Review: NERF N-Strike – Shoot foam at your TV

By Mike Bantick
Tuesday, 17 February 2009 04:34

Entertainment

The premise is a little wonky, but for the young and young at heart it is hard to go past a light game for the home console.  If you like blood NERF N-Strike won’t hit an artery, but it does come with its own gun.

If you are anything like me the NERF N-Strike experience goes something like this:

NERF N-Strike
	Developer	EA
	Publisher	EA
	Rating	G
Wii

Open the pack, take out the NERF Switch Shot EX-3 and load it with the three included micro darts, shoot the fridge, shoot the cat and then shoot your wife.

Run

Then look at the game that also came in the pack.  Whilst the game is loading, you can remove the EX-3’s firing mechanism and replace it with the Wii Remote and get ready for some light game lite action.

The EX-3’s transformation into light gun works well, with the Wii-mote sitting snug and secure and no requirement for the Nunchuck attachment ah-la the Wii Zapper.

It’s translation to the screen takes a little getting used to however.  The onscreen representation of the gun, is in the usual FPS placement, just slightly right of centre.  But the way it rotates around this point in reaction to the onscreen cross hair is a little unnerving to begin with. 

I understand the need to represent the NERF equipment on screen, there are after all, some 26 in game NERF weaponry that can be utilised (once all are unlocked), and supposedly real-world NERF guns  could feature codes that unlock the digitised and unseen model in the game.  But, in a way, the gun graphic is a little disconcerting.

This is predominately a shooting gallery game, House of the Dead for kids.  With nary a blood-spot in sight the only destruction to be seen, will be the mildly effective explosions of relatively nefarious looking flying robots.

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