347 · Barker Bill's Trick Shooting

• Barker Bill is your host.
• Join him and assistant Tricksie for arcade-style Trick Shooting!
• Why Did Nintendo Release Another NES Zapper Game So Far Away from the Others?
• Released in 1990, Barker Bill's Trick Shooting came well after the height of Zapper-based games like Duck Hunt and Hogan’s Alley.
• By this point, the NES was nearing the end of its lifecycle, and the Zapper was more of a novelty item than a central accessory.
• Likely targeted as a nostalgic throwback to arcade-style gameplay, appealing to players who enjoyed earlier Zapper games but wanted something new.
• Nintendo may have been experimenting with ways to extend the appeal of their existing peripherals while transitioning into the 16-bit era with the SNES.
• What is the Gameplay Loop?
• Barker Bill's Trick Shooting is a light-gun shooter where players use the NES Zapper to shoot targets on the screen.
• The game consists of several shooting galleries with different themes like balloons, plates, and tin cans.
• Players score points by accurately shooting targets before they leave the screen, with a progressively faster and more challenging pace.
• Lives are lost if too many targets are missed or certain forbidden objects (like the dog) are hit.
• The game loops as the player tries to score as high as possible, making it a score-chasing game with a focus on speed and accuracy.
• Balloon Saloon
• In this mini-game, the player shoots at balloons that float up from the bottom of the screen.
• The objective is to pop as many balloons as possible before they reach the top of the screen.
• Missing too many balloons results in losing lives.
• Difficulty increases as balloons appear faster, and smaller balloons are more difficult to hit.
• 2. Flying Saucers
• Plates (saucers) are thrown across the screen, and players must shoot them before they disappear.
• There are two types of plates: large and small, with smaller plates being worth more points but harder to hit.
• The background is a Wild West-themed setting, and players lose lives if too many plates are missed.
• 3. Window Pains
• Players must shoot objects that are tossed out of a building’s windows, including bottles and other items.
• The objects fly out of different windows at various speeds, testing players' reflexes.
• Players must avoid shooting the dog character, who appears randomly to distract them. Shooting the dog causes the player to lose a life.
• 4. Fun Follies (Bonus Round)
• Fun Follies is a bonus mode unlocked after playing the other mini-games.
• It consists of a combination of different challenges, including shooting a variety of objects like cans, eggs, and more.
• This mode features higher difficulty and faster objects, requiring precise shooting to earn bonus points.
• The player has to avoid hitting certain objects (such as bombs) while still aiming for high-value targets.
• Source: Information about the mini-games and modes in Barker Bill's Trick Shooting comes from documented game reviews and detailed retrospectives of NES Zapper games .
• What Makes It Unique/Different From Other NES Zapper Games?
• Barker Bill's Trick Shooting offers a more arcade-like experience, focusing on multiple mini-games instead of one central mechanic.
• The game is set in a circus/carnival environment, with a focus on playful, colorful themes rather than the more serious or nature-based themes of earlier Zapper games.
• It features a character (Barker Bill) based on an old animated series, giving it a more cartoonish and whimsical vibe compared to the realistic shooting of games like Duck Hunt.
• The inclusion of multiple shooting gallery modes provides more variety in gameplay compared to Duck Hunt's single mode.
• How Many More NES Zapper Games Released After This One?
• Barker Bill's Trick Shooting is one of the last notable NES Zapper games, as the peripheral itself became less supported after the 1980s.
• Following its release, no significant Zapper games were developed, and the peripheral was largely left behind as Nintendo shifted its focus to the SNES.
• While other shooting-related accessories like the Super Scope appeared on the SNES, the Zapper had no further releases on the NES.
• What Else Could This Game Have Done to Stand Out?
• Introducing more complex or varied mini-games with different objectives could have added depth.
• Including multiplayer or competitive modes to make it a party game might have broadened its appeal beyond solo play.
• The Zapper itself could have been integrated in a way that pushed its functionality, such as by using dynamic or moving backgrounds to challenge the player’s reaction time.
• A story mode or character progression could have added longevity, making it more than just a high-score chase.
• Integrating more circus-themed elements like moving acrobats or animals for more dynamic shooting challenges might have expanded its thematic range.

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

00:00 Barker Bill's Trick Shooting. Barker Bill is your host. Join him and Assistant Trixie for Arcade Style Trick Shooting.

