Dog hunt.
The first really popular home light-gun video game, complete with clicky clicky orange gun that drove parents mad. Simple rules: shoot the ducks that fly up from the bottom of the screen before they escape off the top. Pretty easy, with a quite possibly infinite number of levels getting progressively harder. And if you ever get bored of shooting ducks, well there’s always that dog. Or just switch to the clay pigeon shooting mode, which is a little trickier I suppose. Despite being so simple, it’s a pretty fun game, great for if you’re a retro lover, fun lover or want to host a duck hunt championship in your living room. Inexplicably fun.
Graphics: 6/10
Well, one screen with a couple of trees, an insanely annoying dog and a few flapping ducks isn’t exactly going to tax even the relatively primitive graphics processor of the NES. But it gets the job done, the images are sharp and clear and there’s no excuse for not seeing what’s going on. No problem with me, although maybe a couple of different backdrops would have added a touch of much-needed variety.
Sound: 4/10
No music, and just a couple of mediocre sound effects, including a laughing dog that everybody has tried to shoot at one time or another. I personally don’t have a problem with the lack of sound since I always have music playing as I play games.
Value: 7/10
Although it’s great to whip out for some quick and easy fun, once the retro novelty wears off (which takes a while, to be fair) it becomes tiresome. C’mon, how soon was it before you either tried to shoot the dog or just put the gun right up to the screen? Still the best after a few tipples or when the gang’s all round. Anyway, if you’ve got a NES, you’ve probably already got this one. If not, you need it, if only for nostalgia’s sake.
Tilt: 8/10
Excellent.
Pros:
Duck Hunt is just plain and simple fun, perfectly mindless and great for pick-up-and-play or drunken competitions.
Cons:
It’s extremely simplistic even for an early NES game and gets rather repetitive. And then there’s that dog.
Conclusion:
Mindless in every way that matters, but it works.