Link's Crossbow Tech Demo
September 11, 2007
Didja hear? When Nintendo unleashes the Wii Zapper later this year the peripheral shell will come packed with a game, Link's Crossbow Training, that takes elements from last year's The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and uses them to make a shooting game, or some such thing.
Players assume the identity of hero Link, who progresses through a series of tests to perfect his crossbow marksmanship. Start with stationary bull's-eyes and graduate to moving targets before defending Link against all kinds of enemies.
I get the sour feeling that this is more of a tech demo than a full game, as Nintendo says the title will be a "perfect demonstration of the way the Wii Zapper could be used in other games". At first I wondered why Nintendo was going to the Zelda well for this one. After all, there are a bunch of other franchises that are more gun-friendly. Metroid Blaster? Super Duck Hunt? Yoshi's Safari 2? Then it occurred to me that considering that Nintendo spent several years and a lot of money on the Twilight Princess creation process, the company would be eager to reuse those assets for another project at what must be a comparative minimal cost. Maybe we'll see Yoshi's Safari 2 someday, but not right now.