00:24 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. And does it really count if the back of the box just uses all the same words as the full title of the game? Barker Bill's Trick Shooting. It had Barker Bill and it had Trick Shooting and then just a bunch of words in between that. Maybe that's accidentally the front of the box. Right, right. Can you tell which one's the back of the box at this point? There's small print in between Barker Bill's is your host. Join him and Assistant Trixie for Arcade Style Trick Shooting. Like, you just don't notice it on the front of the box. Oh, I agree. Her name's Trixie, like, how you shoot the gun. Yeah. There you go.

01:07 Speaking of, thank you, Sean. This is a Zapper game. Why did Nintendo release another Zapper game so far away from all the others? Uh, if you recall, I mean, Nintendo official ones like Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley. Those games, uh, were like the height of both the launch of the NES and the beginning of the NES and nowhere near Barker Bill's release. By this point, the NES is kind of like getting ready to be taken over by the Super Nintendo next year.

01:38 And the Zapper was more of like a, I don't want to call it a novelty item at this time, but we're certainly just getting, uh, you know, a release a year at this point. So, are you surprised that we came back? I'm pleasantly surprised, but I don't know why they, I mean, could it have been like a, a farewell and homage?

01:56 Maybe one last attempt to get people to buy some Zappers before they move on? Well, is this a Nintendo, like, developed product? My understanding was yes. Um, I could check in on that for you, but, um, to Joe Duck Hunt Dog. Is that him though? So this is how I was looking at it. Well, it makes the sound. I was looking at this game as like a third party, kinda like cash grab kinda title, where it kinda gave you like a legally distinct Duck Hunt Dog. Chase's it. And, uh, maybe, maybe I'm wrong though. I, I didn't do, I didn't do any research for this. It is, it is Nintendo R&D 1. Wow. So, uh, we can, we must assume that that is the Duck Hunt Dog.

02:40 Um, I will admit, he looks like he lost some weight maybe or something. He's on a diet these days. I think he's been smoking. Like, the thing is that this whole game kinda feels like a seedier version of Duck Hunt. Like, you got, you got the dog. You see that many ducks murdered before your eyes and you know, you're, you, you, you start smoking. You, you got the dog, uh, you got Trixie who's a very scantily clad like Playboy Bunny. Uh, I think that this Mario lookalike is like a, is a heavy tobacco user.

03:12 Um, I don't know. That's just sort of the vibe I was getting. And, and that's a good point because Duck Hunt was one of those zapper games that did more than just, uh, like one particular minigame. It had a couple different modes for a couple different kinds of trick shooting. Barker Bill's doing that again. Obviously it's right there in the title, but there's, it's not just, hey, uh, shoot the criminal instead of the police officer. Like, you know, and then that's the whole game like Hogan's alley was instead.

03:40 There's a couple different minigames here. Uh, just wanted to touch one thing on, uh, that Joe might've, uh, implied or thought, you know, what's interesting, Joe, is that they didn't bundle this with like the zapper again to try to like sell more of them as if they had like some kind of reserve stock. There was a NES bundle with a zapper and a controller. And I think there was even like another set that came with the power pad too, but this particular game just kind of released, not with a zapper bundle, not with an NES console bundle, not like as a new version of the family entertainment system. Um, just, just here we are Nintendo.

04:21 Nintendo, I feel, it almost feels like they forgot to release this or we're working on it while the zapper was still big to had other priorities and then said, well, we can still release this. Like it is finished. Well, all right then. I mean, I'm just spitballing. We we've had other, we've had other zapper games, not, not published by Nintendo since those, those first four. Have they done well enough? Or maybe Nintendo was like, Hey, we, these are doing well. Like there's some popularity to, you know, freedom force or to the earth or whatever that like, maybe we should make another one.

04:54 There's enough people buying these games. I don't know. If I, if I had to guess it's, it would be more like, not so much like, Oh, there's more money to be made here. I think it, I'm kind of applying some like psychology to it of like, well, uh, it's not really working, but we can't just pretend that we gave up. Uh, we have to support it for longer. So they'll get, they're giving us this token game. I don't know. Barker bills.

05:20 Trick shooting is, uh, it's not, I described it as several mini games, but really it, it is just several shooting galleries, different things to shoot at, uh, balloons, plates, uh, tin cans, flying saucers. At the end of the day, you really are just making sure that the gun targets different things. It's not really, uh, it's not changing necessarily how, like the objective of each one.

