas showing real footage of World War II, and in-game scripted sequences going well beyond what you'd normally expect as far as maturity goes.

You'll see allies getting their faces and arms burned with cigarettes, countless friends getting shot point blank by both Japanese and German forces, soldier after soldier lit on fire with flamethrowers - both allied and axis-manned - and even spend an entire mission with a wounded sniper who is your eyes and ears on the battlefield. It's a very dramatic, heart-throtting, engaging, and engrosing story, and one that really surpasses any FPS effort on Wii in terms of hard-hitting themes and execution.

After taking some serious time to play around with the controls and really give the game a fair try, it's extremely fair and a well-thought out decision can be made to say that World at War has far from the best controls that i've seen on the Wii, but that in the end, yes, it's a worthy contender. The game has a custom bounding box, lots of options for smooth cursor movement, and different sensitivity levels for turning and the movement of ironsights and scopes. Even in its best settings we would have liked it to move a bit quicker. Sniping can take some practice, but is easily better than other FPS games on the Wii, such as Medal of Honor, and it makes some of the missions in single player, as well a multiplayer's vs. gameplay all the more rewarding.