My girlfriend got me this game for Christmas, and it's surprisingly fun! I've always had a soft spot for "point and shoot" games like Area 51 and Police Trainer. Now I have one that doesn't cost 50 cents per credit. ![]()
This game is a pack-in with the Wii Zapper, which is a piece of plastic into which you snap a Wii Remote and Nunchuk, and hold like an SMG or, more politically correctly, a crossbow.
The single player is comprised of 9 levels, and each level has a target shooting stage, a "defense" stage, and a free-roaming stage. The target shooting stage is basically exactly like Area 51 and Police Trainer: Your viewpoint moves on rails, and you shoot targets as they appear. In the defense stage, Link stands in a fixed position, and you can aim 360 degrees to shoot targets as they attack you. You also have a radar to spot enemies coming from behind. The free-roaming stage is like a third-person shooter, where you move around and strafe with the Nunchuk, and point near the edge of the screen to turn or look up/down. Your goal in this mode is usually to find and destroy all the enemies.
Accuracy is how you build score. In each mode, consecutive hits increase your multiplier, so if you've hit 20 targets in a row without missing, your next hit is worth 21x its usual point value. Misses drop you down to 1x of course. Stationary targets are worth 10, bulls-eyes are worth 30, and bonus targets (which appear when you hit all the regular targets) are worth up to 150. There are also pots and barrels for you to break, which give very few points, but sometimes hide a rupee inside, which can be worth up to 1000 (but your multiplier does not affect rupee points).
The Zelda theme adds a bit of creativity and variety to prevent the levels from becoming too monotonous. You'll shoot goblins, stalfos, and flying bats, avoid arrows, blast exploding barrels to cause splash damage, fire from horseback, and even challenge bosses in the final levels of the game, which are particularly fun. The move-and-strafe on the nunchuk and point-and-turn with the remote control scheme is accurate and intuitive, and is how all third-person shooters should be done on the Wii (I'm looking at YOU, Resident Evil 4
).
The game offers a practice mode that allows you to, er, practice any of the sub-stages which you've already played to try and improve your score. You can only record a score and earn medals, however, by playing through an entire level in the single-player. There's also a multiplayer mode which I haven't yet tried, but I assume it involves players competing to earn the highest score. I'll probably bring this to the party tomorrow night and try out the multiplayer there.
8.5/10. It's a bit short, but it's great if you like light gun games, and worth the $20 even without the included peripheral.
I'll be reviewing RE4: Wii Edition and RE:UC, which my girlfriend also got me for Christmas, when I've had more time with each of them.







