Previously on a past Godfather review…
Joe - “Sly Lou Santorini.”
“…” (sigh)
Joe - “Sly Lou Santorini.”
“…“ (blinks) “Did you know Marlon Brando was added into The Godfather game post his death? I didn’t know that until the recent next gen reviews of The Godfather games.“
Joe - “Probably the dodgey dealer who finds a load of “merchandise” that fell off the back of a lorry.”
“I guess that‘s OK since he didn‘t have to live through the glut of the same Godfather game over and over and over again with mixed results.”
Joe - “…”

“Sorry. My bad, me talking about nothing but depressing stuff and I didn’t even do that last time we reviewed The Godfather for the PS2... Only unlike The Warriors which went only so far we now have Godfather games up to wazoo. Godfather on the PSP, the PS3, the XBox360 (probably) and the Wii. The only thing that didn’t get a Godfather game is the Nintendo DS and the GBA, and lord knows I could be wrong and they might also have a Godfather game on those too… uh…” (points at Otaku Kei) “Humor me and let’s continue this flashback as if nothing is wrong.”
Otaku Kei - “Guiseppe the Rat. So apparently I’m the fella who’s going to turn state evidence against the rest of the family and… gcckkktt…”

I liked the old strangling ability from the PS2 version of Godfather. Like the well toned ability to strangle the life out of your enemies (sorry Otaku) -- or the well toned ability to strangle every last marketing opportunity out of a once good game. Case in point, the endless marketization of Godfather games on whatever system seems halfway capable of supporting it… except for the PSP, which

(in theory) should have been able to support this game… yet didn‘t. They should have took a page from The Warriors -- yeah, I didn’t think they’d be reasonable about the game’s release, did you?

What the hell happened though with this game! Considering they did well porting The Warriors, and GTA onto the PSP how did The Godfather fall apart so badly on it‘s port to the PSP?!?
If you are not aware of it yet, The Godfather is a game based on a cult classic movie franchise starring Marlon Brando and a large cast of many (most of whose names I fudged from memory so I didn’t write them here). The PS2 version of this game set out to strangle the life out of GTA clone games by offering up a level of gameplay that was unique (the ability to rack up territory through either the iron fist or the soft touch of negotiation and subtle “persuasion”).

This is a far cry from what you do in this hacked up brisket sandwich of content where the most important part of the game (it’s freeform gameplay) is sadly missing. Hard to believe, what with games like GTA : Vice City Stories offering fully explorable landscapes to travel about, but true nevertheless.

Basically the game is a spade and neutered version of the PS2 game, broken up into “chapters” where you are only fed the “meat” (story missions) of the game. Yes, there are the other content in the game as well here, but it’s offered up in a Risk style strategy game of overcoming your rivals and taking over the city, combined with card battle combat to add a little “spice“ to the game, allegedly. Now the box

proclaims this is a new innovative way to play the game, but it is mostly an excuse to work in as much of the side mission content of the game as possible without actually including the all important freeform gameplay which really would have made the game worth playing.

This might have been somewhat acceptible if it allowed you to keep the whole negotiation/extortion thing, but as it stands you only get a brief taste of this as territories are quickly snagged up forcing you to mostly play a run and gun combat system hopping from territory to territory shooting it out over the more subtle technique of negotiation (which was one of the highlights of the PS2 version of the game).
In theory the majority of your money is still made through extortion, but it’s done in such a sterile way (thought the playing of certain cards in card combat and payouts from captured territories earned during the strategy “Mob Wars” part of the game, which this title draws it’s name from) that it’s almost boring to watch your money come in. Wait, did I say almost boring? I meant completely boring.

You still have the ranks of Associate, Soldier and Capo (but now like a “good” strategy game you can build up an army of lesser people who’ll all hold these titles (and the power which comes with said rank) in the game), but it just doesn’t seem as much as it did in the PS2 version. Also all your “associates” seem to just be clones of you as I don’t see anything really distinctive about them when you use them in Mob War missions. Another downer about the game. Also you still have the whole

upgradable system for your character but it just doesn’t seem to have the same impact like in the PS2 version. Also you find the shop options have been severely spaded-neutered down to only a shop to buy/upgrade weapons (and that’s it).

Respect is still earned, but like everything else in this game it’s influence in the game seems spade and neuthered from it’s important perch it once held in the PS2 version. Everything, in fact, seems spade and neutered from before (which makes this a disappointing version of the game to play if you were enchanted with it’s PS2 counterpart).

Lack of “hit jobs” (which seems to be worked into the Mob Wars section of the game in a rather sterile way, without the balance of key “requirements” for each hit to add spice to the missions), the overall lack of length offered up by a freeform gameplay world, the whole concept of Mob Wars (complete with card battle content) and the severly spade and neutered feel of the overall game makes this a Godfather clone that should be sleeping with the fishes. Leave the game, take the cannolis.

Huxley - “Hey!”
“….” (?) “…huh?”
Huxley - “That’s my job!”
“…oh…” (passes the cannolis) “Here, take the cannolis…”
Huxley - “I’m Bruno the Spanker.”
“Say what?“
Huxley - “Bruno the Spanker.”
“Really. Then that’s strangely ironic since that’s how I felt reviewing this game. Like I was spanked.“
(silence) “Anyway you‘re Michael by the way.”
Huxley - “?”
“Michael. Michael. You’re the Editor hence you’re Mic--” (-_-) “…never mind, I won’t justify this game’s exsistence by trying to go further with this flashback. Sorry.”

Long story short. Godfather : Mob Wars sleeps with 2 fishies out of 5.
Silence
Huxley - “I got my name from http://gangstaname.com/mafia_name.php.”
Silence
(waves) “Good night everybody!” (leaves)