Hands On: The Wii Zapper
On Sunday I acquired a Wii Zapper™ that came bundled with Link’s Crossbow Training. The Zapper is essentially just a piece of plastic that you insert the Wii Remote™ (or Wiimote) and the Wii Nunchuk™ into. The Zapper is held with your dominant hand (the one with the trigger finger) in the front with your other hand on the back (where the Nunchuk is located). At first this position feels odd and backwards, but after some time, you get used to it. This will tend to be the configuration most games will probably use now that the Zapper has been released. The manual also condones an alternate configuration where you do not attach the Nunchuk to the Zapper chasis. Many games released prior to the Zapper will likely use this configuration. The Zapper sports a larger B button trigger, that makes pressing it much easier.
As far as Link’s Crossbow Training is concerned, it’s fairly fun and surprisingly well done for the price of the bundle (US$24.99). There are nine levels with three stages each, and various modes and objects that you have to shoot. Shootables include targets, boxes, pots, signs, dummies, and various monsters from the Zelda series. A number of familiar locations are present, as well as a number of familiar friendly creatures.
Of course I had to try the Zapper with Alien Syndrome. Playing my favorite class, The Seal, was great with the Zapper. I felt like I had a bit more fine grained control of my targeting reticle, and being able to use both hands to steady my weapon was really great. The “Nunchuk Attached Configuration” isn’t completely compatible though — two of three minigames require separate movement of the Nunchuk from the Remote. This isn’t a problem for me because I don’t really like to play those two minigames. “Nunchuk Separate Configuration” is completely compatible, and feels just fine. I feel like my shooting is a little less stable this way, but it feels much better than just holding the Remote alone–the constant pressing of the B button and aiming with the Remote alone starts to hurt my wrist after a while. The Zapper alleviates this problem. Note: Alien Syndrome isn’t the only shooter that makes me suffer from wrist ache–Metroid Prime 3: Corruption also causes this problem for me.
Should you get it? Sure! A nice budget game and a well made, sturdy peripheral that makes pumping the trigger and aiming much easier. This piece of plastic isn’t like those useless sports attachments.
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.