Did Nintendo abandon light gun games?

[evilmess]

Were there any light gun games for the N64 or Gamecube?

It seems odd that Nintendo would totally abandon this kind of gaming after introducing it to gamers with the NES and continuing to support it through the SNES years with their own light gun hardware.

I can understand if guns don't fit into Nintendo's squeeky clean family-fun image but what about third party developers? Do the N64 or GC even support light gun games or did Ninty delete the hardware support needed for those kinds of games?

[boatofcar]

Considering the somewhat dismal sales of the Super Scope, it's no surprise that Nintendo decided to discontinue light guns. If you look at the light gun games for other systems, most of them were Lethal Enforcer-type games, games of the genre Nintendo were trying to distance themselves from at the time.

[MegaDrive20XX]

Seems the gun shooter has died out with the Arcade as well...

[calthaer]

Arcades in general have died out. I still see light gun games in most of the arcades I go to, though - one of those games that you still can't get at home, at least any more.

The problem is that, while you can aim in a cool way with the light gun, you can't really walk or do anything else. Now if they made a game that used both the light gun and the DDR pads...

[NoahsMyBro]

Maybe I'm misreading the original post, but if not, something should be clarified.

Nintendo did not introduce gamers to the light gun.

In the early 70's many Pong clones, including the Unisonic Tournament 2000 that I had, included skeet shooting games that used light guns. I vividly remember that mine had one, because my strictly anti-gun Mom took the gun away before the system was even hooked up, and I never saw it again.

The additional game mode simply went unplayed, taunting me whenever I selected which game mode to play.

[FantasiaWHT]

Why not ask the same thing of Xbox? There's more different GUNS you can buy for Xbox than there are actual games that use it...

PS2 is the only system that continues to support it, and honestly I don't see it lasting to the next generation unless they start coming out with something else besides Time Crisis-style games. They're just all the same...

Now if they released a point blank 4 on the PS2 I would buy it in an instant :)

The DDR + light gun idea would be really cool too. Or eye toy :)

[NintendoMan]

I think it's a little bit of both. Abandonedment because of poor sales, and the whole thing that it "is" a "gun".

[thegreatescape]

Nintendo abandoned the light gun probably because they have no arcade division to port games from. Sega can always fall back on the popular House of the Dead and Virtua Cop games, and Namco have the Time Crisis and Point Blank games (among others).
Hopefully with great games like Virtua Cop 3 in the arcades the Light gun will be with us for a long time though :-P

< loves light guns.

[Captain Wrong]

Maybe I'm misreading the original post, but if not, something should be clarified.

Nintendo did not introduce gamers to the light gun.

In the early 70's many Pong clones, including the Unisonic Tournament 2000 that I had, included skeet shooting games that used light guns. I vividly remember that mine had one, because my strictly anti-gun Mom took the gun away before the system was even hooked up, and I never saw it again.

The additional game mode simply went unplayed, taunting me whenever I selected which game mode to play.

I was going to say nearly the same thing.

Nintendo didn't introduce gamers to the light gun. Shit, we had one in the mid-70s with our original Odyssey and IIRC a shooting game was one of Ralph Bare's early pre-"brown box" prototypes. We also had a light gun on our Coleco Telstar Arcade. (Saddly I don't have either of those consoles anymore. :() As has been noted, light gun games were pretty common in "pong"era.

As to why Nintendo doesn't make them anymore, well they just aren't as popular these days period. I also think if you're a third party who is going to make a game that requires a perhiferal like a light gun, you're going to want to stick with a console with a larger audience like Time Crisis on the PS2. I also think, and people aren't going to like this, but with Nintendo's desire to be the Disney of gaming, there isn't room for blasting bad guys with a Menacer anymore.

[Cleatis]

There was a StarFire Light Blaster planned for GC a couple years ago. I wonder what the story behind that is...

[Oobgarm]

Nintendo didn't abandon light gun games, the industry in general did. The proliferation of violence in the media drove most of it away, I think. That's why we went from pistol-style NES Zapper to the crazy bazooka-like Super Scope and equally odd Menacer. Less like real guns, the better. Eventually, people thought them to be so strange looking that the demand vanished.

Namco seems like the only ballsy company to keep putting them out, although one can only take so many Time Crisis games. Gimme another Point Blank any day. :D

[evilmess]

Nintendo did not introduce gamers to the light gun.

Let me clearify on that a little. I know light guns existed before the NES but it seems the the original NES really used it as a selling feature. That's why we see a bajillion Duck Hunts and Zappers in the wild. I think the NES/Zapper bundle introduced a lot of gamers to the genre more than any other console that came before or after the NES.

I know the genre lacks innovation and the number of games available for the consoles that came in the 32 bit era and beyond is relatively small but all the other consoles that came after the 16 bit generation have light guns and light gun games except Nintendo.

