E For All: Link's Crossbow Training Hands-On
The first thing that you notice when entering the convention hall is the Nintendo booth. It was speculated that this was going to be a giant Nintendo convention and it wasn't terribly far from the truth. After a brief scare involving who was doing what and when, we had the fortune to speak with a few of the delightful people from Nintendo. As they escorted us around rather impressive setup, I had the opportunity to take a stab at Link's Crossbow Training.
This game is the pack-in title for the upcoming Zapper accessory. The Zapper is of course a a plastic apparatus designed to make your wiimote resemble something not unlike a Star Trek rifle. The controller itself was fine, although the orientation of wiimote made the strap a little tight, even on my noticeably small wrists. After a bit of struggling I did manage to get the strap in a position that was bearable and began my quest to destroy some pots and junk.
There really is not plot line to speak of. The game consists of a series of crossbow related mini-games, similar to how WiiSports worked, only with a slightly more linear play style. Each level consisted of 3 stages. Each stage is rated and are accumulated, and after the end of the third trial you may be presented with a metal to mark the fruits of your labors. There are 3 major styles of gameplay.
The first play style consisted of target shooting. The gameplay was similar to that of Duck Hunt, players simply fired rounds at both stationary and moving targets before they disappeared. Next came a mode they titled "defender". This mode allowed players to remain stationary, while being able to pivot 360 degrees and blast away at oncoming villains (easily located on a radar). Lastly was a mode they titled "ranger". Players are allowed to move freely with the nunchuk (snuggly located in the back of the zapper) and fired and anything and everything that moved.
The gameplay was simple, yet fun. It has similar appeal to that of Nintendo's other budget pack-in titles like WiiPlay or WiiSports. As you can imagine it is not a full fledged game, priced for $20 including the accessory. The title's graphics are mostly just rehashes of Zelda: Twilight Princess, reseated in a new title. The gameplay is of course essentially just the bow training retooled to be a full fledged bundle game. While I doubt that anyone is really going to expect the game to be groundbreaking, for the price it's worth the purchase.
Asterick
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 19 October 2007
Other stuff like this: E For All, Link's Crossbow Training, Nintendo
