8 Best Wii Light Gun Games

Target: Terror was the first arcade game developed by Raw Thrills, and Eugene Jarvis designed it. The game was inspired by the paranoia in the United States after the September 11 attacks. You fight terrorists from the Golden Gate Bridge to Denver International Airport, and the final mission is to stop a hijacked airliner before it crashes into the White House. The characters were animated with motion capture, so you are shooting at real people in costumes.

Konami ported it to the Wii in 2008, and it supports the Wii Zapper. Critics hated that version: it scored 33 out of 100 on Metacritic, and Jeff Gerstmann of Giant Bomb went after the difficulty. Players are much kinder to Target: Terror. They call it cheesy B-movie fun and still recommend it. There is even a nonviolent paintball option for family audiences, in a game about a hijacking.

Link's Crossbow Training came bundled with the Wii Zapper and was the first game to use it. You play as Link in a world styled after Twilight Princess and work through quick shooting galleries, from stationary targets to defending a supply wagon from onrushing hordes of enemies. Shigeru Miyamoto, Eiji Aonuma and Takashi Tezuka produced it. Miyamoto had wanted a first-person Zelda since Ocarina of Time, and he told the team to skip boss battles and make the whole game entertaining instead.

Nintendo Power and IGN both said it was too short, and they had a point. It is a pack-in game at heart. Players still call it good shooting fun, and one of the more underrated things on the system. In the multiplayer mode, friends share one Wii Zapper and take turns chasing the highest score.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is an on-rails shooting game and the second Resident Evil made only for the Wii. Its main scenario, Operation Javier, sends Leon Kennedy on his first mission as a government agent, four years after the events of Resident Evil 2, with Jack Krauser at his side. In Europe it was released on November 27, 2009, bundled with the Wii Zapper.

Two players share the same first-person view, and each one moves their own aiming reticle. Healing is tight. You get one First Aid spray per chapter, and it goes off by itself when a health meter hits zero. Critics liked the graphics and music but found the camera mildly distracting, and GameSpot gave it a 6.0. Players who have played it rate it well above that and say it is a lot of fun.

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles retells the events of Resident Evil Zero, the Resident Evil remake and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, then adds new material about the fall of the Umbrella Corporation. The final scenario is set in Russia in 2003 and introduces Sergei Vladimir with one of his Tyrant bodyguards, codenamed Ivan. When enemies get close, the Wii Remote can swing a melee weapon while the camera cuts to a third-person view.

Members of Capcom's Clover Studio, who made Viewtiful Joe and Okami, were called in to help. Masachika Kawata said complex controls can be an obstacle for Wii users, so he lowered the difficulty on purpose. Stars earned at the end of each stage pay for weapon upgrades. Players tend to buy this one and Darkside together, and they call the pair good Resident Evil rail shooters.

Sega released Ghost Squad in arcades in 2004. The Wii port, developed by Polygon Magic, reached Japan on October 25, 2007, and the US on November 20. You and up to three squad mates rescue hostages and defuse bombs across three missions, each with multiple levels and alternate routes. There are 25 weapons and a pile of costumes to unlock.

The port even keeps the arcade's IC Card progression, recreated as player profiles saved on the Wii, minus the card's 100-game limit. That matters, because Ghost Squad is built to be replayed. The missions are short and you climb through the levels by playing them again. Four people can play at once, which makes Ghost Squad the best pick here for a crowded couch. Players who own it call it a blast.

Sin & Punishment: Star Successor is the sequel to the Nintendo 64 game Sin and Punishment. It is an arcade-style rail shooter, but you can move around each area while the level pulls you along its path. You play as Isa Jo, the son of Saki and Airan from the first game, or as Kachi, a mysterious young woman. Both fight on the ground and in the sky, with melee attacks for close quarters and a rolling dodge you can perform in any direction.

Enemies come in swarms and the bosses are over the top. Chaining kills builds a point multiplier, and the scores went on an online international leaderboard. Two players can play together. Outside Japan you can switch between Japanese and English voices. Players call it a must play and their favourite Wii game, and one went as far as "the best action game on the Wii by a country mile".

Dead Space: Extraction is a science fiction rail shooter played from a first-person view, and it is a prequel to the original Dead Space. It follows survivors from the Aegis VII mining colony as the planet and the newly arrived USG Ishimura are overrun by Necromorphs. Same as in the main games, they can only be killed by severing their limbs. Up to ten weapons can be found, each with two firing modes.

Eurocom built it on its own engine, and Jason Graves returned as composer. Graves heard it was one of the earliest Wii games to use multi-track interactive music. It sold poorly, but critics praised the gameplay and the way it used the Dead Space setting. A PS3 port came out in 2011. Players rank it near the very top, and many call it the best rail shooter they have played.

The House of the Dead: Overkill is a rail shooter and the first game in the series released only on a home console. It is a prequel set in 1991, outside the main story. Agent G gets his first assignment in a small town in Louisiana, where he and Isaac hunt crime boss Papa Caesar. You aim by pointing the Wii Remote, and pushing the reticle to the edge of the screen swings the camera a little. The game calls that Danger Cam.

Two players can play the story together, and dual-wielding unlocks later. Cash from your score buys guns and upgrades at the Gun Shop between levels. Finish it and Director's Cut opens up, with tougher enemies and limited continues. Players love how crude and funny it is, and they recommend it more than any other Wii light gun game. After it, the series went quiet for nearly a decade.