Nintendo Wii Zapper announced

It took them a while, but Nintendo is finally busting out its Wii Zapper accessory for housing the Wiimote and Nunchaku in a FPS-friendly shell. It'll be out this year, shipping for free with a "far along" unannounced title from Nintendo, and selling stand alone at retail for $20. Other games with announced compatibility include "Ghost Squad," "Medal of Honor" with 32 person online matches, and "Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles." More pics after the break.

[Tim Sweeney @ Jul 11th 2007 12:33PM]

That does not look to me a substantial improvement over those molded piece of white plastic sold by third parties....

[cipher27 @ Jul 11th 2007 12:35PM]

Nintendo's site is down for maintenance, hmm wonder what that means :)

[Tom @ Jul 11th 2007 12:42PM]

I'm kinda (really) disappointed. Where's the shotgun style one with built-in analog that they showed at last year's e3? Friggin nintendo...

[spacegravity4me @ Jul 11th 2007 12:44PM]

that's all great, but i wanted a keyboard and to be able to use a hard drive.... eh...

[Grey Acumen @ Jul 11th 2007 12:45PM]

I have to agree. I'm beginning to get just a little disappointed with Nintendo here.

[jerrt @ Jul 11th 2007 12:47PM]

well no one can say that the guncon 3 is terrible looking any more. this puts them right about on the same level.

i still think its cool, but i never disliked the guncon 3 design. [:

[cipher27 @ Jul 11th 2007 12:48PM]

So is this blaster compatible with RE4, I mean you do have to press B+A keys to shoot right, how are you going to do that and wouldn't that defeat the purpose of a blaster?

[Justin @ Jul 11th 2007 12:54PM]

Not exactly what I would call elegant. But cool.

[Mile @ Jul 11th 2007 1:00PM]

It's freaking huge! I hope that's just a prototype!

[LordFrz @ Jul 23rd 2007 10:14PM]

Huge that thing is tiny i can barely keep from crushing the wiimote itself.

[SinzenStudios @ Jul 11th 2007 1:01PM]

Seems like there is a button on the back of the front grip, where B is placed. You can just make out the button on one of the side shots above.

[chrisrr @ Jul 11th 2007 1:07PM]

That design is so ugly. It reminds me of the the "menacer" for the genesis/megadrive

[g3n3tiX @ Jul 11th 2007 1:17PM]

Reminds me of the 007 logo (james bond... GOLDENEYE !!!)

[palehorse @ Jul 11th 2007 1:17PM]

uhh, i certainly dont consider this announcement profound by any stretch of the imagination. a new plastic gun adapter... yay. Is this E3, or just some random afternoon get-together!?

I was hoping for hard drive support, better online gaming capabilities, media streaming, or something... anything... sheesh. They had better have something more up their sleeve, or nintendo will be the joke of E3.

I love my wii, but come on...

[brainofjtd @ Jul 12th 2007 7:48PM]

Nintendo will never have streaming media content. They don't make computers, they don't make tvs,they don't make radios. They make game systems, they said that themselves. Aside from internet browser fuctionality and other simple firmware enhancements, no there won't be anything like that. No DVD playback, no CD playback, nothing but games.

[Jetbootjack @ Jul 14th 2007 5:23AM]

Media streaming on your Wii?

It's ALREADY here - just use ORB - stream music, TV, video etc from a PC to yer Wii - super simple!!!

sTeVE

[Magallanes @ Jul 12th 2007 9:46AM]

OH NO!!!.. Nintendo and their gadgets strike AGAIN!.

1- Nintendo launch a new gadget (for a price)
2- Nintendo launch a game (or a couple of games) for this new gadget.
3- Then nintendo will not launch any more games that support this gadget.
4- Nintendo launch another new gadget (and you must paid again).

[Pedro @ Jul 11th 2007 1:25PM]

I would have liked to have seen a (folding?) stock on there!

[M@ @ Jul 11th 2007 10:18PM]

Totally. Add a removable stock and gunsight, plus maybe another button or two, and I won't care a bit how fugly this thing is!

