Back at E3 ‘06 when the Wii was revealed in all its glowing glory, Nintendo showed us a light-gun shell that had our imaginations running wild as to how awesome a new (or classic) version of Duck Hunt would be on the Wii. Pixel-perfect accuracy, wireless controls, the same annoying dog that you kept trying to shoot but nothing would happen… We heard nothing about it for a while, until recently, when Nintendo finally remembered the “Zapper” and decided to finally give it to us, albeit more stylishly designed and forgetting the 80’s look. It’s alright Nintendo, I forgive you. They also decided to bundle it with a short game, Link’s Crossbow Training, to demonstrate its abilities.

The new and “improved” Wii Zapper controller shell comes in a friendly white box. Inside the box you’ll find the Zapper shell and a cardboard disc case (reminiscent of Wii Sports) containing Link’s Crossbow Training. I’ll just come right out off the bat and say it. Cardboard cases are the bane of my existence, and I wish Nintendo would realise that nobody likes them.

There. That’s over with.

Besides describing the pretty white box, there’s really nothing much else to say about the Zapper. The Wiimote and Nunchuck fit nice and snugly into the shell and the thing feels pretty good in your hands. If you’ve got big hands like mine, though, you’ll wish the front handle was a little longer. I’d also definitely recommend heeding Nintendo’s recommendation about taking breaks from gaming every hour, though. Hold this thing for an hour and your wrists will likely get a little tired.

Speaking of holding the controller for an hour, that brings me to Link’s Crossbow Training. It’s another case of the “Wii Play Problem”. Wii Play was a game that was essentially crap that came bundled with a controller, but if you thought about it as buying a controller with a cheap game attached, it wasn’t a big deal. Link’s Crossbow Training is a little less crappy, but you’ll still feel left saying “Wait… Was that it?”. The whole game will probably take you no more than an hour to beat, maybe another hour added on if you’re a perfectionist like me and want to get a platinum medal on all of the levels. There are three modes of play: Score Attack, Multiplayer, and Practise.

Score Attack has you choose a level and play through it. Each level has three parts, and your cumulative score from all three determines your medal for the level. There are 9 levels in total.

Multiplayer is exactly what it sounds like. I didn’t bother trying it. If you decide to give it a whirl, take the Wiimote out of the Zapper, otherwise if you’re using it your friends will have an unfair advantage over you. It’s not that it’s really bad, it’s just that not using it is a lot easier and faster.

Practise mode is exactly like Score Attack, except you don’t get a medal, but you’re able to go one part at a time, rather than having to play all three parts in a level. This mode is really quite useless, since A) unless you’re really bad at these kinds of games, you don’t really need to practise a level more than twice to get a platinum medal, and B) even if you are really bad at these games, the whole level (all three parts) takes about 5 minutes, so you’d might as well do the whole thing and have a chance at improving your actual score/medal.

That’s about it. The game uses the same engine and music as Twilight Princess, so if you loved that game you’re in for a treat. There was one point in the game (a boss fight with a certain giant desert skeleton monster) that I thought looked quite spectacular.

Overall, it’s not too bad. It does give it a wonderfully authentic arcade feel, even though it still doesn’t operate like a proper light-gun. The $24.99 price tag isn’t too outrageous. It does come with a game that will keep you busy for at least an hour or two, and keeping in mind that first-party accessories are always incredibly expensive, it’s really not that bad.

I won’t give it a score, since it’s mainly an accessory, but I’ll just sum this up for you:

Buy it if you have bought, or plan on buying, other games that feature support for it like Medal of Honour: Heroes 2, or Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles.

Don’t buy it if you’re just in it for the Link’s Crossbow Training.