What's It All About
I spent many an hour as a child shooting ducks with my Ninendo Zapper light gun, and probably spent at least 20 minutes shooting criminals in "Hogan's Alley," but beyond that, I don't have many fond memories of that legendary NES peripheral.

Despite that, when the new generation of the Zapper was announced for the Wii, I was genuinely excited. It might have just been the Wii-phoria surrounding the system's launch, or perhaps it was simply the hope that the creators of the inventive new console would use the same innovative design that resulted in the Wii-mote and deliver a new kind of light gun, but the thought of this new Zapper had me ready to pre-order it.

Once I finally saw it, my interest took a bit of a hit. The two-handed design looked awkward, and now that it wasn't promise, but reality, it just wasn't as exciting.

Now that I've got my hands on it, the excitement is back.

Controls
Taking advantage of the sensing capabilities of the Wii-mote, the Zapper is simply a shell to hold your Wii-mote and nunchuk, creating a steady light gun that's natural for shooting, with a built-in controller for moving around a game. Now, while it's just a shell, it's a well-designed and strong one at that (though thin enough to let you feel the Wii-mote vibrations,) with a nice set of "connectors" for your gear, and a chamber for holding the nunchuk's connector wire, making a relative streamlined package. I say relatively, because for some reason the last inch of wire before the Wii-mote actually has to wrap outside the Zapper shell, which is rather sloppy considering how well designed the unit is. Also, annoyingly, if you use a grip battery cover orrechargeable battery like Nyko's on your Wii-mote (not to mention the new remote jacket, which would be impossible to fit in), it will not snap into the Zapper correctly. The construction is tight enough that you can still use the gun without problems, but if you're a lunatic who plans on jumping around while shooting targets, it will bounce out.

Though the two-handed construction initially looked awkward, in practice, it makes the Zapper versatile, as you can choose to hold it with a pistol grip, two-hand it, using either hand as your lead grip, hold the zapper close to your body with your dominate hand and work the analog stick with the other hand, or keep the nunchuk independent of the Zapper. The ability to program the buttons would have been nice, as you could then switch your trigger to the more natural rear hand, but that's up to the software makers to fix. The flexibility in holding the Zapper comes in handy as different game types demand different shooting styles, and you'll find just the right fit for you. For pure accuracy in a non-movement game, you can't beat a pistol grip, but the two-handed hold is great for near-FPS gameplay, as the trigger is soft and responsive, and the two nunchuk buttons are nicely accessible. The only trouble point is the difficulty in accessing the buttons on the face of the Wii-mote, which are only useful if you're going pistol-style and don't need to use the analog stick.

Gameplay
Fortunately, in Link's Crossbow Training, you don't need those Wii-mote buttons, but you will need everything else, as the game is a near-perfect introduction to the Zapper, giving you plenty of opportunity to try out the different grips and get used to the aiming system, which uses on-screen crosshairs to indicate your targeting. The game opens with three levels available to you, each featuring three stages, with nine total levels available, the remaining six being revealed as you "complete" the previous ones. You have three kinds of attack as well, including your standard crossbow bolt, achargeable attack, which damages whatever's in its blast radius, and an auto-fire attack, available when you kill special green enemies, giving you a power-up.

The stages vary from level to level, but they represent three main concepts in the game. First up is an accuracy stage that's like an on-rails shooter, where you'll shoot either static or moving targets, including a skeet-shooting stage that recalls the days of "Duck Hunt" (just without the dog.) The next stage is all about defense, as you're in the center of different kinds of enemies that attack from all sides. Using the motion-sensor in the Zapper, you can spin and fire, with a radar display telling you who's around. The final stage is more like an FPS game, as you move through a level and hunt down your foes, including some challenging boss battles. The defense stages provide the thrill of letting a bunch of enemies close in before mowing them down Tony Montana-style, while the zoom-feature on the nunchuk makes the final stages into a twisted kind of headshot hunt.

Most players shouldn't have trouble completing all nine levels after a short time playing, but that's just the beginning. After all, your ego's not going to allow you to not better your score and earn a higher medal by shooting more accurately. The scoring is easy, as the more accurate you are, the higher your score goes, with multipliers appearing if you don't miss a shot. Bonuses are available if you hit all the targets in a stage, while there are little hidden bonuses hidden throughout the landscapes, encouraging you to try and shoot everything, though a miss will cost you in terms of multipliers.

There are three types of gameplay, all of which use your Mii avatars to represent the players. Score play is obvious, as you attempt to defeat all nine levels, while multiplayer does the same, while taking turns with other players. The final style of play is "practice," which allows you to replay the stages you've cleared. The point of this mode isn't quite clear, since you can do the same thing in the standard game, although here, you can choose specific stages to play, which you can't do elsewhere. So you've got that working for you.

Graphics
The graphics look much like what you remember from "Twilight Princess" on the Wii, with rather lush landscapes and well-defined foes that have nice detail and gorgeous color, like most first-party titles for the console. Even when being surround by scores of enemies, the image remains clean and smooth, without any noticeable slowdown. Considering you can be battling 15 or so walking skeletons or a couple hundred creepy bugs, it's an impressive job visually. The camera, which follows you during movement games, is normally pretty good, but when working in the close confines of a castle, you can end up in a tight close-up that will leave you open to attack, without anyway to reset the view.

Audio
The Dolby Pro Logic II sound in this game is noticeable mainly for the music, which is a worthy bed for all the shoot-em-up action, capturing the feel of a Zelda game. The sound effects of the attacks and enemies are solid, but don't really stand-out. The same can't be said for the audio enhancements that are delivered through the speaker in the Wii-mote, which brings them right up to you, an effective tact when it comes to alarms alerting you to oncoming enemies or explosions going off around you. Hearing the sirens in your Wii-mote makes any of the defense stages all the more hectic and enjoyable.

And in the End...
The Zapper isn't perfect, thanks to some of the positioning (which makes me think it may be structured with younger players in mind,) but after playing a while, it is basically second-nature, and definitely more comfortable and accurate than pointing with your Wii-mote on its own, while the FPS-friendly combination of movement and shooting will quickly become intuitive. Charging $20 for a piece of smoothly stylish plastic is a bit much, but the inclusion of the demo-ish "Link's Crossbow Training" more than makes up for it, as it's the kind of game that can lead you to while away hours attempting to better your scores, even if there are no other goals available. Compensating for its short length with enough variety and challenge to keep things entertaining, the game more than justifies picking up the bundle, especially with more games coming soon to take advantage of the Zapper.