If Disaster: Day of Crisis was a movie, Michael Bay would be directing. It's relentless, predictable, full of corny dialogue and silly plot twists. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Not that Disaster is perfect. It's flawed in almost every way (except the soundtrack, which is incredible), with some fiddly controls, frustrating difficulty spikes, strange driving physics and items you can't pick up until the main character "realises" he needs it (a pet peeve of mine, second only to unskippable training levels). But this all falls by the way side as you have some stupid, silly fun.

Which is a pity, because if it was bad, I could make a witty comment like: '"Disaster" plays exactly as its name would imply'. It was really selfish of Monolith to take that opportunity away from me.

Raymond Bryce, the main character, is a dedicated member of the International Rescue team. You begin the game taking part in a rescue mission from the slopes of an erupting volcano. And of course: things go wrong. Stranded on the slopes, Ray and his partner Steve attempt to escape the oncoming lava flow. And then, Steve hands Ray his prized compass to give to his sister, "incase I don't make it". Of course, he bites the dust about 2 minutes later, wrapping up the prologue. Roll opening credits.

Pick your moment and jump out with some head shots.

Disaster is split into 23 chapters, each then split into several checkpoints. At each checkpoint, the game may switch to one of its many different playstyles, the majority being a third person adventure game, an on-rails shooter, and driving. For the most part, they work quite well, with the occasional hiccup.

The third person adventure segments generally work quite well. Some of the navigation can be a bit frustrating, with jumps occasionally being difficult, and Ray not grabbing on to an edge when it seems like he should (fortunately this rarely ends in death). A strange return from the classic beat-em-ups has you smashing bins and boxes for oversized floating food and first aid kits (the hamburger is bigger than Rays head). Annoyingly, this smashing is done via shaking the wii remote, and can get tiring – this is the only gesture input in the game that feels unnecessary, however. There are plenty of extra things that can be found during these sequences, a major part being citizen rescues. There are over 40 citizens hidden around the levels to be rescued, with almost all of them being optional side quests. There are a multitude of ways each rescue is done, sometimes using gestures to wrap bandages or perform CPR, and sometimes requiring Ray to carry the citizen to safety. As you play through and successfully complete the levels (and the optional side quests), you are rewarded with "Survival Points", or SP, which can be used to upgrade Rays performance in these areas (larger health bar, stronger punches, faster running, and so on).

The on-rails light gun segments have copped some flack from some of the gaming press for having poor AI. However, it is quite obviously intentional. The light gun segments borrow very heavily from the classic light gun games, especially Time Crisis. Anyone who has played these games know the enemies aren't meant to be smart – the difficulty comes from their numbers, not their brains. Disaster uses a cover system and introduces a zoom feature. Control is via the pointer, and works brilliantly. In these segments, Ray can carry up to four guns – a handgun with infinite clips, and a choice of three other guns. Guns are purchased and upgraded with "Battle Points", or BP. There are also several shooting ranges as well, that can be unlocked within the game, giving access to new weapons.

Come on Breath damn you, don't die on me here!

And then there's the driving. And it's not very good. It actually controls quite well, with the wii remote turned on its side and tilted as in Mario kart. But due to some very odd physics, it is far too easy to flip the car, even from only a minor clip with the scenery. And when you're being chased down by lava, this is not a good thing. Also worth noting that one of the hardest segments in the game is in a driving section, and requires perfect driving from a 3rd person perspective driving toward the camera on a collapsing bridge. Warning is given for any road blocks ahead, but it is still too easy to clip things when you shouldn't have.

There are many other playstyles, too many to mention here. They tend to comprise much shorter sections of the game, however. Nothing particularly revolutionary (waggle to run really fast), but they are done quite competently.

Graphically, this game is very much a mixed bag. Some effects are awful (the fire is particularly bad), while others are incredible (some of the later disasters, which I won't talk about because of spoilers). The same goes for textures as well – some look fantastic, and others are messy low resolution pixelfests. The character models of the main characters are quite good though, especially the high detail versions used in the cinematics (the same trick used in Resident Evil 4). Some of the citizens are surprisingly low res, however.

Knee deep in a flood and still the terrorists won't stop hunting you.

The audio also suffers a little, with some of the SFX sounding a little dodgy (Ray's running foot steps are weird), but the music is fantastic. Almost perfectly matching the action (the only notable hitch is in the opening sequence), it matches the pace and really heightens the sense of urgency. And the wii remote speaker is used very cleverly too – as well as the expected gun noises, radio broadcasts on the latest disaster updates and radio/phone conversations are delivered from the speaker.

Finally, the game is surprisingly deep. A long list of in-game achievements can be unlocked, and there is plenty of extra content to be enjoyed in a second playthrough, with items hidden around each stage to be found.

All of this, combined together, makes an incredibly atmospheric game. I could rant about some amazing sections, but I won't – spoilers tend not to be looked kindly upon. But with the bits and pieces Monolith have created, flawed as they are, an incredibly compelling game has been assembled. You'll be playing on to see what next crazy disaster is coming up, or what new gameplay element will be thrown at you. You'll be driving under collapsing buildings, shooting down helicopters, hiding from snipers, and on and on.