Cabela's is to hunting as Madden is to football. It seems that every few months we get a new version to play around with. Trophy Bucks isn't a sequel in any direct sense, but is a new type of hunting game for the fall/winter season. That being stated, hopefully this is the only time that Activision decides to release this type of shooter. The game play is straight out of 1984, but this time it's in 3-D for your lack of enjoyment.

Activision Value must have really focused on the value portion of this title. The graphics are straight out of a PS2 game. Yes, they are grainy and jaggies are present. The controls are terrible as aiming is a chore. Good thing that you don't have to be remotely close to a target for it to count. The soundtrack is the same country riff throughout the entire game. Now this wouldn't be an issue if the title took an hour to finish, but being that it takes around ten hours to complete, you will be reaching for the mute button.

During most of the missions, movement of your character isn't needed or allowed. That's right, in some missions you can't actually move your character. Sure, you can look around to aim, but you are stuck in a fixed position. To make up for this there are different power-ups to be collected by shooting the various trophies. There is a heat vision mode, straight out of Predator. There is an X-ray mode, which basically puts everything into black and white. It even gives trees a skeleton to view. There are also a couple of time-control modes, which are supposed to be different, but they both act the same. Unfortunately, all these modes add little to the enjoyment of the title. There is a large assortment of weapons to choose from. About the only difference noticed would be the rate of fire and the level of zoom.

The game consists of a career mode and it all happens in order. You can not go back in your career to any previous events. Once you complete an event, unless you redo it right then, you are stuck with the results. This is important to note because if you are going for all the achievements, you need to get gold in every single event. If you miss one, you have to restart the entire career.

As for the actual achievements, there is the finish the game on gold, silver and bronze affair. There are achievements for finishing various areas in the game as well. The most interesting achievement is for a power-up. The achievement picture looks like He-Man's power sword, something to give a little laugh in an otherwise torturous game.

Cabela's Trophy Bucks is rated T (Teen) by the ESRB for Blood, Violence. This game can also be found on: PC, PS2, Wii.