ESRB RATING: T
DEVELOPER: Nintendo
PUBLISHER: Nintendo
REVIEWER: A.D. Olson
DATE: 2007-11-24
GAMEPLAY REVIEW
Link's Crossbow Training is the second Zelda game for the Wii console, yet it is nothing like the first - or any other, for that matter. It's a totally new idea for the franchise, but not exactly what I had in mind when I was thinking that they needed to stray from the classic Zelda formula for the next iteration of the series.
There isn't much of a storyline - none, actually - so I'll make one up. Link just got a new toy for his birthday. It's a crossbow. You take control of him as he goes out and pops a bunch of bolts into things in order to save the world from the evil clutches of boredom. The end.
You play through nine levels with three stages each, all similar yet different, and you just shoot things. Think Duck Hunt meets Zelda, and you've got roughly this. It's fun for as long as it lasts, which isn't that long, unless you squeeze every minute and every hour out of it by trying to earn platinum medals in every stage. And why not? You spent the money for the game, why settle for bronze or silver, when your name could be at the top of your high score charts with shinier medals? It won't be easy, though.
Accuracy counts here. You don't have a limit on your ammo, but you get multipliers for shooting consecutive targets or enemies, and that's the key to reaching platinum scores. You can shoot assorted background objects, such as pumpkins, signposts, and chickens, with each one giving or taking some points away from you. Beware that shooting these instead of targets or enemies will break your current multiplyer, just as hitting nothing does.
There are three modes to the game, and one of them is pointless. Who needs a Practice mode in a shooting game when there are no consequences to doing poorly? You have no lives to take away, you don't get your previous top scores erased... So that mode could be removed entirely.
The stages where you have control over Link's movement are the better ones, and they seem to work rather well. You have a radar which will show you where the enemies are at, and you will want to use it as you rush around and kill all the enemies before your time limit runs out.
The stationary levels are more like the shooting exercises in Wii Play, but somehow better. Maybe it's because you have a plastic gun in your hands, or maybe it's because it's a Zelda game and therefore automatically better. Whatever it is, it works, and the package is solid for the price.
Graphically, Nintendo didn't even try on this one. They took some assets from Twilight Princess and tossed them into a shooting game. It looks good, but not great. This could have been done on the GameCube, but hey, for $20, I'm not complaining. They don't need to put a lot of effort into a game where you're not going to be staring at the pretty environments, but rather quickly scanning the screen for your targets and making sure your reticle is on top of them when you pull the trigger.
The interface, as always, looks clean and polished, if a bit simple. Nintendo has a knack for making their games look bright, colorful, and friendly, even in the menu systems.
The polished presentation doesn't stop with there. The sound, as always, is good too, especially in Dolby ProLogic II mode. The music is basically Zelda music, as you would expect, although I thought I heard a Metroid tune somewhere in there too, but maybe I'm just losing my mind. The sound effects are good and work well, and are also ripped straight out of Twilight Princess for the most part.
You play Link's Crossbow Training with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, with or without the bundled Zapper shell. You aim at the screen, pull the trigger to shoot. In some stages, you can look around the environment by pointing at the edges of the screen or move around using the thumbstick, and you can always zoom in with the Z button. Easy, peasy.
You can tweak your cursor speed and vertical positioning relative to your aim, which is a nice touch that possibly should have been built into the Wii directly. There's not much else to the controls; it's a basic game, with basic controls that anybody can use.
Bundled with the game disc is the aforementioned Zapper shell. Considering that Ubisoft was selling a plastic steering wheel shell for the same price as the Link's Crossbow Training bundle, the value here is immense, comparatively.
Toss in turn-based four-person multiplayer fun and local high score charts, and you've got yourself a pretty nice budget-priced package.
CONCLUSION
You may like the Zapper, and you may not. But the game is the main reason to buy this package, and the price is right. Still, I couldn't help but feel like this was a demo - a testing ground, if you will - to prepare us for a new Icarus game featuring Zapper support. That could be great if done right... But I digress.
If the wealth of shooting games on every platform in the past decade is any indication, it's fun to shoot things. And Link's Crossbow Training is all about that. It comes with the Zapper shell for a cool twenty, and it's worth the money. Even if you only play for a few hours, and let your dog use the Zapper as a chew toy.
PROS:
+ Good use of existing assets
+ Free Zapper shell packed in
+ Not easy to get top scores
CONS:
- No online anything
- Too few levels
- No simultaneous multiplayer
Gameplay: 8
Video: 7
Audio: 8
Controls: 9
Value: 10
Overall: 8 out of 10
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