Shooting it up: Link's Crossbow Training
Yeah yeah yeah, I know I said I wouldn't review the majorly popular games like Zelda or Final Fantasy because there are soooo many reviews out there already, but this game technically doesn't fall in the Zelda video games timeline. Anyway.
So I admit, I bought Link's Crossbow Training with the suspicion that it was going to be a major rip off. Nintendo is basically selling you a piece of cheap plastic + a mini game for about $20. That absolutely reeks of shadyness, and I thought the game was going to be stupid. Surprisingly the games are actually pretty addicting and quite fun.
Rating: Four out of five
Geekyness level: Pretty high. Think about it. You have bought a game that is essentially just shooting targets. You could buy a bow in real life and be satisfied with that, but no, instead we buy Link's Crossbow Training just because Link is on it. That's some pretty solid fandom there.
Since Link's Crossbow Training is just a little mini game/Wii sports type thing, I'm not going go in detail on this. The game has 20 or so mingames. You start with the first five, and when your score gets high enough you open up new games. These mini games are not the same. Some of the games are target games, where you shoot at still or moving targets. Other times you're "defending" aka you shoot monsters that zoom around you in collected patterns. Finally there's ranger games, where you roam through some familar territory from Twilight princess and shoot it out with the bad guys. Even though the game sticks to these three types there's always variation from mini game to mini game. In example in target games you might ride Epona, or you may be in the canoe.
The game is easy to conquer, although if you don't have the best hand eye/wiimote cordination prepare to be frusterated. Gameplay is addicting though. I once popped it in to give Myrrh a five minute demo and we ended up playing it for over an hour.
The bottom line is that it is a mini game. It's not epic, but it certainly is loads of fun and great entertainment. I'm very glad I bought it, and it greatly exceeded my expectations. The only annoying thing is having to pop my wiimote/nunchuck in and out of the plastic "crossbow" thingie when I feel like playing it.