I picked up a Wii Zapper yesterday and thought I'd share my impressions.
Overall it seems like more of a novelty than anything. It doesn't do anything that you can't do just holding the remote and the nunchuk separate.
That being said, it is fairly comfortable to hold and the way that the remote and the nunchuk fit into the plastic mold is nice. There's even a compartment of sorts to hold the cord for the nunchuk so that it doesn't get in the way.
Link's Crossbow Training is pretty well done considering that it's a cheap way for Nintendo to show off the Zapper. I only played the first level . Each level has a set of three stages. What I did play through was fun and didn't feel like it was just slapped together. Nintendo seems to have taken a little bit of time to polish the game so that the gameplay is varied and while not overly difficult, it wasn't so easy it was boring either. Also, as I said, I only played the first level and there were I think a total of around 7 levels, again with 3 stages each. There's a practice mode that you can start with that seems to just let you go through each levels stages one by one instead of running the full three at a time. There's also a multiplayer mode that I didn't explore, but you could probably go through it with another person just using a remote and nunchuk if you don't have two Zappers.
The graphics are obviously running on the Twilight Princess and they used the same artwork and settings for the characters and levels so if you liked the TP visual style, then you'll enjoy the look of Crossbow Training. Same for the sound.
Like I said, it seems like a bit of a novelty, but for $20, it's not an expensive novelty. The packed in game, while not Wii Sports, is worth a few good hours of fun and there's the potential for a developer to come up with a good application for the Zapper. I'd say it's worth the price of admission. I just worry about how many frigging accessories the Wii's going to end up with. I've already got two pair remotes and nunchuks, a classic controller, the Zapper, a Guitar Hero guitar, and come next year we'll see the wheel that comes with Mario Kart and the Balance Board for Wii Fit. Before long it's going to take a closet just to store all this mess.
Overall it seems like more of a novelty than anything. It doesn't do anything that you can't do just holding the remote and the nunchuk separate.
That being said, it is fairly comfortable to hold and the way that the remote and the nunchuk fit into the plastic mold is nice. There's even a compartment of sorts to hold the cord for the nunchuk so that it doesn't get in the way.
Link's Crossbow Training is pretty well done considering that it's a cheap way for Nintendo to show off the Zapper. I only played the first level . Each level has a set of three stages. What I did play through was fun and didn't feel like it was just slapped together. Nintendo seems to have taken a little bit of time to polish the game so that the gameplay is varied and while not overly difficult, it wasn't so easy it was boring either. Also, as I said, I only played the first level and there were I think a total of around 7 levels, again with 3 stages each. There's a practice mode that you can start with that seems to just let you go through each levels stages one by one instead of running the full three at a time. There's also a multiplayer mode that I didn't explore, but you could probably go through it with another person just using a remote and nunchuk if you don't have two Zappers.
The graphics are obviously running on the Twilight Princess and they used the same artwork and settings for the characters and levels so if you liked the TP visual style, then you'll enjoy the look of Crossbow Training. Same for the sound.
Like I said, it seems like a bit of a novelty, but for $20, it's not an expensive novelty. The packed in game, while not Wii Sports, is worth a few good hours of fun and there's the potential for a developer to come up with a good application for the Zapper. I'd say it's worth the price of admission. I just worry about how many frigging accessories the Wii's going to end up with. I've already got two pair remotes and nunchuks, a classic controller, the Zapper, a Guitar Hero guitar, and come next year we'll see the wheel that comes with Mario Kart and the Balance Board for Wii Fit. Before long it's going to take a closet just to store all this mess.