I would say that the FPS genre has had an impact on the genre too but the real question is why didn't any third parties develop software or hardware for the N64 and GC?

Did Nintendo scrap all light gun support for the N64 and GC consoles by not including the hardware to allow third parties to develop guns and games?

[Captain Wrong]

Nintendo did not introduce gamers to the light gun.

Let me clarify on that a little. I know light guns existed before the NES but it seems the the original NES really used it as a selling feature. That's why we see a bazillion Duck Hunts and Zappers in the wild. I think the NES/Zapper bundle introduced a lot of gamers to the genre more than any other console that came before or after the NES.

In so far as the NES/Zapper bundle sold a crap load, I'd agree. But a ton of standalones in the 70s also used the light gun as a selling feature. After all, they had to have some way to differentiate this Pong clone from that one.

As to your last question, I'm not sure what you're asking exactly. There doesn't need to be any special "thing" in the console for light gun support. After all, the 2600 has a light gun game or two and I don't think light gun support was ever an issue back in 1977 when it first rolled out.

It's much more a matter of it hasn't been worth any third party's time to create a gun and game to go with it. That's the key. If you owned a software company, you could make a light gun game for the GC (providing you also had the ability to manufacture a gun or talk Mad Catz or someone like that into making a gun for you) but chances are you wouldn't because you'd probably lose money on it.

[Ed Oscuro]

Now if they made a game that used both the light gun and the DDR pads...
Wow, that's so simple I'm ashamed for not putting that one together (and so should Capcom, for putting out that horrible Dino Crisis Gun Survivor game O_O )

[tholly]

Maybe I'm misreading the original post, but if not, something should be clarified.

Nintendo did not introduce gamers to the light gun.

In the early 70's many Pong clones, including the Unisonic Tournament 2000 that I had, included skeet shooting games that used light guns. I vividly remember that mine had one, because my strictly anti-gun Mom took the gun away before the system was even hooked up, and I never saw it again.

The additional game mode simply went unplayed, taunting me whenever I selected which game mode to play.


i have a unisonic tournament 2000 system.....and yes, it does have a light gun....and it is terrible....you can pretty much get a hit aiming it in the general direction of something white, not just the tv screen...its more of a novelty than anything, but, it did have it before the NES

[Kamino]

Maybe I'm misreading the original post, but if not, something should be clarified.

Nintendo did not introduce gamers to the light gun.

In the early 70's many Pong clones, including the Unisonic Tournament 2000 that I had, included skeet shooting games that used light guns. I vividly remember that mine had one, because my strictly anti-gun Mom took the gun away before the system was even hooked up, and I never saw it again.

The additional game mode simply went unplayed, taunting me whenever I selected which game mode to play.

I was going to say nearly the same thing.

Nintendo didn't introduce gamers to the light gun. Shit, we had one in the mid-70s with our original Odyssey and IIRC a shooting game was one of Ralph Bare's early pre-"brown box" prototypes. We also had a light gun on our Coleco Telstar Arcade. (Saddly I don't have either of those consoles anymore. :() As has been noted, light gun games were pretty common in "pong"era.
I was thinking the same thing. And Noah; thanks for the story...I thought MY mom was crazy, at least she let me keep the zapper for my NES O_O



As to why Nintendo doesn't make them anymore, well they just aren't as popular these days period. I also think if you're a third party who is going to make a game that requires a perhiferal like a light gun, you're going to want to stick with a console with a larger audience like Time Crisis on the PS2. I also think, and people aren't going to like this, but with Nintendo's desire to be the Disney of gaming, there isn't room for blasting bad guys with a Menacer anymore.
1) Agreed, as much as fanboys try to refute it.....Nintendo is the Disney. Aside from Metroid Prime, the Star Wars Rogue Squadron games, P.N.0.3., and Ikaruga(which is exclusive from an NTSC/U standpoint) I cannot think of any exclusive semi-violent games.......and I've yet to see blood appear on a GameCube game. (granted, I have not played medal of honour, true crime, or 007 on the cube.......I hate the cube controller so I buy on ps2.)
2) I believe Nintendo's gun was the Super Scope...Sega had the Menacer, Captain ;)

[Ed Oscuro]

We also had a light gun on our Coleco Telstar Arcade. (Saddly I don't have either of those consoles anymore. :() As has been noted, light gun games were pretty common in "pong"era.
I was thinking the same thing. And Noah; thanks for the story...I thought MY mom was crazy, at least she let me keep the zapper for my NES O_O


Given that the thing was from the mid-70s it probably looked like a real gun, though (actually, Telstar Arcade...yup...looks like a gun)...I'm pretty sure nobody has tried to hold up a bank with a NES Zapper :P

[Great Hierophant]

cannot think of any exclusive semi-violent games [for the Gamecube]

Hmm... Ever think about Resident Evil 0, the remake of 1 and the soon to be released 4. Those were exclusive. What about Eternal Darkness, plenty of violence in that. Bloodrayne? The new Prince of Persia game, while not exclusive, is rated Mature.

