Created by Nintendo / Rated T / 1-4 Player (alternate) / Wii Remote + Nunchuk + Zapper / MSRP $20 (includes zapper)
Created by Nintendo / Rated T / 1-4 Player (alternate) / Wii Remote + Nunchuk + Zapper / MSRP $20 (includes zapper)
Crossbow Training is a quick shooter game designed to get owners comfortable with their new Wii Zapper, and by bundling the two together for only $20 becomes quite a steal. |
The Zapper itself is essentially a piece of plastic with no function of its own, but by attching the Wii Remote and Nunchuk it becomes a new way to enjoy shooter games. There are a very limited amount of titles that support it at the moment, which is why its so important that Crossbow Training is included. It's not a brilliant stand-alone title, but much like how Wii Sports shows off how much potential the Wii-Remote has, Crossbow Training does the same with the Zapper. |
There are nine levels made up of three sections each, so you'll be shooting your way through 27 stages of pure target practice. Since the game uses the same engine as Twilight Princess, each stage is unique in its location. Everything from Ordon, Gerudo, Zora River, Kakariko, and Hyrule Castle, to Bridge of Eldin, Snowpeak Ruins, City in the Sky, and the Temple of Time. There are plenty of locations, enemies, and music to make any Zelda fan happy. Having not played Twilight Princess since it came out a year ago, it was fun getting to see all of the locations I remembered enjoying so much. The game isn't a one-trick pony of putting up targets in random Zelda locations, however, since it does offer a few varities of gameplay. Aside from your traditional target shooting, missions also ask you to shoot enemies closing in on you from all directions, as well as using the nunchuk to move Link around temples to hunt down every enemy. It's nice to see these gameplay styles offered up, but it's also depressing to feel the tease of how much more the game could be offering if it wasn't just a sample. It's a similar feeling to playing Baseball in Wii Sports and realizing you'll only ever be able to control the batter or the pitcher. |
If you go into Crossbow Training with the simple purpose of beating it, then you'll be in and out in about an hour. If you go into it looking to get all Platinum medals, you'll only need to go back one or two more times. Let me put this in some perspective though... To earn a platinum medal, you'll need a score of at least 80,000 points. Your best chance of earning this is by continually hitting targets without ever missing, which builds up your multiplier with each shot. As long as you never really miss, 80,000 points isn't very difficult to get. If you sit down and really try to rack up some ridiculous multipliers, you'll have points upwards of 200,000. In fact, I've almost earned score of 400,000. Getting all platinum is a short task that will leave you saying, "that's all?" and is a poor indicator of how well you're really doing. Nintendo really should have raised the bar to at least 120,000. That's why its important to keep going back to attempt to beat your old scores. It's at this point you'll start to find a lot of depth in the replay value, including hidden areas requiring certain skill to unlock. By having friends or family members play on their own files, you can compare scores within the game and try to beat each other. However, Crossbow Training lacks online leaderboards and even the ability to compare scores with your Wii Friends over the internet - which drops the encouragement to keep playing. Verdict: Fun introduction to the Wii Zapper. Great "Hi-Score" game. |
7.3/10 |