Nintendo reveals Wii Zapper

by Andrew Yoon { Jul 11th 2007 at 12:30PM }

Ducks beware. Described by Reggie as the "first offspring of the Wiimote and the Nunchuk," the light gun accessory will launch later this year for a paltry $20. Games to take advantage of the new accessory is the upcoming Wii-exclusive Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Ghost Squad, and Medal of Honor (which will support up to 32 player multiplayer!). The Zapper looks suspiciously like the PS3's GunCon 3, but considering our somewhat unhealthy love of light gun games, we're okay with that.

Tags: e307, wii zapper, WiiZapper, zapper

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

vidGuy @ Jul 11th 2007 12:39PM

MoH is a must buy for me now. That zapper looks awesome!

Cosmos @ Jul 11th 2007 12:43PM

It doesn't look as slick as the original revealed last year at E3, but it does look more fun :)

Chester Cheetah @ Jul 11th 2007 12:44PM

it looks alright. Definately not going to just run out and buy one as soon as its released.

Hunter @ Jul 11th 2007 12:45PM

if it is 20 bucks with software like they said I can't see a reason not to get it

Jackson Pritt @ Jul 11th 2007 1:13PM

I'm very, very concerned about how it looks.
The old design looked amazing, but the new one... I don't know, this whole two-handed approach seems like it's trying to make the Zapper as NOT-A-GUN as possible. While I understand why they'd want to do that (a lot of parents won't buy their kids anything that looks like a gun) the new 2-handed Zapper looks like it might be uncomfortable to hold after playing for very long...

All I really want is a good gun shell for the Wiimote that adds a pistol grip and moves the trigger button to somewhere more comfortable, and to keep the Nunchuck in my other hand.

We'll see if this Zapper is a decent compromise or a wonky mess.

vidGuy @ Jul 11th 2007 1:21PM

@Jackson,

The side picture makes it look like you can take the nunchuk out of the cradle. That would make 2 handed again.

troy @ Jul 11th 2007 1:38PM

yeah $20 WITH included first-party software! (a fact that seems to be left out of this article) ROCK ON!

Charles @ Jul 11th 2007 2:39PM

@5, yo can probably just remove the nunchuck from its holder and it becomes one handed for the gun and you can put the nunchuck hand wherever...

Ralph @ Jul 11th 2007 3:15PM

@vidGuy

Sure, you may be able to remove the nunchuk from the blaster--but what would be the point of using the blaster if you're not going to fully utilize it in the first place? That looks like a lot for one hand to be carrying (and playing) if you don't attach the nunchuk to it.

Matt @ Jul 11th 2007 8:29PM

This is hard to swallow...

The world has been playing predominantly right-handed games for how many years now? And this thing looks to make a bit of a shift when it comes to that, which may be a bit of an adjustment.

The natural way for a right hander to hold a gun like this would be to have the nunchuk's joystick in the front of the gun, so the left hand would stabilize the controls, but still maintain the primary role of movement control. The right hand would then be at the back of the gun, essentially taking aim and firing. See RE4's TMP for how it should have been designed. And apply the nunchuk to the left hand, Wiimote to the right hand.

I'm not syaing things need to be right handed, I'm just saying that it's hard to make that shift now, 20 years into the gaming industry's "left hand motion, right hand action" mentality...

Thomas @ Jul 12th 2007 7:04AM

i agree with Matt's comment on the 11th, how we are used to using right haded guns for video game, but i think they should make it a ambidextrous zapper, were the main controller can be switched from being in the front to being in the back, or just make one type of zapper for left handed people and one for right handed people. i also think it should be longer it looks like it would get to be painful if held in that position for a long period of time.

iisjreg @ Jul 12th 2007 1:42PM

@left/righty-ness:

It works both ways, a left-hander would usually play with the remote in their left hand for the trigger and the Zapper makes their 'main' hand become the 'stability' hand (position wise, anyway). It reverses the normal way of holding a gun. Saying that, it does continue the thought of #5 in that they dont want it to be like a gun.
Its gonna mess people up a bit to start with, but its just some good old left/right brain exercises a la nintendo. I'm getting one! haha

wushupants @ Jul 13th 2007 9:40PM

um, did you just say MOH will support 32 PLAYER MULTIPLAYER????? please say it is so!!!!!! if you are indeed telling the truth, i'll marry you.

Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Jul 14th 2007 5:35AM

While I am not all that excited about the Zapper's design - since on consoles I hardly seen shooter involving only and solely shooting and moving.

Though in the days, a shooter game for Wii which would involve *only* shooting - THIS ARE MY DREAMS COMING TRUE!!!

> The Zapper looks suspiciously like the PS3's GunCon 3

What is not necessarily "Bad Thing". I'd opine it is "Good Thing". I'm pretty sure that all - (1) gamers and (2) game developers - would appreciate smaller control gap when switching between games/consoles. I hope the FPS controllers (which would be hopefully) introduced to Xbox360 and PS3 would look like zapper or wiimote.

kravex @ Jul 17th 2007 4:33PM

Now that the standard has been set, it's just a bit of plastic with a lever to the B button anyone can copy it and release a black gun shaped version.