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House of the Dead 3 alive with new content
Sega's House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return actually has something new to offer, other than "being on the Wii" and "different crosshair shapes!" Sega has added an Extreme Mode to House of the Dead 3, which adds new player abilities and ramps up the difficulty -- perhaps to an extreme degree?Enemies move more quickly and the shotgun's blast radius is smaller. But in order to balance the increased difficulty, the player has been given a new attack. You can now press A to perform a melee attack that not only knocks enemies away, but also blocks attacks and projectiles. [Via GamesPress]
The House Containing Some Dead 2 & 3
I didn't see The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return at GDC -- and I looked -- but Gamespot got a hands-on preview of the new release of Sega's light gun classics. Had I been there, I would have asked about the captioning. "Suffer the same way G did?" The audio's the same (from what can be heard on the video) so why the change in captioning? And why just that line?In addition to rewriting Zeal's big line, Sega has added six different crosshair options and online rankings. What hasn't been added, unfortunately, is The Typing of the Dead. How could anyone do this?%Gallery-10506%[Via NeoGAF]
GDC08: Zombies in space
Not much can compare to some good old-fashioned zombie shooting. Add a space station and a light gun to that formula, though, and you're guaranteed to come away with something special.Siliconera's Spencer Yip, the lucky guy, got to try his hand at Forbidden Terror on Space Station Z at the Game Developers Conference. While we'd like to say we aren't brimming with envy, that would be a flat-out lie. This may not be the next "Game of the Year" (although it will be in our hearts), and it's actually not even a game (just a tech demo, unfortunately). Yet, it involves shooting zombies in space -- and at the end of the day, that's all we really want in life. As if that wasn't enough, we're completely smitten by the title of Forbidden Terror on Space Station Z. Why is terror forbidden? Our own Eric Caoili suggested that they might be attending an intense seminar at the space station on getting over their fears.While there wasn't much to the demo, Spencer described it as "amusing" and "pretty entertaining." Unfortunately, it may never actually turn into a full-fledged game. Spencer asked Emergent Technologies if they would consider releasing this for Wii Ware, however, and they seemed willing if they could work something out. Here's hoping!
Help! More House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return screens are still inside!
How could anyone do this? Oh, probably with a capture card or something. We've loaded our gallery up with new screens of The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return, and we feel like we should give two warnings. First, if you haven't completed both games, these screens can be considered spoilers. Not so much of the storyline, but of some of the enemies faced later in the game. That shouldn't be too much of a big deal, since they're old games and it kind of doesn't matter what you're shooting at.The other warning is that these screens are bloody and gross and stuff. On account of all the zombie ichor. This is especially true of the House of the Dead 3 screens. It seems that Sega figured that the semi-cartoony graphic style of the third game would counteract the disgustingness. They were wrong! Some of those zombies are nasty.%Gallery-10506%
The Trailer of the Dead
We should have better sense than to get all worked up over more ports, but we are so excited about The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return. The games look exactly like the arcade versions, with the obvious addition of the targeting reticule; you can choose to take that as arcade accuracy or laziness. Since we're in a good mood and really love the games, we're going to call it the former. Ghost Squad proved that a ported Sega light gun game could be better than most original Wii games, and we are therefore pretty eager for more of that.In addition to a load of unaltered Houses of the Dead, the trailer reveals a set of -- what else? -- training-based minigames; before you set your Wiis on fire in anger, you should know that these are basically smaller challenges based on parts of the games' levels. You're still shooting zombies.[Via GoNintendo]
Wii Warm Up: Point and shoot
The Wii Remote is not a light gun. That's not a criticism of the thing -- just a statement of fact. The technology is different. But it's similar enough that developers have started putting light gun games on the system, and that Nintendo has encouraged this with the development of a handle that makes the thing feel faintly more gun-like. For those of you who have played Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, or Ghost Squad, or Link's Crossbow Training, or certain parts of both Rayman Raving Rabbids games, or just done some really fast web browsing, we'd like to know: do you find the Wiimote to be up to the task of simulating a traditional gun controller? Have you tried it with and without a gun shell? This is the first time that a system's default controller could also be used as a light gun, so it is potentially important to the future of the genre!We personally love playing Ghost Squad with the Wiimote, even without a shell. The accuracy is more than adequate for our admittedly terrible shooting skill, and we have never suffered from any kind of Wiimote-related problem in our shooting.