05:47 So while we could talk about, uh, you know, the various different stages, and I think we should at least a little bit, ultimately they disguised a way to make it seem like you're getting potentially more game than you really, uh, you know, wound up ultimately playing. Yeah, I think there's, there's a bit more of a difference in terms of like how you're playing the game than, uh, like it's not just a, uh, an asset swap where you're shooting different things. Like there's different ways that you're playing these mini games. It, it's testing, it's challenging you at different aspects, I think.

06:21 Yeah, I agree. And at least for two of them, there's like, there's something distinct and unique about, uh, I will say that the, uh, what is it? The glass shooting thing or whatever, I just, I don't get that one exactly. Like it just doesn't do it for me. But the other two, I did think like, okay, these are different things that we haven't really necessarily, uh, experienced. I mean, I guess, you know, the balloon one's not like super, super distinct from Duck Hunt, but the flying saucer is, um, has a very unique, it's hard to even say it's like unique gameplay style. It really just has to do with the way the objects are moving. It's a scoring system, yeah.

06:56 Yeah. So just to run through them, uh, even though the objective is always the same, uh, accurately shoot your targets, you get the most points and you move on. And, uh, there's always also forbidden objects or, uh, rather like, uh, negative point totals. If you shoot, for instance, we're talking about the Duck Hunt dog.

07:15 Yep. Don't hit him. I agree. You can though. That's, I think, my main, my main concern with the original Duck Hunt was you couldn't shoot the dog, but now you can. I think that, like, there's a lot of value in that, just giving you the freedom to shoot the dog. See, I look at it, the dog gets like angry now, you know, he's like. Yeah. Going back to like it being like a seedier game, like this, like suddenly this dog is like, he's pissed.

07:40 What was the dog even laughing about in Duck Hunt? Like, the fact that you missed the ducks? No, no, yeah, but I'm saying like, what's so funny? Like, wasn't he like potentially, like, weren't you his owner and that was like how you were gonna like eat a meal tonight? He's obviously the alpha. Like, if we went shooting together and you guys missed everything, I'd laugh at you. Because you're the alpha. Like a reverse situation? No, well, I'm just saying that the dog has very little respect for you.

08:07 Right, okay. The different shooting galleries have some pretty fun names to them. We have the Balloon Saloon, which is the one that basically the duck hunt dog is in. And a bunch of balloons kind of appear from behind the stand. And you have to shoot those balloons and not all the other.

08:27 What do we want to call those things? Negative forbidden objects? Yeah, whatever. You can't hit those things. Just a bird, right? Wait, in the balloon? Oh, no, no, I'm sorry. No, the duck hunt dog is the only thing you shouldn't shoot in Balloon Fight. Okay, but what are we calling, like, the things you shouldn't, forbidden objects? I mean, that's a weird way to say it, but we can go with it. Yeah. The dog is now categorized in the forbidden object zone. And so basically, the only way that this gets harder is just that the balloons start, like, rising faster.

09:03 Yeah, they behave more erratically. Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of entropy to these balloons. I guess the closest thing that we've played before are the ducks in duck hunt, but these balloons are much more erratic, like you say, than the ducks, I believe. Now, Flying Saucer, I like that in that one. So basically, it's just shoot, they throw plates, they're throwing two plates from either side of the screen. And it's not just shoot the plates, because that goes without saying.

09:37 It's also, you know, you get the most points if you kind of, like, wait for the plate to fall a bit more. Or you get it, like, right out of their hand. So you're, like, encouraged to take some chances with your accuracy there. But that, like, at least differentiates it a bit from the duck hunt appropriate saloon balloon, balloon saloon. And I think even, like, isn't it, is there any scoring difference in skeet from duck hunt? I don't think so, now that you mention it.

10:14 I think that no matter how far away the clay pigeon gets, you get the same amount of points. Don't quote me. But don't shoot the bird. That's the forbidden object. Right. Sometimes the bird will pick up the plate. That's true. Making it even harder. You gotta shoot it out from its feet without hitting the bird. It's interesting that the highest point total occurs, you know, like, near the end of the, like, when it's about to crash. Which I think is the correct way to give out the points because that is, like, the most risky. But you would think it would be, like, the highest point, right? Like, you would want it to be almost like an archery thing where you're trying to hit the bullseye. You want to have it hit the highest point of the arc.

