The second round of the console shooter world cup is upon us - if you missed on the first round you can take a look here. The going’s getting trickier as we start to move into some of the top shooters that we’ve had for the DS, N64 and Wii. Who will prevail? Will the Wii’s offering even make it through to the next round? Read on to find out…

Duck Hunt (NES) vs Point Blank (DS)

If ever there was a conflict between nostalgia and common sense, this would be it. Point Blank is about ten gazillion billion times more sophisticated than Duck Hunt; it’s got frantic arcade action, colourful characters, and bright fuzzy graphics to keep you engaged for a good few hours. And yet.. and yet… there’s something more compelling about Duck Hunt that keeps calling me back. Maybe it’s the basic primal urgency of using a light gun to blow targets out of the sky. Or maybe it’s the cheeky cartoon doggie that pops his head up and sniggers behind his paws whenever I miss. Either way, I’m going to throw common sense out of the window and nominate Duck Hunt for the next round.
Winner: Duck Hunt

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter (N64) vs GoldenEye 007 (N64)

Ooooooh, another tough choice here. Both of these games are important, not just in terms of the FPS genre but also because of their significance to N64 owners. Turok was a comic-book license that transcended its pulp origins to become a valuable property in its own right. Edge magazine rightly said at the time that it had put paid to the notion that only Nintendo could create superior titles for the console. But despite all that, GoldenEye 007 is still the one I hold closer to my heart. In my student days I used to hook up a N64 and GoldenEye with four controllers to a giant TV, and after a few doobies there was no greater pleasure than scurrying around its labyrinthine stages for a marathon session of fragging.
Winner: GoldenEye 007

Operation Wolf (NES) vs Perfect Dark (N64)

Urm, this is no contest really. It’s got to be Operation Wolf. Just kidding! Rare seem to be going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment, producing a string of flops after the studio was bought out by Microsoft for a whopping $377 million, but playing the original PerfectDark would convince anyone with two brain cells to open their wallets and throw money at them. Let’s forget the shoddy prequel on the 360, and instead focus on this action-packed - and often satirical - shooter as one of the very best of the genre. That said, I really am jonesing for an update of Operation Wolf for a next gen console. It was fun and addictive in a way that many modern games fail to be. But common sense prevails…
Winner: Perfect Dark

Metroid Prime (GC) vs Red Steel (Wii)

Red Steel has quite a few detractors, but to my mind it was a noble failure. Ubisoft was one of the earliest companies to embrace the Wii platform, and they brought some talented people together to create an FPS that looked just like a glossy gangster thriller. If it hadn’t been a launch game with the twin dangers of looming deadlines and unfamiliar technology, it might’ve been a classic. As it stands, it’s merely perfunctory, and I’m hoping the sequel will address those problems. Metroid Prime, by comparison, is a text book case of a game created by people who’d been given the space and time to produce the best work they could. It didn’t matter that GC owners were starved of decent software, Nintendo wouldn’t let them get their mitts on it until they were good and ready, but it was worth the wait. Samus Aran is one of the most iconic characters in the Ninty canon, and this is a “first person adventure” that’s most befitting of her reputation.
Winner: Metroid Prime

Check the other rounds here:
Sony
Microsoft

Bookmark It

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 4th, 2007 at 1:40 pm by Bulent Yusuf
Uncategorized.