It's like a Zapper, only it's a Blaster (and it sucks)
The Wii Game Blaster seems to get just about everything wrong with its design: It looks more like a handheld vacuum cleaner than a firearm. Zombies would guffaw at the sight of it in between their attempts to lunge at you and gnaw on your arm. The shell uses the nunchuck's buttons as the trigger, not the Wii remote's B-button. You might as well not use a Zapper at all, shooting at the screen with finger guns instead. Because most of the weight is in its barrel, you would need wrists of steel to hold the piece up with one hand for any longer than five minutes. It does have an advantage over the Zapper and other similar peripherals, however, as its frame hides the wires that connect the nunchuck with the remote. Whether or not that innovation justifies the $35 dreamGear charges for the product is debatable. Here is a quick dramatization of how that debate would go:"Is this Game Blaster worth--""No."Despite its faults, the Game Blaster manages to fulfill the sole requirement we have for every light gun shell: Can we act out the Terminator 2 chase scene with it? You know which one we're talking about, when Edward Furlong is on his dirt bike, trying to get away from the T-1000. Arnold Schwarzenegger rides in to rescue the kid, firing away with his shotgun. Remember that? Well, you don't have to; we've pasted it past the break!
Sparkling Vibration Gun Controller makes your 'pew pews' feel like 'pow pows'
Third-party accessory manufacturers have been rushing out their Zapper-esque controller shells as fast as they can manage, hoping to cash in before Nintendo's official product dominates the market. This newest variation to the light gun lineup, Dragon's Sparkling Vibration Gun Controller, claims to add some extra kick to your shots with its "mega vibration."Requiring only $9.95 and a pair of AAA batteries, it sounds like a good deal, but is anyone actually looking for more rumble with their Wii games? And what's with listing "Exciting" and "Fantastic" on the packaging's bulleted list of features? Those aren't features! Who are they to state whether the peripheral is exciting or fantastic? We'll be the judge of that!Try not to drop your convulsing pistol during the gunfight, and take cover past the post break for more photos of the shell's "cyber-looking design" (another exaggeration).
Joystiq hands-on: Link's Crossbow Training (Wii)
Reaching back to the glory days of light guns, the Wii Zapper steals the name of Nintendo's classic NES controller, but the two are fundamentally different. The previous light gun used a mechanic to essentially see what was on-screen, so the gun sight actually corresponded with the action. The Wii Zapper instead is just a plastic shell to hold a Wii Remote and Nunchuk. The Wiimote pointer continues to work through IR triangulation; players can't sight down the new attachment.I recently played the Wii Zapper pack-in, Link's Crossbow Training, and was surprised at how good the Wii Zapper felt and how well the game responded. Shooting from the hip -- sometimes literally -- I maintained good control over the on-screen cross-hair. I still prefer the precision of a light gun's sight, but knocking down Zelda-themed bad guys in a series of game scenarios was still fun.%Gallery-8658%
Wii Zapper and Link's Crossbow Training packaging, details
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo_wii/Wii_Zapper_boxart_revealed_details_on_Link_s_Crossbow_Training'; Along with releasing a boxart preview of its upcoming Wii Zapper (due 11/19/07), Nintendo also shed some light on its bundled game, Link's Crossbow Training, earlier today. The shooter will have 27 stages in total over three different modes -- Target Shooting, Defender, and Ranger -- all of them multiplayer, but played one at a time. Target Shooting plays as expected, asking you to hit bull's-eyes as they pop up and move around the screen. Defender pits you against a variety of enemies charging towards you from all directions; you can to aim off screen to turn Link and face your attackers. While playing in the Ranger mode, you can actually move Link by using the nunchuck's control stick, exploring and fighting your way through the different missions. Blast past the post break for close-up shots of the Wii Zapper logo and the Link's Crossbow Training bit.
2-in-1 Light Gun brings more ruckus, more convenience
Brando's latest accessory beats Nintendo to the punch, copying the official Zapper's submachine-gun design and allowing users to detach the nunchuck handle from its pistol shell. The 2-in-1 Combined Light Gun is a bit expensive at $18.00, and it doesn't come bundled with anything like Link's Crossbow Training, but it's still a pretty slick idea. Bring your complaints about gun-shaped controllers past the post break for more watermarked photos of the plastic pistol.
Homemade Zapper-mote
All the weapon shells in the world couldn't match the radness of this modded Light Gun. Having already given his console wings, AcidMods' CyberPyrot affixed an IR sensor from a Wii remote into the barrel of his gray, plastic pistol, wiring the gun's trigger with the controller's. The resulting apparatus looks a bit clunky, especially when you consider that the nunchuck hasn't even been hooked up yet, but CyberPyrot claims that it vastly improved his performance when playing Far Cry. Pew pew past the post break for more photos and a video of the refitted Zapper.