[Ed Oscuro]

REs 0 and 1 are exclusive to the GC, but 4 won't be.

[Nespit]

light guns just don't work on the new 100 hrz digital scan tv's. Correct me if i am wrong but thats basically the main reason for N.

[Ed Oscuro]

One can/could fix that by making a newer lightgun, but that's an interesting comment. I'm going with "Nintendo likes their money" for $40, Alex :D

[dj898]

The DDR + light gun idea would be really cool too. Or eye toy :)

Devil May Cry GunCon2+DDR Edition??? :D

[Ed Oscuro]

Hey, sounds like that DMC-alike Capcom ported to PC a while back, with the marching sidekick girl o_o

[dj898]

light guns just don't work on the new 100 hrz digital scan tv's. Correct me if i am wrong but thats basically the main reason for N.

believe there's new concept of light gun which is basically set up the detector on top of TV and it scans the movement of your gun - ala eyetoy...
I yet to see any review on the thing though...

cheers

[dj898]

now if Namco made Soul Calibur SE using DDR and EyeToy - and put a diet mode so you can get your missus/gf do the round... :D

I always facinated by those stepper controller with title called Happy Diet on PS... O_O

[Kamino]

cannot think of any exclusive semi-violent games [for the Gamecube]

Hmm... Ever think about Resident Evil 0, the remake of 1 and the soon to be released 4. Those were exclusive. What about Eternal Darkness, plenty of violence in that. Bloodrayne? The new Prince of Persia game, while not exclusive, is rated Mature.
i'm wandering off right now, but i'm fairly certain that bloodrayne and eternal darkness appeared on other systems, making that argument fall into the same category as medal of honour frontline...Null and void.
As for RE, i must apologise for not thinking of those. I don't play horror games, so that is my defence, so yes, that counts. Prince of persia does not, as it's not exclusive. You get half a sticker, good try.

[Kamino]

light guns just don't work on the new 100 hrz digital scan tv's. Correct me if i am wrong but thats basically the main reason for N.
I was told that light guns will not work on:

Flat Screen TV'sPlasma TV's
HDTV

Which is why i stuck with a standard tube tv.
I'm not giving up virtua cop, missile defence 3d, or wild gunman!

[Great Hierophant]

Eternal Darkness is as close to a Nintendo first party release as Metroid Prime. It has not appeared on any other system.

[dj898]

light guns just don't work on the new 100 hrz digital scan tv's. Correct me if i am wrong but thats basically the main reason for N.
I was told that light guns will not work on:

Flat Screen TV'sPlasma TV's
HDTV

Which is why i stuck with a standard tube tv.
I'm not giving up virtua cop, missile defence 3d, or wild gunman!

G1 Light gun?

http://www.erealgames.com/

cheers

[Cleatis]

light guns just don't work on the new 100 hrz digital scan tv's. Correct me if i am wrong but thats basically the main reason for N.
I was told that light guns will not work on:

Flat Screen TV'sPlasma TV's
HDTV

Which is why i stuck with a standard tube tv.
I'm not giving up virtua cop, missile defence 3d, or wild gunman!

G1 Light gun?

http://www.erealgames.com/

cheers

Cool. Thanks. Its only $50! The downside is that it doesnt support multiple players. :hmm:
Id like to have a wireless peddle with it too.
Back on topic...Nintendo has gotten away from the light guns so they can focus their funds on their groundbreaking light fairy wand and wireless helmet technology.

[Kamino]

light guns just don't work on the new 100 hrz digital scan tv's. Correct me if i am wrong but thats basically the main reason for N.
I was told that light guns will not work on:

Flat Screen TV'sPlasma TV's
HDTV

Which is why i stuck with a standard tube tv.
I'm not giving up virtua cop, missile defence 3d, or wild gunman!

G1 Light gun?

http://www.erealgames.com/

cheers
if only that co. made nes, sms, genesis, saturn light guns.

[dj898]

light guns just don't work on the new 100 hrz digital scan tv's. Correct me if i am wrong but thats basically the main reason for N.
I was told that light guns will not work on:

Flat Screen TV'sPlasma TV's
HDTV

Which is why i stuck with a standard tube tv.
I'm not giving up virtua cop, missile defence 3d, or wild gunman!

G1 Light gun?

http://www.erealgames.com/

cheers

Cool. Thanks. Its only $50! The downside is that it doesnt support multiple players. :hmm:
Id like to have a wireless peddle with it too.
Back on topic...Nintendo has gotten away from the light guns so they can focus their funds on their groundbreaking light fairy wand and wireless helmet technology.


umm... wireless Rez vibrator ?
for game play of coz... He he :p