10:49 Obviously, that would mean that it would have to have different arcs and not just, like, somewhere where you could park your gun. Yeah, that's kind of the reason. How much is that? But also, I feel like the highest point, wouldn't that be the easiest point? Yeah, because it's not really moving up there.

11:02 Yeah, and then you get to get the most, the highest score at the easiest point feels weird to me. But I do think you get an actually higher score even than when it's, like, right near the ground if you hit both places at once. Yes. Because I think, like, you get 300 points if you hit it, like, really close to the bottom. But you get 1,000 points if you hit two at once. So you get, like, a two-for-one deal.

11:22 And that's interesting because that's a timing thing, too. So it's not necessarily, like, they're not throwing two plates at the same time. You have to kind of hope that that happens and then seize your opportunity. Right. And it could be dangerous because if you wait, you know, you might want to hit. I mean, it's the same danger that you have with the rest of the game, too. But, like, if you're waiting for that moment, you might miss good opportunities to shoot the plate before that moment. And it might never come.

11:46 You may just be waiting there forever. Yeah. Yeah, we don't even know if this can happen. We're making this up. So that was, so let's see. You had, like, what could have been, like, at a carnival, right, with a bunch of balloons. We've all seen balloon games at a carnival where you throw darts or you fill up a thing with water to pop a balloon. We've all seen that. The flying saucer thing with the plates, again, feels kind of circusy or whatever. Not necessarily that they would let people do that, but that you might see an activity like that, like a sharpshooter. The window panes one, not sure, like, what, you know, what's the setting here that, like, okay, we're going to open up, like, some of the windows in this big building.

12:28 And then other ones are going to remain closed. And you have to only shoot when the object that's fallen is in an open window. And it's not like they're that sporadically, like, opened and closed. Just kind of, like, you see it dangle and then you just have to wait for it to be obviously in the other, in the open zone instead of the closed zone. This is the one that I can see where this could go that would make it interesting or hard. But the way that it is actually laid out, really the glass panes are just not important because just don't shoot when they're there.

12:59 They give you plenty of time when they're not, when it's not behind the glass pane. So I just don't know what this is really, what kind of challenge this is bringing that's different than the other ones. It just feels, like, the glass panes could not be there and it really wouldn't be that much different of a game. I would just be waiting less often. So basically what I think they're doing here, they're, so the glass panes could be anything, but depending on how much open space is in each vertical, because it doesn't really matter what's going on side to side. Um, you could take the easy route and just shoot it as soon as you see it. And then, like, if you miss, you have more opportunities to hit.

13:37 Um, or you could wait until it hits the very bottom into that last open pane and get the most points. Um, but if you miss, you miss and you lose a life. Um, or you, you lose a, I don't know what you call it. I think it just lives. So I, and I mean, yeah, you could say that it's not that difficult because maybe they're going too slow, but I, as you keep playing, I think like the pain pattern state changes, uh, they get narrower.

14:05 The, it, it shifts around and I think things go faster. I played like the next, the next mode is like a, like sort of a round, a world tour of all of them. And it just kind of loops until you lose. So, um, I, I want to say that that increases in difficulty there. So I get the concept and it's still, at least it's not just duck hunt again, but it's the least inspired of the three, I think.

14:35 Yeah, they do fall faster. Sure. And I, I think the one idea that, that this game was onto in terms of changing up what you're shooting and how, and what happens when you shoot something is that occasionally sometimes you'll hit an item and it will then ricochet into the next column of window panes. And so, you know, it, it, it kind of like has an invulnerability for a little bit, dives deeper, lower to the ground, and then you have to shoot it again at a moment where, um, you know, there's no window panes covering it.

15:05 I think that could have had something if like, you have to keep tracking multiple objects as they're falling. Instead, it's the, it's just one individual object at a time. And the fact that they don't kind of juggle around the screen consistently, that's what, uh, loses me for the variety.

15:23 I think they had an interesting mechanic and they just didn't take it far enough to the point where it gets more challenging because it happens faster, but not necessarily because, uh, of your, um, of anything other than your reaction time. Yeah. I mean, I will admit that, uh, until we started talking about this, I actually, for some reason, didn't realize that you are getting more points the lower the items get, which seems obvious to me now.

15:47 That makes a little bit of a difference, but, but yeah, I mean, I, I do wish that, that there was like, I wish that as the levels went on, there were like levels where it's mostly glass panes and only a few windows of open space. So you got to really think about where it is in it. And at the same time, like you're saying, Mike have multiple items on the screen at once. You have to kind of like decide, okay, I want to be shooting over here now, but I got to be ready to shoot over there when this one gets to it's open space or, or something like that.

