Link's Crossbow Training

Good clean fun. [Issue#17, p.84]

Overall you can’t go wrong with the Wii Zapper. For a cheap price of $19.99, you get a peripheral and a quality game. Even though the Zapper itself is only a piece of white plastic which may cause you some serious hand cramps, it is nonetheless still functional and lets you break in Link’s new toy, the crossbow.

Though it's extremely short, Link's Crossbow Training is a fun shooting game that's good enough to overshadow the faults of the main part of the package, the Wii Zapper.

It's a short, but nevertheless fun demo that reunites Zelda fans with one of Nintendo's greatest icons while simultaneously providing a new way to see the lands and enemies that Link explores and fights respectively. The shooting mechanics are well done and the visual presentation looks like something right out of Twilight Princess – which, obviously, it is.

You're better off picking up a third-party Wii lightgun casing if that's what you're after, but Crossbow Training provides a surprisingly satisfyingly -- and cheap -- slice of Zelda all by itself.

Not a full game, but nonetheless surprisingly polished and only costs $20 with the Wii Zapper.

The Zapper is okay in certain games but this one doesn't need it. Sluggish aiming, too. [Feb 2008, p.48]

Link’s Crossbow Training does an excellent job of throwing in an entertaining couple of hours to start you off with your brand new peripheral.

Genuinely good fun for all – A pleasant surprise. [Feb 2008, p.132]

It’s cheap and it’s fun - Link shoots, and he most definitely scores!

The Zapper might have its problems and Link's Crossbow Training might be one of the shortest games in history, but for only $20, it fairly fun.

What you are really buying when you pick up this bundle is a fun minigame that comes with a packed-in controller novelty. [Feb 2008, p.99]

If high scores aren't much of a motivator, the game gets old fast. It's a snap to unlock the entire game in one sitting.

It's just too darn short--you'll probably make it through the entire single-player mode in just over an hour (add another hour to get platinum medals on every stage). [Holiday 2007, p.84]

I'd suggest you pass this one up unless you're a Wii fanatic, a light-gun aficionado, or a Zelda freak who just has to have every single Link game around. [Feb 2008, p.77]

Link's Crossbow Training isn't going to change your life, but combined with the Wii Zapper, it's extremely good value. For less than $50, you could do much, much worse.

The problem with Link's Crossbow Training is unusual. It's not that it's a bad game. Instead, it's that there's just not enough to it.

It's nice to revisit some of those wonderful Twilight Princess environments, but don't expect the disc to live in your Wii for very long.

Don't even bother with the Wii Zapper, it's a gimmick. Link's Crossbow Training is an average shooter which provides short bursts of enjoyment, but overall is a fairly basic game with a few highlights.

The game looks and sounds like Zelda but truthfully is Zelda in name only. Don't expect to be charmed in the slightest.

We expected more from Nintendo, maybe a game able of bringing home the fun that we used to have on the arcades. They choose to stick with a familiar franchise and create something really simple.

The Wii Remote and Nunchuk work perfectly fine on their own - especially considering the Wii Zapper is both less accurate and less comfortable.

In the end, the Wii Zapper is just a hunk of plastic and the game is too short and kind of boring. Link's Crossbow Training will make a nice chunky gift to fill in blank spots under the tree, but all wrapped up like that, you can never be sure exactly what you're getting.