[Alex @ Jul 11th 2007 1:29PM]

hopefully the gun will have more games to play with than just Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley

[stickmanfc73_ @ Jul 11th 2007 2:27PM]

It should seeing that it's just a shell. *rolls eyes*

[bobartig @ Jul 11th 2007 2:38PM]

I don't see why people are complaining about this controller. Looks good to me. It might have helped to have this out earlier when all the first gen FPS's were getting hacked out.

The important thing is to have the hardware controller to develop on as soon as possible.

[Mike @ Jul 11th 2007 2:45PM]

I'm sorry, but the first thing that I saw what I looked at that thing was "Wow, that looks eerily like the logo for Virginia Tech."

[Paul @ Jul 11th 2007 2:50PM]

Since the nunchaku is in the gun, this eliminates movement based controls for it, such as were in red steel.

[GameboyRMH @ Jul 11th 2007 5:26PM]

Company gives huge presentation for minor product release! Product is white and ugly!

Where's the cheering?

As for the Wii Zapper (I was hoping for a type of force feedback addon when I heard the name), I think this is a great solution as opposed to a completely separate gun controller. Sure you can't access the Wiimote buttons easily, but how many light guns have more than even one button? This one has easy access to 2 buttons and an analog stick, plus the Wiimote top side buttons within reach (which could be handy for things like weapons switch, firing mode, etc)

Seems like it could be the best light gun yet, as long as you don't look at it :P

[chris @ Jul 12th 2007 7:37PM]

so if you have a game where top throw a grenade or sumin by shakin the numchuck, then wnt this just mess up your aiming?
so only certain games will be able to use it, either this, or gesture based numchuck contolls, not both,
damm

[ormond @ Jul 11th 2007 5:57PM]

No wonder I suck at COD3...According to this I've been holding the controllers in the wrong positions.

[fantastikpro @ Jul 19th 2007 4:45AM]

I think the Wii controller and nunchuck are connected seperately.
The nunchuck connects to the back of the Wii Zapper trough a different port.
The reason for this is Is so that the A and B buttons can be accessible trough the Zapper by using the port on the Wii controller.

[fantastikpro @ Jul 11th 2007 10:28PM]

Just kidding but that's how I think it should be unless they know something we don't.

[grjohnston @ Jul 11th 2007 11:21PM]

Will it come in another colour than soap yellow? As in, not look like it was carved for a prison break?

[Adrian @ Jul 12th 2007 7:07AM]

I miss the old Super Scope from the SNES.

That was a cool design.

[wargarurumon @ Jul 13th 2007 3:40AM]

that looks allot like a tommy gun without the round cratridge

[Someone @ Jul 13th 2007 9:43PM]

Copyright infringement off of 007! Except with only one zero. And is it just me, or do you need both hands for this? It would be nice if they also added color to it. Or is the white color suppose to match the Wii?

[Travis @ Jul 20th 2007 9:08PM]

Seems fine to me. A one handed gun would have sucked, because if you were just holding the chuck in the other hand to move it would still feel like a damn controller. This way you can feel more in the game by just holding the gun with both hands. It's a simple concept, but I feel it would put you more in the game than anything else. Though I agree I would have liked a scope, but I'm surey ou will see a target on the screen, so would also be kinda pointless. As far as a stock, why? It's not like it's going to knock you on your ass when you fire it. I say it's pretty well designed for it's purpose. I do wish it came in different colors though.

[Anthony @ Aug 8th 2007 2:18AM]

You have to be a total nintendo fanboy to actually like that thing.

It is just disappointing, quite frankly.

[Nintendo Man @ Aug 18th 2007 3:46PM]

I agree with Travis. Nintendo made a product where you can get more into the action than the Wii remote. I can't wait to get one and use it for RE:UC when it comes out. :)

[Lii @ Sep 18th 2007 10:55AM]

It comes free with Resident Evil-Umbrella Chronicals so who cares what it looks like, its free with the game.

[Lii @ Sep 18th 2007 10:59AM]

Who cares what it looks like its free with ResidentEvil-UmbrellaChronicals which looks awsome

[Lii @ Sep 18th 2007 11:00AM]

Who cares what it looks like its free withResidentEvil-UmbrellaChronicals which looks awsome

[Lii @ Sep 18th 2007 11:01AM]

Oops didnt mean to send 3