16:11 I don't know. This one just felt the most boring and the easiest to me. I agree. And then John, you mentioned the final, uh, option fun follies, uh, which, which is kind of just a bonus mode after you, uh, play all the other ones and it, it has them all in it. It kind of reminds me of like an early idea for a, uh, like WarioWare style game now where, you know, you're switching constantly between the different like little mini games that they have. And it just keeps going. You keep getting harder, going faster. You have to be more precise with the shooting. Obviously WarioWare takes that to a whole nother level where like every mini game is just 10 seconds long and you just keep moving. And, uh, the whole like beats per minute gets faster and faster.

16:55 It's not happening here, but it is like the early groundwork for something like that. Yeah, I can see that. I, it's interesting that they didn't make this like the main mode and had everything else just be kind of like either framing it as a single event or, or practice modes, because this has like the most going on.

17:13 And I think even, but once you've sort of, uh, finished a loop of all of the games, you go into like a bonus mode where you go into, uh, you pull some slots and I don't know what that has to do with shooting guns, but that just, you know, it adds, adds again to, uh, you know, the, the kind of skeezy, carny atmosphere that we've got going on here. Um, but yeah, it's, it's, it's interesting. It's, it's fun. I, I liked the pace of it. I liked that it was faster than, cause it seems like the other modes are kind of interminable.

17:46 You have like 10 rounds in each of these, at least in this one, it gives you like faster pace and you don't have to manually switch games. Yeah. I, I'm, I was of two minds of it. Cause sometimes when I was playing the, you know, playing like the balloon one and you know, as you get through round after round, it does speed up and everything. Sometimes I, I was glad to be able to just like keep honing my skill on this one, you know, okay, now I'm, I'm on a roll with this. So I'm going to keep doing it.

18:12 Um, whereas the, the, whatever fun follies or whatever it's called, I was, it just depends on the mood you're in. Like sometimes I'm, I, I do want to break it up after every round, try something new after I try something new. Other times I'm like, I just really want to get as, do as well as I possibly can at this one game. So I don't know. They both have their place to me. It also does have the, um, uh, the, the bonus bonus mode, which is you get to shoot like coins out of Trixie's hands, which I know we were all trying to do.

18:42 Sure. You mean the slots or? No, like it's like they follow, they follow, she walks around the stage and there's a spotlight and then she like flashes some coins and you got to shoot them. Oh yeah. Yeah. Sorry. I thought you were talking about the slot machine where she's like pointing a gun at slots.

18:58 Okay. Yeah. The, the coins are, I mean like that's a fun game. That's more fun than the, no, uh, it's just as fun. But like, yeah. Uh, Joe, you bought this game and played it on real hardware with an NES zapper. So any thoughts on, uh, the actual hard, uh, hard copy experience to how, how it actually fares on a, uh, old CRT? I mean, all I can really say, which is going to be a little anticlimactic is that it still just works. You know, it still blows my mind when I play it where it's like, it works better than any sort of like, it works better than like a lot of precision, like shooting games that we've seen on consoles since.

19:41 Um, yeah. I mean, it, it does feel like if I miss, I missed, like it doesn't feel like cheap or whatever. And it feels, you get that groove. And it does have, you know, regardless of, of anything else for saying, it does have that. Uh, NES zapper fun that, that most zapper games have given me. Um, so yeah, I mean, I guess it's a little lame to say like, yeah, really it's all the same as the other, um, games we've played. But yeah, that's like what I got. It's like, yeah, here's that familiar zapper experience again. So did you guys play, was it like point and click? Like, um, I don't know. We need to get into that. Well, you, Mike brought it up, so I gotta ask now your side of it. I can use a Wiimote actually.

20:21 Uh, the, you know, it's funny. Nintendo always finds a way to just continue to reinvent the zapper. There's the zapper, there's the super scope on the super Nintendo. Eventually, uh, the Wiimote becomes the light gun thing. It's kind of funny that the switch, I guess, has like that IR thing in the joy gun, but they didn't really use that, uh, other than like trick party games and stuff. But no, you can still use a Wiimote to, uh, to be your aimer to test, uh, zapper games like this. And when you use the Wiimote, is there like a cursor?

