Call of Duty 3 for Nintendo Wii simply smacks of afterthought incarnate, as if Activision knew it had a recognized hit brand on its hands and might as well churn out a brand new Wii version in time to be the lone WWII shooter game available for the system, maybe incorporate some novel interfacing because its there.

The thing is, Call of Duty 3 should be the last first-person shooter (FPS) for Wii, because all the game manages to prove is that the system doesn't do shooters very well. At least not well if confined to the Wii's otherwise remarkable, three-dimensional motion sensing wireless controller.

For all the Wii-mote's mojo of translating thrust and draw, swings left, right, up, down, plus gyrations, pitch and yaw, into controllable, onscreen action, the thing just sucks when it comes to reticule aiming and shooting. Yes, you can draw a bead on some partially-hidden enemy's head, but with your wrist extended exactly like it wouldn't be if holding a real gun, then invoking the seemingly minute motion of squeezing the trigger which, thus, jigs said reticule off target at the critical moment, well, that's just hopeless.

If you can bear it (good luck), Call of Duty 3 otherwise contains most of the empathetically harrowing grandness the series is famed for -- though, too, the standard-def graphics are woefully underwhelming when compared to the high def sparkle and shine of the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions -- and it is, after all, the only WWII-flavored Wii game out there at the moment.

But while the Wii-mote is a natural for driving games, flying, sword play, sports, puzzle solving, and other dexterity-centric swipe and swish games, it just doesn't do shooters with any degree of competency. Too bad.