While Link of Legend of Zelda fame was able to transform into a wolf in Twilight Princess, he has never owned a dog. This game would be a whole lot more interesting with a St. Bernard. There. I said it.

That said, the new incarnation of Duck Hunt brings a simple concept--the shooting gallery--to the fantasy world of Zelda and gives people a reason to buy a gun attachment for their Wii.

First off, let's take a look at the Zapper. Gone is the clicking trigger that kept us from playing while others in the house were sleeping. The sturdy plastic assembly nicely fits the Wiimote into the barrel and the nunchuck into the pistol grip, allowing you to hold it "Tommy-Gun" style. Assembly takes a couple minutes while you wind the cord into the grip--here's where a wireless nunchuck would come in handy. The form makes holding the assembly fairly easy and precision aiming easier, but not without challenge. The design makes it comfortable to hold for both large and small hands, and because of the 2-handed system, I found that my arms don't get as tired as they did after an hour of Duck Hunt. The on-screen crosshair gives it another advantage over the NES gun, allowing you to hold the Zapper closer to your body, again reducing fatigue. That said, kids not used to holding a gun may have trouble with this game. My 9-year-old's gun experience is limited to squirt guns, and they had a difficult time holding it steady enough to aim well and quickly got frustrated.

The gameplay overall is pretty much what you'd expect. You have various targets, some stationary, some moving, some humanoid or animal (or animate plant) that need shooting. Now this game is rated "T" because of the shooting aspect, but aside from some scary monsters and skeleton-like creatures, if your kids shoot Nerf® guns at each other or play Laser Tag®, there's not much new here that would upset a parent. About 1/3 of the levels involve actual targets like you'd see atop a certain discount store. They may be falling down waterfalls or being carried by duck-like creatures, but they're targets. (And if you shoot the birds carrying the targets, you lose points.) Another 1/3 involve shooting at humanoid and/or critter targets while standing in one spot, pivoting by moving the gun crosshairs to the side of the screen. The rest require you to run and strafe with the nunchuck controller while shooting and turning the with the Wiimote/Zapper. (For variety, it also includes skeet shooting at monster skulls and other unique levels.) The last two levels feature end bosses, the last of which might be scary to small children who would be afraid of a large "boss" skeleton. The game definitely gets more intense as you work through the levels, so you probably want to play each level before allowing younger children to play, making your decision as to the appropriateness for your child.

While points are earned for hitting targets and more points for hitting bull's-eyes or bonus green targets, the real strategy involves accumulating multipliers. Each hit in succession increases your multiplier by 1, so the first hit scores 10-30 points, but the next is x2, then x3, with no limit, so it's better not to take the shot if you're not sure you'll hit the target unless you just missed and have no multiplier anyway. This gets a bit tricky when flock shooting at quickly moving birds. Getting hit by attacking enemies will result in a loss of 100 points--you can't "die" per se, just drop to 0 points.

To add to the fun, each environment is filled with destructible features like clay jars, skulls, barrels, and pumpkins, each worth 1-5 points, but fun to shoot at while waiting for the real targets to appear. Some contain Rupees (coins) worth a lot of points. Just don't shoot the chicken, or you'll lose 100 points.

Graphically, the style follows that of Twilight Princess, an earthy pencil-drawn appearance that's appealing and unique. That said, this is a crossbow game, but it could just as well be a gun game, because it has no visible bolts (crossbow arrows). (If you shoot an exploding arrow by holding down the trigger to "charge" it, you can see the exploding arrow in the distance.) The targets just fall or vanish. While this may have kept the ESRB rating lower, even a subtle animation of a moving projectile would've made the game more immersive. Most crossbows also need to be cocked, and while the machine gun-like "Automatic" power-up is fun, an option to require cocking via the "c" button on a higher difficulty setting would again add a bit to the experience but will only be missed by someone looking for a simulator, and this is fantasy, after all.

Multiplayer reminds me of the 80's arcade games that required players to take turns to compete for scores, since it has no simultaneous multiplayer. While alternating is better than nothing for a family, cooperative multiplayer would be really fun, and I hope a future version of this or a similar Zapper game (Wii Duck Hunt?) will include this option. The game also lacks online multiplayer which, again, would have a lot of possibilities.

For a game that's basically a tech demo and a way for Nintendo to get the Zapper on the market, hoping to encourage third-party developers to release games for it (or get into the first person shooter (FPS) genre to attract more hardcore gamers), this game is a lot of fun and well worth the reduced price, especially if more games include compatibility with it. While I wouldn't recommend it for younger children, it lacks the gore of most FPS games, and anyone who enjoys shooting at monsters will enjoy this game.

But while wolves appear in one level, I still think Link needs a dog.