Link’s Crossbow Training Review (WII)

Who needs a Master Sword…

Link is a fairly modest man. Despite constantly saving Hyrule from ‘The King Of Evil’, being declared the ‘Hero Of Time’ and defying all biological reasoning by owning a minimum of 3 hearts, he still hands over the title of the game series he leads to the dear Princess Zelda he keeps rushing to save. However, for the latest (sub)instalment, Link’s decided to ditch the Princess and the vast amount of equipment he carries around to take part in a somewhat lighter adventure…in his own name.

‘Link’s Crossbow Training’ comes coupled with the ‘Wii Zapper’ accessory and is essentially a piece of software to convince you that Nintendo’s take on the light-gun is not just a plastic shell that would look more at home in the hands of an Imperial Stormtrooper.

The game consists of 27 bite-size challenges which encourage you to shoot, shoot and shoot a bit more whilst moving. If this sounds slightly less epic than you’re standard Zelda adventure, it’s because it is. The game can be completed within about an hour, but for £20 and a free plastic sub-machine gun, you weren’t expecting a life eating quest, were you?

Each stage houses 3 of the 27 challenges, and all follow a similar formula to each other. The first challenge throws you in front of some very un-threatening wooden targets and expects you to shoot them for points. Despite being strictly on rails and linear, these levels become more complex as you progress through the game, at some points allowing you to ride your faithful horse Epona through stages in order to eliminate targets.

The second takes you away from 1st person inanimate object destruction, and places them in a 3rd person perspective to battle some real enemies. These are simple defence stages where you can use the nun-chuck to spin around in a fixed position, keeping enemies off your back. Despite being the first stage to show off the layout of the Wii Zapper, it doesn’t do it fantastically well due to a basic and dull format which fails to deliver any excitement.

Nintendo have put a lot of thought in this for the fan base.

The third stage, however, makes up for it. Again with the 3rd person perspective, this time Link has managed to escape from the mass amount of Blu-Tac that was holding him in place in the second stage and is actually allowed to move about the area! These missions usually see you infiltrating an area, shooting away at enemies and feels like it’s what the whole game should’ve consisted of from the start.

Once you’ve completed 8 different sets of these stages…that’s it. You’ve completed the game. It’s easy accessibility seems to be its downfall in terms of lifespan, yet ‘Link’s Crossbow Training’ has strengths lying in multiple playthroughs. Each stage will give you a medal in accordance to how well you have done, and it’s easy to see high score fanatics gunning-or cross bowing-away for hours attempting to have an all gold sheet of medals to show off.

Fans of ‘Twilight Princess’ will also lap this game up with all challenges being set in levels of the previous game, and shows very good upkeep of the graphical prowess. The soundtrack is again, ripped straight from the last Zelda instalment…and although may not have everyone gasping every time they recognise a track (except the most isolated of nerds), it shows that Nintendo have put a lot of thought in this for the fan base.

Those who purchase ‘Link’s Crossbow Training’ shouldn’t expect a huge adventure, yet it still provides very good value for money coupled with the Wii Zapper. However, it only really provides us with a good, yet totally different presentation of a much loved series of games and doesn’t truly show off what the Wii Zapper can do, with only one set of games really showing us its potential. Hopefully developers can take from this and give the accessory a chance to shine, but for now, we have ‘Link’s Crossbow Training’ and a bunch of classic arcade Light-gun games to play with.