20:49 Uh, you, you can, you can turn that off, I think, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't know where I was. So yes. Sure, sure. Yeah. Because, uh, that's kind of, I, again, I haven't played this game with a Wiimote, but like actual Wii games that are shooting games, I do feel like don't work as well as the zapper from, from 1983 or whenever the original zapper came out. Like it just blows my mind. And we can't even do it anymore. It is totally different hardware, you know?

21:14 Think about it. Like the, the Wiimote is kind of being tracked by a sensor bar, not necessarily by the TV, whereas the zapper is communicating directly to the TV. Yeah, which is why you also get that, you also get that, like, there's still some lag, even though there's not really lag. And the fact that there's a cursor makes it feel a lot more, uh, artificial.

21:35 So I, I completely understand that it, it, it, it feels more tactile with the old hardware. Yeah. And just like thinking about it, this is me not knowing really anything about the technology in the Wii, but like, if there's a sensor bar, then that can be off by a little bit. And that will make a difference. And you, you, you and your brain have to adjust it. If it's literally just tracking like a light, it's like a diode tracking light that can't really be off.

22:00 So like, it just works. I don't know. I'll gush about the zapper, like I've done on every other zapper episode forever. So I'll, I'll move on now, but that's my thoughts. And this is a game that takes the zapper kind of back to its roots though. If you look at like what, uh, developers other than Nintendo have been doing with, uh, Freedom Force or Gotcha or, um, Operation Wolf, like they were kind of going into the, uh, the light gun territory. Uh, even though I don't think that genre was fully established at this point, uh, like early prototypes of it. Whereas this is truly just going back to the arcade experience of Hogan's Alley and, uh, Duck Hunt and Wild Gunman.

22:40 Uh, I recently went to a game store in Long Island that had an actual arcade Wild Gunman. And even though the whole thing is just that you just draw faster than, uh, the cowboy you're shooting, uh, targeted, you know, like you're in a duel with, even though that was the whole thing, because I was holding like, you know, their, their actual, uh, revolver and like having the, the arcade experience in front of me. I wound up doing that for way longer than I should have before realizing that like, yeah, like they're just not, they're not going to give me a reaction time I can't beat.

23:14 Uh, so I think these games while simple still offer something to that like eighties arcade experience that like Freedom Force, Operation Wolf, Gotcha, are trying to do something, uh, you know, more innovative, uh, especially just with like getting out of the hit this target and move on space. Uh, and you'll see that a lot. Like you'll see, uh, on the Super Nintendo, on the Sega CD, on the, you know, like the Wii again, uh, we're talking about.

23:44 It's like, there's always going to be games that kind of just go back to, uh, yeah, it's just about hitting the targets and moving on to the next screen. I, uh, I do wonder like, where does the Zapper go from here? My research, which wasn't like, you know, exhaustive for this episode makes me think that this might be the last Zapper game. It's obviously not the last like shooting game Nintendo is going to put out because as I mentioned, they're going to have the Super Scope on the Super Nintendo.

24:10 But if this is the last one, it does feel a little anticlimactic if only because we started so hot with the essential game Duck Hunt at the very beginning. It doesn't really feel like Barker Bill has evolved on the Duck Hunt formula. Is that fair to say without, uh, giving more essential game votes? No, absolutely. I think that I did like when I was on Wikipedia looking at some cursory stuff, this was the last on the list of like official, uh, uh, official light gun or sorry, Zapper only games. I don't know if that was in chronological order.

24:48 Um, but I think the games that we'll get after this are like, uh, Zapper optional. So that, that may be the case, but in terms of what you're saying about like, what is this all that it can do? Like is the, did we see the, the full potential of this peripheral? I think, yes. I don't think that there's really much more you can do with this. Um, and I think you can even go into a modern example of VR.

25:16 Uh, the, I think the most popular VR games are the ones that came out like six, seven years ago. Like lightsaber. Is that really old? Is that the only thing that, uh, that VR can do is half-life Alex going to be the last thing. And does that, is that sort of a culmination of what we thought it would be? I think with a lot of these sort of these peripherals, like that they do kind of disappoint in the long run. Not to say that Joe hasn't had a lot of fun with the Zapper, but it's not like changing the landscape.

25:50 Yeah. I think that this game certainly like it does feel anticlimactic. I don't know that I'm convinced that like it can't do more. I, there is another game. I'll talk about it. Uh, maybe after my essential games, there is another game that I think should be like the, the other end of the full spectrum of the Zapper library. Like I feel like in a perfect world, we would have started with Duck Hunt and ended with this other game that I think is like a great example of how they can evolve it.

