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Nintendo resurrects the NES Zapper with a trio of Wii U light gun games

Danny Cowan
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Nintendo taps into its back catalog for this week’s Wii U eShop update, as the company has reissued a series of classic games via its Virtual Console service that originally featured support for the NES Zapper light gun peripheral.

This week marks the Virtual Console debuts of Nintendo’s Wild Gunman and Hogan’s Alley, with Konami’s The Adventures of Bayou Billy also making a rare reappearance.

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Released for the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, Wild Gunman is a Western-themed light gun game that pits players against pistol-packing outlaws in a series of fast-draw shootouts. Wild Gunman was one of the first NES games to feature digitized speech, and its unique quick-draw gameplay made creative use of the Zapper accessory.

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Hogan’s Alley, also released in 1985, lets players test their skills in a simulated firearms training program. Players are given a limited amount of time to gun down cardboard cutouts of gangsters as they pop up while leaving innocent bystanders unharmed.

This week’s third reissued Zapper title, The Adventures of Bayou Billy, features first-person shooting segments in addition to side-scrolling beat-’em-up levels and driving challenges. Bayou Billy is known for its extreme difficulty that left many players unable to progress past its initial levels.

The Wii U versions of Hogan’s Alley, Wild Gunman, and The Adventures of Bayou Billy, priced at $5 apiece, offer simulated Zapper support via connected Wii Remote controllers. This week’s releases join Nintendo’s previously reissued classic Duck Hunt, which premiered via the Wii U eShop in 2014.

Other games premiering via the Wii U eShop this week include the arcade-styled avoid-’em-up Avoider, meme-driven first-person shooter Bigley’s Revenge, sandbox construction sim Discovery, and the card and dice game compilation Tabletop Gallery. This week’s 3DS eShop update introduces the pet sim My Pets and the undersea racing game Ocean Runner.

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Danny Cowan
Danny Cowan
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