Nintendo to let Wii gamers go for their guns

Bang

By James Sherwood, 12th July 2007

With a look that's a little reminiscent of the Austrian Steyr Aug 9mm assault rifle, Nintendo's Wii Zapper is set to help gamers dive into the melee, lock 'n' load, lay down suppressing fire and, it's hoped... survive.

Wii_zapper
Nintendo's Wii Zapper: I'd like to introduce you to a personal friend of mine...

Mind you, it's taken Nintendo long enough. The two-handed peripheral that houses both the Remote and Nunchuck, handy for the likes of Medal of Honor,, which is ridiculously hard to play with the two controllers held separately.

Fancy something less ballistic? Nintendo also announced Wii Fit last night, an obvious extension of the popular Wii Sports but this time based around a sort of balance board that gives players a workout through aerobic, toning and balance games. The Wii's main menu also allows all users in a house to review one another's progress.

Mario will also be making a comeback in two games. A version of Mario Kart, which works with another accessory, the Wii Wheel, allows gamers to... er... drive around wacky tracks in, presumably, even wackier car designs.

Super Mario Galaxy, on the other hand, sees Mario go in search of the lovely Princess Peach, who has been kidnapped, across a series of strange planets. Mario is in a low-gravity environment and so gamers have to make full use of the Wii Remote's functions to make him hop, skip and jump.

Nintendo has also begun development of a new free online Wii channel, which provides a space where gamers can post copies of the Mii characters for others to, more than likely, slag off. Gamers will also be able to go head-to-head and test their artistic abilities at creating a Mii with the most likeness to themselves.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has been created as a first-person game and the final chapter in the trilogy. It sees Samus fight with Dark Samus through a series of different planets, using the Wii's remote as a sort of firing cannon. Another one for the Zapper, then.

No release date for the Wii Zapper has been given, while Wii Fit, Mario Kart, Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption will be released in the first half of 2008, early 2008, 12 November 2007 and 27 August 2007, respectively.

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Posted Friday 13th July 2007 15:47 GMT

Steve Barnes

Re: Work with Plasma/LCD?

b166er, unfortunately the PS099L doesn't work with LCD or Plasma. One of the more 'reputable' 3rd party light guns that I've heard of that DOES work with LCD, Plasma, etc, is the "TopGun" lightgun, works on PS2 & XBox. I've never used it personally, but heard good things about it.

Check it out:

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-3z-49-en-70-16s7.html

And you can an additional stand for it too if your screens over 60":

http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-1i-49-en-70-1c3h.html

Have fun! :-D

Posted Friday 13th July 2007 12:52 GMT

Remy Redert

Weapons

First of all, I'd like to link to this article: http://world.guns.ru/assault/as20-e.htm which shows very nicely the Steyr Aug, so that everyone may compare. It also makes no mention of a 9mm variant, though it does list the SMG barrel. All things it's considered, it's quite possible that it simply uses .223 Remington even with the SMG barrel attached.

Second of all, practically all firearms in existance have the dominant (generally right) arm placed at the back, to aim the weapon and operate trigger and safeties, with the other hand placed nearer the front of the weapon to support its weight, or under the grip of the weapon in the case of most pistols. This design appears to require that I hold it the wrong way around, right arm outstretched with the trigger (And thus unable to aim with that arm), while the left arm holds the back of it.

Posted Friday 13th July 2007 12:49 GMT

Scott Mckenzie

It's how you play..

..i guess.

I have a 360 and a Wii and they're totally different, the Wii can't hold a candle to the 360 in graphics and processing power, but it whips it's hide in terms of gameplay... there are plenty of great fun games out there, some which only really grab you for 30 minutes or so, but others, like SSX Blur, Raymans Raving Rabbids etc that you can play for hours and then wonder where the evening went....

New MarioKart and Mario Galaxy will be stunning aswell, the clips so far i've seen of the latter suggest an instantaneous jump from 2D to 3D for gameplay... it's what sets Nintendo apart, the DS Lite kills the PSP and the Wii is doing the same to other consoles... look at worldwide sales figures - twice as many Wii's sold on average than PS3 AND Xbox 360 combined.