Back in the day, there was Duck Hunt on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Its goal was simple: take aim with the NES Zapper, zap the ducks and clay pigeons and score big points. Don’t miss or some cackling dog will mock you and your less-than-perfect Zapper skills.

Wii Play’s Shooting Range pays tribute to that classic confrontation of man versus duck and takes the challenge a few steps further. The number of targets you need to zap are greatly increased compared to Duck Hunt, but the goal is the same as it ever was: score, score and score some more. Read on to learn how to maximize your score and discover a couple of different ways to play.

Perfection pays off
Unlike the original Duck Hunt where your number of shots was limited, Shooting Range lets you fire an unlimited number of times. You could play as chaotic as you’d like and mash that B Button to continuously fire at the targets, but if you plan on scoring higher than 600 points, you’ll need quality shots over quantity to build up your combo score. Every time you hit a target, your Hit counter builds by one. After you’ve scored five consecutive hits, your combo bonus becomes activated. When you miss, the Hit counter is emptied, and you earn one point for each consecutive Hit you earned after the combo was activated. So if you scored 20 Hits in a row, you get 16 bonus points. One point per shot may not seem like much, but it really adds up.   

Zap the old-school way
Do you have the Wii Zapper accessory at home? Wii Play’s Shooting Range is set up so all you have to do is insert the Wii Remote into the Wii Zapper and start firing. The game lets you use either the A or B Button to fire at the screen, and since the trigger on the Wii Zapper activates the B Button, you don’t have to adjust any settings or do anything out of the ordinary to use your Zapper in Wii Play. (Technically, you could probably use the Wii Zapper to play Wii Play Billiards as well, if you want to hold onto something that’s more like a stick. But back to the zapping....)

Double-barrelled action
Did you know that you can zap with two Wii Remotes at the same time? At the Player Select screen, make sure that Wii Play recognises two Wii Remotes. When you begin the Shooting Range and the ducks fly out of the grass, press A or B on the second Wii Remote. This will bring up an additional crosshair (the first Wii Remote’s crosshair looks like an X whilst the second looks like a cross). Now, you can use both hands to fire at the screen. Of course, depending on how coordinated you are, you may not be very accurate with that second Wii Remote. In the final stage, however, it’s nice to have that second bit of firepower to zap all the alien spaceships and save your Mii’s from an interplanetary trip.

Hit the important targets
It may go without saying, but there’s nothing more important than zapping the ‘money’ targets. Ducks, which fly across the screen once per round, are huge point-earners, giving you 10 and sometimes 20 points each. In Level 2, there are 6 gold targets worth 10 points each, in addition to a duck. Starting on Level 3, there are 2 ducks that fly across the screen in each round, and most importantly, each Mii you save in Level 5 is worth 10 points each (for a maximum of 60). Hitting the ducks is of vital importance to your score. When you hear a dog bark, that lets you know that the ducks are on their way – coming from the side of the screen. If you miss a duck, it’s not the end of the world, but you can be assured that that dog is laughing on the inside at your failure.

On target
The Shooting Range is a simple, accessible game – like the other games in Wii Play, but it holds plenty of challenge to hit every target. Is perfection really obtainable? It’s unlikely, but no one is asking you to be perfect in order to score a platinum medal.