Full Review

I got the Wii Zapper yesterday for Christmas I have heard good things and bad things about the zapper. Mainly that the Wii zapper is pretty much a lousy paper weight but Link’s Crossbow training is a pretty good game in the style of wii sports and wii play of course. Well pretty much everything is right but the Wii zapper can hold it’s on.

If you don’t know what the zapper was it was an accessory for the NES that allowed simple light gun games. The game that made it famous of course was Duck Hunt, and it was a main staple in the cartoon series Captain N the game master. The NES version gun was easy to use and a really good light gun I haven’t really seen one that was has comfortable or has simple to use has the Zapper.

Of course that was 20 years ago on ancient hard ware that doesn’t even work on today’s TV, so Nintendo brings us the Wii zapper. The original design was that of an over sized zapper where the nunchuck would be the corner of the gun and the wii remote would slip in for the barrel. While this still wouldn’t’ make it a real light gun (the wii remote needs a sensor bar to get location hence a cursor is needed to tell were the wii mote is aiming at) it would have made it a cool gun. Unfortunately either because it wasn’t possible to do, or because a bunch of parents groups complained threating a boycott of Nintendo. Yes a boycott over a light gun, sorry to break it to these parents but light guns aren’t nothing new I was again using one 20 years ago when I was a wee lad to shoot bad guys and ducks on NES games, in fact one of the first video game ever created and released for public use was a light gun game. These parents still complain anyways, I wonder if these parents ran out to try to ban the game Bully while there kids went blind from jerking off to much while watching the Spice channel.

Anyways because of this what we get is some sort of weird weapon that we would see in an episode of Star Trek and it’s not a very comfortable weapon. The Wii remote fits at the end pointing the TV and on the stand you can place the nunchuck if the requires you to move during game play.

You hold one hand down on the Z button and your thumb of that hand on the analog stick while you stretch the other hand out to hit the trigger button. The trigger is connected to the Wii remote that it holds down the B button and fires it.

Now here are my main problems with the zapper and I have a few. First the firing button other then it being bigger then the B button it feels no better pressing it down to fire, in fact it feels even more flimsy then just pressing the B button down. That’s not to say it feels bad it’s just not has tight. Another problem comes with it’s large designs, when you move a wii remote you use only one hand and quick wrist action. This you have to move both of your arms to move the cursor. This slows you down a lot and I notice the points on my game always came out higher when using just the wii remote and nuncuck without the zapper then with. And finally the big on the thing is just not comfortable to hold for periods of time, my arm and finger on the trigger finger would get cramped after a few stages from just being stretched like are to fire the buttons. It’s a pretty bad design and if it was a 3rd party I would be more forgiving but come on Nintendo you can do better then this.

Link’s Crossbow training.
Ok now what’s the game like. I think Nintendo knew that people wouldn’t pick up a plastic shell for 20 bucks so they threw in a cheap game that they developed to sweeten the deal. Link’s Crossbow training has almost the same simple presentations that Wii sports and Wii play have if not simpler the only thing though is that there is eye candy in the game because it recycles areas and backgrounds from last years hit Zelda Twilight Princess. There are 8 levels each with 3 areas each. Each area lasts only a little bit over a minute. Now the idea is to hit targets and enemies has accurately has possible when you chain hits the game starts multiplying points by the combo. You have to have more then 20,000 points total of each in order to get to the next levels. Each area will take a bit of practice master. Now the game has 4 different type of areas.

The first are the target shooting areas you will stay still for most of these areas with the exception of the last few and shoot bulls eyes that move along the screen. Shooting gold bulls eye will get you more points and the point multiplier still exists. The game does change these areas up and has you shooting the targets on the groin area of Gorons (ouch)

The next areas has Link standing still but your able to swing around and look at things in a circle. The idea is to keep enemies at bay and from attacking Link in the center if they attack Link in the circle you will loose points. Another variation of this has Link on a moving object like a carriage or a horse and shooting enemies to gain points.

The final type of area is a Resident Evil light type area were your able to move Link with the nunchuck and shoot enemies. Usually you have to clear out the whole area of enemies to get the bonuses and once again getting hit causes you to loose the points. These are probably the most interesting areas in the game even if they are a bit on the short side. It was nice though to revisit the wild west style Shikea village so we can have a proper gunfight with the Mokoboblins.

The multiplayer isn’t a co-op but rather you trade off to your fiend to see if you can get more points in a particular area. It’s a bit more exciting then you think trying to 1-up each other but I wouldn’t have minded 2 player co-op or VS mayhem. Still the levels in the game are fun and pretty clever and there are a few memorable areas from Twilight Princess relieved.

Final Recommendation.
Ok the Wii Zapper might be a paper weight with the exception of those who positively need a gun for there shooting light gun games. Link Crossbow training does sweeten it up with a casual game with a theme that more hard core audiences may appreciate more. Has far has the “they didn’t include Duck Hunt” in the thing my thoughts on it is this. Duck Hunt is a classic but it’s a game that hasn’t age very well compare to other light gun games. Putting a crosshair cursor so I could tell were I was aiming at would have taken all the fun out of the game and it would have made it easier then just standing in front of the television with the zapper touching the screen.