Anno: Create A New World

I consider myself an avid gamer (across all platforms) and I feel that I can easily recommend this as the best console strategy/management release in years. I would put it among the top three Wii titles so far released and it breaks my heart a little expecting this game to be overlooked amongst a gamer crowd that seeks 'surface' experiences.

The story mode took me fourteen hours to complete. It has a gentle learning curve that will eventually lead you to a state where there's always something to do. Refinement of production, management of income and expenditure, opposing sides to fight and befriend, trade of exotic raw materials and overall trying to lead your people to the next level. After completing the story mode I started playing the continuous mode which lets you play for as long you would like aiming for personal goals.

+ Interface and controls are *perfect*.
There's a lot of visual feedback in the HUD elements, animating icons, logical button art..etc. Dragging some bars is a bit too sensitive with the pointer (we're talking a few pixels affecting a ton +/- in wares) but you can use the - and + buttons for fine adjustment. You speedily shift between different islands, pop down buildings, sell stuff and explore without giving a thought about the controls. It's a lot of fun and puts the Wii remote in a bright light.
+ Graphics are definitely in the upper echelon Wii wise. Never a dip in the framerate, everything is colorful and animates comparably to any Maxis (Sims/Spore) game.
+ Voicework is really well performed and the music relaxed. The story itself works out as a tutorial in the earlier parts and the intrigues that follow are seen miles away but the characters themselves are well acted and there is some witty commentary.

There's some nitpicks (combat is a bit too straight forward) and there's obvious room for expansion in the future (more complex tech tree and trade routes, online multiplayer) but there's a lot on this disc and it's greatly executed.

Everything flows beautifully. Fans of the deeper PC versions will find it complex enough because the important options remain and still matter as much as ever (unnecessary micro management has been trimmed) making it a more focused entry. A brilliant console debut and hopefully Ubisoft will release more entries in the future.

This is a great version of the popular strategy game.The interface is good for any kind of player, there is a constant "workload", it never gets boring.The only thing I disliked is the long tutorial, the rather bland graphics (more detail would have been nice) and smaller things like the fact that the speech (which is actually throught the game, not common for Wii games) is not synchronized with the speech animation (people's mouths keep on moving after their phrase).Apart from that this is an excellent, non-violent game for all generations.Oh, and a multplayer would have been AWESOME ! Recommended !

I'm a big fan of RTSs and their ilk, and have long been disappointed by the lack of application by games creators in making them for the more advanced consoles - Populous on the Sega Master System proved it could be done, and done well, years and years ago, and yet largely its a gaming style that gets overlooked on consoles in favour of whizz-bang first person shooters.
Thankfully, that is not the case any more! This absorbing little game strikes a perfect balance between cartoony fun and head-scratching strategy, and the controls on the Wii are absolutely perfect. The story mode is thoroughly involving, opening your eyes bit by bit to the possibilities which await you when playing in Continuous Play mode. This game has great long term potential. The voice-overs could get annoying, but there is an option to turn the voices down in the audio settings menu (although I must confess I havent done so yet - I quite enjoy them!).
As one other reviewer has already said, this lovely game will most likely get overlooked by fans of Quick-Fix Alien Death Match Gorefest III, which is a shame, because they're missing a treat.
Here's hoping both Ubisoft and other games creators take this game as a catalyst for creating more RTS style games for this platform.