Manufacturer: Nintendo
MRSP: $19.99US
REVIEWER: A.D. Olson
DATE: 2007-11-24
PRODUCT REVIEW
Nintendo joins the fray of manufacturers who are pumping out mounds of plastic Wii Remote attachments with their new Wii Zapper. The difference here is that Nintendo's piece is obviously official, and comes with some good software.
The Zapper is a single piece, so no assembly is required beyond popping in the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. There is a sliding door hiding a compartment where you can store the Nunchuk's cable, and a locking system to hold the Remote in place. When it's put together, the Zapper feels solid in the hands.
The design is ambidextrous, just like the Wii Remote and Nunchuk itself. Whichever hand you put at the rear of the Zapper will access the Nunchuk controls unrestrictedly; you can use the thumbstick, C, and Z buttons.
At the front of the Zapper lies the trigger. It functions as a lever which simply presses the B button for you. There is no spring or elestic to give any kind of feel beyond what you experience while pulling the B button directly on the Wii Remote. Only now, your hand position has changed since you're holding the device with a handle.
Beyond aiming and pulling the trigger, your forward hand doesn't have easy access to any buttons at all. This makes games that aren't specifically designed for the Wii Zapper unplayable, as you may need to use the face buttons. Nintendo really has limited the uses for this shell by not providing front-hand access to at least one more button. Yes, to do that would have required a completely re-thought redesign of the Wii Zapper, and likely would have eliminated the need for a Nunchuk.
Games that were properly programmed within the limitations of Nintendo's design work well with this white tommy gun-like toy. However, just as switching from a mouse and keyboard setup to dual analog sticks, it will take a lot of time and practice to get good at aiming with the Wii Zapper shell. As most users have now had a full year of experience aiming at their screens by holding the Wii Remote directly and are comfortable and precise in that orientation, I think that most people will opt out of the experience of using the Wii Zapper beyond initial experimentation.
When it comes down to it, this package is the reverse case of Wii Play. With Wii Play, you get a crappy game included with some essential hardware. In this case, the only way you can get the decently fun Link's Crossbow Training is to fork out the twenty bucks and buy the bundle, which includes the superfluous Wii Zapper. But, if you have no interest in the pack-in Zelda game, then my advice is to leave this on the shelf.
Overall Crave Factor: 6 out of 10
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