As a one-year anniversary present for the Wii, Nintendo unleashed the Wii Zapper and pack-in game Link's Crossbow Training. The first official peripheral for the Wii, the Zapper turns your Wii remote and Nunchuk into a semi-automatic gun.
But is it worth it? Well, yes, but probably not what you think. Link's Crossbow Training is perhaps the best reason you'll want the Wii Zapper... but so far, it's the only reason you'll want one.
First off, let's talk about the Zapper. It's nothing more than a piece of plastic to holster your Nunchuk and Wii remote in, so in essence, you don't need it to play any of the games on the Wii, including Link's Crossbow Training. Or, if you're curious and bored like I was, you can try playing other Wii titles, like Super Mario Galaxy and Wii Sports, with it and see how it goes. If you really want to know, it works with Galaxy but doesn't really work with Wii Sports at all. Especially not boxing.
In the interest of fairness, I have not had the chance to check out the Wii Zapper on games like Ghost Squad, Medal of Honor Heroes 2 or Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, but other impressions are mixed at the time of publication. Whether you'll find it useful will depend both on the games you're playing and your own personal preference.
As for Link's Crossbow Training, the game runs off the Twilight Princess game engine, and thus, the graphics and sound are pretty much the same as that game. In other words, it looks good and sounds good. The most important element here is how the game plays and controls, and as it stands, Crossbow Training handles itself well. Using the trigger on the underside of the gun and Wii remote to point at targets, Crossbow Training offers pin-point accuracy with little lag.
What does this mean for you? It means you point the gun and shoot, and it works like it should.
Article comments
1 - Ken Edwards
As Brian mentioned above, the zapper has shaky results in other games. I have played it in Resident Evil Chronicles and MoH Heroes 2. RE: C plays much better without the zapper. Using the zapper controls without the zapper is actually the best way to play RE: C that I have found.
The zapper fairs a lot better in MoH Heroes 2. It didn't feel like it was getting in the way of things like in RE.
I have not yet tried Ghost Squad, though.
2 - Denise Chan
Ghost Squad has 2 male Alpha troops in the game