NES

Duck Hunt

I have no doubt that it was the Super Mario Bros. half of the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt pack-in bundle that won over most gamers’ hearts during that crucial time in the mid-eighties. Even so, Duck Hunt is a fun, if not brilliant, little light gun game with colorful visuals and a peppy soundtrack (which, incidentally, was created by legendary Zelda composer Koji Kondo) that definitely deserves a place in any NES gamer’s collection. Just make sure that you do actually add it to your collection and not just experience it via humdrum, Zapper-less emulation.

Everyone remembers Duck Hunt but most people are surprised with how boring it is when they pop it in to their NES these days. This game is good for a quick five minute nostalgia burst but you will quickly get bored with the game and put it back on your shelf.

Given what I've said already, it probably won't surprise you that I don't think this game has any replay value. Indeed, if it weren't for this game being lumped with a very good platformer, I'd say don't bother with it at all unless you're a collector. Indeed, it is not worth paying for a Duck Hunt solo cart, which, being rarer than the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt combo pack, would be more expensive. This game is awarded cult classic status that, quite frankly, it doesn't deserve.

The sparse scenery consists of a tree and bush, and it never changes. Although the instructions claim the NES light gun has a range of up to six feet from the TV, the optimal distance seems more like three or four feet. To be honest, the difficulty of the game is largely a function of how close you're sitting to the screen. The first variation (one duck at a time) bored me to tears, but the second variation is better, tossing out two ducks at a time. A two-player option lets the second player control the ducks, but there's really no point to that. The best variation is the clay shooting, where you take aim at pairs of small gray disks launched into the sky. Duck Hunt hasn't aged particularly well, but it's just the ticket if you're looking for some simple shooting action, or maybe just a stroll down memory lane.

The thing about this game is can't really be rated with normal methods. Get a mate over to help you with some of our eXtreme gameplay techniques, and you will have a hell of a lot of fun, just don't expect to achieve that for very long...

If you're looking for something to apply the term "classic" to, well, here ya go. One of the first games for the NES was this little gem. It was released in 1985 as part of the "Deluxe Bundle," sharing the package space with the quirky R.O.B. and the Zapper light gun required for play. The game was essentially a showcase for the Zapper, and as such, not very elaborate. But what history seems to have forgotten is that both were also a showcase for what home video games could really be, and the sheer novelty of playing a video version of a boardwalk trick shot game was enough to get just about anyone interested in a few rounds.