26:16 And, and I, I feel like we've come up with in the past, like ideas of other ways to evolve it, like a cover shooter where it's like one person is platforming with a controller and the other person is like covering them by shooting people. So, you know, things like that, maybe they're gimmicky or whatever, but, but yeah, I did feel that, um, if this is the last Zapper game that we have, it hasn't, it hasn't done too much different from the very first Zapper game that we have, which is a little, a little bit of a bummer. Well, we'll wrap it up, even though it seems like we might have already in our, uh, votes for the essential games list.

26:51 I don't think that the essential games list vote here also matters for the Zapper, but since we didn't quite finish that topic, I think I would just say overall that I agree with the assessment here that the Zapper is actually a success and was all it could be. Uh, there's some other gimmicky things, but to take it to like the next level, no, I don't think that there's anything I could think of.

27:11 There's different genres they could have approached, but I think the Zapper, just by having, uh, Duck Hunt and, uh, trying things like Operation Wolf and stuff like that, like just, just having those things on the system validates the Zapper's existence. I don't think Barker Bill's trick shooting is validated in 1990, knowing that in 85, I got a significantly better game. I think there's a couple of things missing here.

27:38 All right. Uh, it's not even just the amount of mini games or that they all are essentially shooting galleries. I think that when you just continue to say that, oh, what changes is it gets things fall faster or move faster or move more radically. Like I feel like go to the balloon saloon for a second. And even just like the cutout that is hiding the balloons could have changed to be a more abstract cutout as things went on or things happened to the cutout to reveal more.

28:07 Nothing like that happens with the actual environments or circus theme of it all. Uh, the people, um, throwing the plates and the flying saucers, they don't move. Like, it'd be kind of cool if they moved around the stage too and started like juggling the plates and, and you interrupted them by shooting them.

28:26 And that caused like them to do something silly. Like if the stages actually evolved a little with it, I think that this could have, uh, been like, oh yeah, this is what we're able to do five years later in 1990 when we've had some time to think about it. But ultimately they didn't really think about anything and they kind of just said like, well, we can release, uh, more arcadey, you know, simple shootery stuff for people who are kind of looking for that because we have a action, uh, console set that we need to kind of justify.

28:55 Uh, there doesn't need to be anything crazy. I don't need a story mode or create a character thing. I'm not, I'm, uh, I'm saying like just taking the idea of what it means to be a shooting gallery and just continuing to iterate that on that again and again, every single time that the dog says next round, you're hoping that it's something more than just shooting, you know, a bunch of new balloons that just behave or sway a little bit differently. It's like, uh, can you, can you actually offer me something that continues to keep me on my toes? And the game didn't do that. So it's a no for me. What about you, Sean? Um, yeah, I don't, I don't know if I was expecting anything like that. I, I, I think that this is fine for what it is.

29:37 Mike, like, like most of these Zapper games, uh, I, I can't imagine it going to, cause you know, Duck Hunt didn't change too much between levels. Like it was just, it'd be a different color sky. And that was fine. And in this it's, it's all fine, but I don't think that it's essential in any way. Um, I think that the half measure of letting us finally shoot Duck Hunt Dog is kind of taken back by the fact that we can't shoot Barker Bill.

30:05 I mean, sure. Maybe give me another, like, like, no, that's, that's naughty, but, and I don't need, I don't need blood or anything. I just need him to get angry. I just want to be acknowledged that I shot Barker Bill. So come on, not essential. You shot Barker Bill, but you did not shoot the deputy. Well, I mean, that's like a completely different circumstance. Why would I want to shoot the deputy?

30:25 Right. Anyway, uh, also just real fast before I go to Joe, uh, the point was that Duck Hunt was five years ago. So I wasn't expecting it to do it then, but I was kind of hoping that they would do something now. Uh, Joe, your vote? Yeah, it's hard for me to really put my finger on what, what exactly it is about Duck Hunt that makes it feel like such a more polished experience than this. I mean, this even has a third mode, which Duck Hunt doesn't really have. But the modes just feel kind of lackluster. And, and Duck Hunt, they're simple, but I, I feel like I can play, I can play the Duck Hunt level forever because I am really trying to up my score. And I do feel the difficulty spike as it goes, like, a lot more in Duck Hunt.

