GL Predicts: Lightgun Games to Flood the Wii?

Ok, it’s obvious that the next big cash in wave for the Wii is going to be re-releases of every arcade lightgun shooter ever made. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing with Sega’s upcoming port of Ghost Squad — one of the most re-playable arcade games in recent years — most lightgun games offer even less substance than the current glut of minigame titles for the Wii.

Imagine paying forty bucks for the Midway Shooter bundle featuring Terminator 2 (yay!), Revolution X (heh, well…), CarnEvil (oh, umm), and Invasion (eh?). On the other hand, the ultimate Time Crisis pack would finally be worth the price Namco used to charge for that GunCon. Duck Hunt will obviously be a top Virtual Console seller once it’s finally released, presumably alongside Nintendo’s WiiZapper shell.

That brings us to this fine pictured peripheral from MIYAVIX. It functions just the same as Nintendo’s lightgun shell that was shown at E3; the only difference is this one might actually be available to buy sometime soon. Just slip in your Wii Remote, lock the Nunchuk in place and close the lid that keeps the cords neatly out of sight and you’re ready to shoot stuff!

Latching the Remote and the Nunchuk together probably isn’t a great idea for existing Wii shooters like Red Steel and Call of Duty, but imagine how the controls could be laid out in future titles. Utilizing the motion detection in the Nunchuk you could swing the butt end around for a melee attack. Having access to both the Z button on the Nunchuk and the B button on the Remote would enable machine gun/grenade launcher functionality. As long as the game knows you can’t wiggle the Remote and Nunchuk separately you can easily use the thumbstick to move and the Remote to aim around. Firing off screen to reload is preferred but the motion sensing is there to enable the awkward gun-sturbation found in Sega’s most recent House of the Dead should the developer so choose.

One thing is for sure; no matter who gets a lightgun shell out first they’ll be a hundred times more functional than those stupid clamp-on Wii Sports club heads.