Nintendo 1985

Action / Zapper

NES

1 Player | 2 Players VS

 

Duck Hunt

Your trusty hunting dog wades into the marshes to flush out your prey. Your fingers tighten around your Zapper light gun. Suddenly, there's a duck in the air! You've only got three shots to bag this duck, and if you miss, even your dog laughs at you! But become a sharp-shooter, and you'll progress to the next round where two ducks fly up at the same time. And then you're on to the ultimate challenge: Clay Shooting. Where you'll compete in a wild clay-pigeon shooting contest! Play Duck Hunt and discover you can have lots of laughs and be challenged at the same time.

In Duck Hunt, you will set out with your trusty hound in order to bag as many ducks as possible. After he jumps into the grass, they will begin flying up from the ground so be ready to think quickly and shoot straight. When ducks fly up, you will have 3 shots and a limited time to take them down. If you miss all 3 shots, or if you take too long, the duck will escape. To pass each stage, you will need to bag a minimum number of ducks. If you don't, your hunt will be over. The more you play, the minimum will increase — in addition to ducks becoming faster.

In Game B, the rules are identical to Game A but there will be 2 ducks instead of 1. The time limit and your 3 shots remain the same, so you can only afford to miss once per round.   In Game C, you shoot clay pigeons that spring forward from the bottom of the screen. As they fly into the distance, they will become smaller and harder to hit. Like in regular Duck Hunt, you will only have 3 shots to hit both targets.   In Game A, another player can instantly take control of the duck on screen by using the d-pad. It can be moved in any direction, with the computer regaining control when there's no input.

As always with classic Light Gun games, you will need a CRT television for the NES Zapper to function.

 

 

Duck Hunt
Unsurprisingly, Duck Hunt is one of the most successful light gun games of all time thanks to its pack-in release with Super Mario Bros. on a single cartridge. The responsiveness and accuracy of the NES Zapper is excellent. The game can be made easier (or harder) by simply changing your distance from the television. The difficulty increase is very gradual — going from a leisurely hunt to an almost impossible shooting frenzy at higher levels where the ducks move at lightning-fast speeds.

The main drawback is that there's not a lot of variety, even with 3 game modes. The only change between stages is that your targets will move faster, up to the point where you are eliminated. Even though it wasn't designed to be played all day, it's still a great title to keep in your NES lineup.