NES Zapper
Page contents last updated on December 3, 2023
The Nintendo Zapper is a staple of the NES. Most consoles were bundled with the Zapper and a copy of Mario/Duckhunt. If you were to ask someone about playing their NES in its prime, most will tell you a tale of saving the princess and shooting the hell out of some ducks with their Nintendo gun.
Assuming that you are shooting at a CRT TV, the NES Zapper is still a very enjoyable piece of hardware to kill time. Duck Hunt is nice and all, but there are quite a few games that also use the Zapper. The non-duck-hunt games in my collection that utilize the Zapper include Hogan's Alley, Wild Gunman, and Gumshoe. Hogan's Alley and Wild Gunman are target-practice type of games with some cool extra modes. In Gumshoe you are trying to navigate some guy through an obstacle course by shooting him with the gun.
The gray variant of the Zapper is the original model that launched alongside the NES. It's futuristic-space-gun design and bright red trigger clearly indicate that the Zapper is a toy, but Nintendo decided that they would hammer that fact in by revising the Zapper and giving the gun a vibrant orange exterior.