While Skyward Sword left a bad taste in my mouth, Hyrule Warriors made everything yummy and nice. A review for that will be coming later, but in the meantime I had a nice little palate cleanser with the budget arcade shooting spin-off Link’s Crossbow Training.

You know Nintendo. They make a peripheral, have one good idea for it, use it in exactly one game and then it collects dust in your cupboard while a few third parties make lackluster attempts to use it as well. Meet the Wii Zapper, an attachment that slots your Wii Remote and Nunchuck into a frame that makes it like holding a machine gun. Or indeed, a crossbow. Of course, being long past the age of peripherals at this point, I couldn’t just pick one up; nor would I need to. This game was in a hundred bargain bins, and I can tell you works perfectly fine without the Zapper.

The remote itself is all you need; the Zapper I feel would merely make it easier to stabilise. But adjusting the sensitivity down is sufficient to make the game playable. I even got a platinum medal in one stage! smug Seriously though, it feels like the kind of game the Wii Remote was made for. Of course, I wouldn’t have bothered with it if it hadn’t been part of the Zelda series.

Playing Skyward Sword made me appreciate Twilight Princess more. This game reuses assets exclusively to Twilight Princess to be a sort of gaiden, or sidestory, to that game (even though it doesn’t really have a story as such). It’s like a tour of different locations and setpieces, fighting a variety of enemies from that world. Therefore I really appreciated seeing all those elements, it’s like a short reminder of all the fun things that happened in TP. There’s no Twilight Palace unfortunately, but hey-ho. That’s what we have Hyrule Warriors for.

So I said budget before. I cleared the whole game in an hour. Mostly bronze medals, but I’ve never been much of a score-chaser; it’s unlikely I’ll try very hard to top myself. But for the $2.50 I paid for it, I think to myself: I’ve spent more than that playing some shooters in arcades, but this one was more resonant with me, and now it’s on my shelf next to Twilight Princess. So if, like me, you have fond memories of that game, you might get a kick out of it.

Oh by the way, if you do play it, some advice: combos are very important. You can shoot jars and stuff without breaking your combo, but if you’re going for good scores, be accurate. On the other hand, you get bonus points for hitting all targets for the objective in some levels. So try it both ways. I got a great score in the final stage, but I had to do it again because I didn’t actually manage to beat Stallord. Had to get that closure.