Like beat-em-ups, the light-gun shooter is a genre that gained most of its popularity during the 8 – 32 bit generations of gaming. However, as the mechanic is quite simplistic, the shooter genre has slowly been losing its appeal since its arcade heyday, just like the beat-em-up. Moreover, most light gun shooters can be completed in less than half an hour, making them shallow and light on content. To truly gain the attention of gamers, light gun games have to do something innovative and eye-catching. House of the dead featured zombies and showers of blood. Time Crisis featured a duck pedal, allowing players to seek cover and catch their breaths. Silent Scope featured a sniper rifle, and relied on precision and calculation rather than being a simple blast-a-thon. Police 911 (which really should be bought to Wii using the Wiimotion plus and maybe the balance board) translated player’s motions into onscreen action, getting the player’s body involved in the game.
The SuperScope, probably the most beloved of the home console light guns, demonstrated plenty of potential for innovation in the light gun genre. Heck, the 6-game pack that came with it featured a puzzle game and a variation on whack-a-mole. It’s buttons and unique shape gave developers some unique options on to use for gameplay. While most games for the SuperScope never moved far away from the usual Operation-Wolf format, there were a few unique games using the peripheral. One of these games is Metal Combat: Falcon’s revenge.
[Read the rest of this entry…]