31:08 Um, and same thing with the clay pigeons. Uh, Barker Bill, it was fun. But, uh, you know, outside of the, the, uh, glass pane mode, which did bore me a lot. The other, the other modes were fine, but I did kind of get tired of them after a while too. And one of you mentioned that, uh, that the, when, when, when the dog says next round, you're hoping for something new. I was also sometimes just hoping that, like, it would be over so I could see my score and try something else.

31:34 Like, the only way for it to be over is by doing poorly, which then lowers your score. So that was weird too. But anyway, overall, I will say not essential. But I do think that there were, there is and has been potential for, like, the Zapper to evolve in ways that aren't just gimmicky.

31:49 And when I bust out the, uh, the Zapper for this game, I did also, uh, revisit To the Earth. And, man, I love that game and I'm so upset with myself that I didn't vote essential originally. I, I will definitely be, uh, making a, uh, a plea for, for that in the, the best of this year. But, um, but that game, not just, not, it's not a gimmick that makes a difference. You're still just shooting things. But that is, like, where, where Duck Hunt is, like, this arcade up your score experience. Uh, To the Earth feels like a, a proper, like, full video game where you're trying to beat the game. And it's hard because it's fast and, like, proves to me that the, that the, um, Zapper can be, like, this high, high, high octane, fast experience.

32:35 And playing that back-to-back with Barker Bills really, really highlights how, like, Barker Bill kind of feels, I mean, forgive me, but feels a little bit like it's phoning it in. Where it's just like, yeah, we could do the Zapper thing, let's just throw some more things in there for them to shoot at. And when I'm playing this other game where I'm like, this is a very well-designed, like, high game design, very difficult game.

32:56 Um, so overall, that, that also maybe tarnished my opinion of Barker Bill a little more. Um, so not essential. For what it's worth, I do think that whether it's short and simple or short and incredibly difficult, these kinds of peripheral-based or gimmicky, uh, video games do have a place to also be, um, incredibly entertaining, though.

33:18 Like, I think about, uh, from an arcade experience, anytime I see House of the Dead or Time Crisis, uh, you know, like, even though I know I'm not gonna last long in those games, they're supposed to eat up your quarters. I feel compelled to just, like, you know, grab the gun and do some shooting. And, like, you know, I, I don't really evolve from the time I played it when I was 12 to the time I'm playing it now at Dave & Buster's.

33:42 But, like, it's still fun to, to just have that short burst of excitement. And so I don't think that, like, again, that's why I was saying, like, we don't need a story mode, but we need something engaging on screen. And I think, somehow, those little ducks flying around the screen and the dog laughing at you if you miss was, like, enough of a hook. Whereas, like, Wild Gunman, yeah, it's a duel, right? It's a completely different kind of thing. It's a duel. It's all about reaction time. Because the reaction time is just set to be, like, okay, this guy's five seconds, this guy's four seconds, whatever, right?

34:17 It's, like, because they're just predetermined things, it gets kind of stale. No, it's not exciting enough, whereas, like, Duck Hunt always kept you on your toes. And I think that's kind of what you're saying about To The Earth, too, is, like, it's fast enough, it's difficult, but you can learn it. I feel like there is room for these games to not have to necessarily become traditional video games to wind up on the Essential Games list. They can stand out as peripheral. And that's the episode.

34:44 Next week, what are we doing next week, guys? What would you like to do? Hmm, let's do something crazy. Um, like, review the next game on the NES chronologically? That would be, if we were trying to do something crazy, nobody would expect that we would do. Can we go on a vacation? Didn't you guys already do that in an episode when I wasn't on? Oh, we, like, we pretended. We played a game about it, but I wanted to actually go. Oh, you want to really go. Yeah. Uh, tell you what, Sean, let's go to a, um, let's go to a monster truck rally, you and me. Okay, let's do that. All right, great.

35:17 And then we can talk about it. Yeah, have fun. Enjoy it, guys. We can talk about it next week when we play Bigfoot. Yeah, see you later, Joe. Yeah, I don't know what that was all about, but yeah, you guys, uh, finish up the episode. I'm gonna have it. Well, why don't you just get on your monster truck and drive on down to New York City and you can meet us there? Oh, that's right. I'll be the monster truck you're watching. I'll be, I'm the monster truck driver. That's why I won't be able to make it. It's, it's, it is Halloween season. You could be a monster truck. Monster truck. Look.