Every Saturn game you could possibly want, and then some
Got $5,000 burning a hole in your pocket? That's roughly what it will take to open bidding on the mother of all Sega Saturn collections on eBay right now. Besides 256 games from all three regions, including rarities like Radiant Silvergun and Panzer Dragoon Saga, the auction includes three actual consoles (including a white one that can play burned games and VCDs), six controllers, memory cards, light guns, multitaps, a steering wheel and even a mouse. That's a lot of defunct Sega goodness right there.If you're still balking at the price, consider that the winning bid includes free shipping to the U.S. from Australia. Because really, if you're gonna spend thousands of dollars on a classic system collection, the shipping is what will put you over the edge of reasonable expenditure.
PS3 Guncon relies on Wii-like pointer
With traditional light guns firing nothing but unhelpful blanks at our fancy LCD and plasma televisions, there was some question as to how the PlayStation 3's Guncon would function with the upcoming Time Crisis 4. An article on Japanese site Game Watch (which now appears to have been removed) provided the details, since documented and translated by Game|Life's Chris Kohler.Much like the Wiimote (as used by Sega's light gun game, Ghost Squad), the Guncon 3 relies on two markers placed on either side of the television. A sensor inside the gun's muzzle detects the markers and automagically figures out where it's being pointed. The controller also features six buttons and a second analog stick placed on an awkward "subgrip" that you're meant to hold with your left hand. The original article points out that while Japan gets a black gun, America and Europe will have to make do with a charming orange model, as seen above (in the company of the world's mangiest jacket)..
Playing easily, shooting happily
Unlike other "zapper" products like Joytech's Blaster, the Pega pistol doesn't have a cavity for you to dock the Wii's nunchuck. Instead, you connect the nunchuck's cord under the butt of the $15 gun while the remote slides and locks into its top half. We're not sure yet if this is a more cumbersome or convenient implementation, but given our experiences with cheap, third-party accessories from Chinese manufacturers, you can easily guess which side we're leaning towards. If you're wondering why we're even bothering to bring up this lackluster peripheral, it's because we love to scrutinize the packaging of these products! What's up with Splinter Cell graphics? And why is it branded with that same inapplicable Wii Sports logo we saw on Fire Bird's rechargeable controller grip? Does Pega actually expect people to play tennis with this clunky plastic attached?[Via DCEmu]
Today's duckiest video: Rockin' Duck Hunt
Retro love is everywhere these days, including this hard rockin' Duck Hunt video, complete with sounds and graphics from the Nintendo classic and clever usage of the light gun as a microphone. Plus, if that isn't enough, the guy's name is Robby Roadsteamer."I got a Duck Hunt, in my brain! Ready to take you out!"Classic.
Handheld germ zapper uses nanotechnology to nix parasites
If you're the type who rocks latex gloves everywhere you go, or you're just tired of toting around that messy liquid hand sanitizer, Hammacher Schlemmer has your solution. Posing as a flip-phone wannabe, this handheld germ-eliminating light reportedly eradicates "99.99-percent of E-Coli, staphylococcus, salmonella, and germs that cause the flu and the common cold." Aside from resembling a bevy of Nokia handsets, the device purportedly utilizes "UV-C light and nanotechnology" in order to "disinfect workplace keyboards or telephones (or mice), as well as items in the home that sustain germ vitality such as toothbrushes and cutting boards." Notably, it must be held just so above the germ-infested area in order to sterilize it, but an internal timer signals when the process is complete. So while we aren't apt to load down our knapsacks anymore with something so petty, the highly susceptible out there can get their own portable germ-slaying handheld now for $79.95.[Via Slashgear]
Time Crisis 3 tops Amazon's gaming list, outsells Brain Age & New Mario
How does a game released October 21, 2003 top Amazon's current best selling video games list? Good question. During the July 4 holiday weekend, Amazon dropped the price of Time Crisis 3 (with dual GunCon2s) to $19.99, sparking a surprising sales surge that shot the aging PS2 light gun title to the #1 position on Amazon's "Top Sellers in Computer & Video Games" list. While the industry is notorious for remaining dormant during the summer months, the Time Crisis 3 sale managed to outsell the red hot DS Lite and its most popular software titles, Brain Age & New Super Mario Bros. Time Crisis 3 is currently sold out on Amazon, but remains the bestseller as of this afternoon.
DS gets 'Point Blank' tap, light gun not required
Namco's classic arcade shooter Point Blank ships for the DS next week, as Point Blank DS. Back in 1998, the game was ported to the PlayStation and required the use of Namco's GunCon peripheral. Obviously, it would be awkward -- especially in public -- pointing a light gun at the DS's 3-inch screen, unless it was a really tiny zapper -- which would still be awkward in public. Thankfully, the stylus acts as an intuitive, if not unorthodox, alternative.Point Blank DS will be an important test for Nintendo's handheld, and if well received, will expand the possibilities for simple, addictive fun on the DS.
