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October 18th, 2016 
Carl Williams 
The Nintendo Entertainment System was known for a lot of things – one of which was the light gun zapper. The game that really showed the interaction of the zapper was Duck Hunt which featured a couple of different game modes. The game mode most gamers probably remember is the one the game is named after, hunting ducks. Who reading this has NOT tried to shoot that smarty pants dog after missing both ducks in a round?
More than just hunting ducks
Sure, there was a clay pigeon shooting mode but most gamers did not bother with that mode for one reason or another. For me, I didn’t bother that much with clay pigeons because it was just not as fun as hunting ducks in the other mode. There is a certain charm to the main mode of Duck Hunt. From the infuriating dog snickering at you for missing to the ducks flying and falling after being shot. This mode exudes that hard to explain Nintendo charm.
Precursor to a genre
Duck Hunt was the party game before party games were really a thing. Sure, Nintendo would almost create the party game (no I am not counting board game conversions) genre later with releases like Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo 64. Considering Duck Hunt predated later efforts by at least two console releases makes it one of the earliest party games worth playing – and betting on and laughing with friends and family when you want to just shoot that dog.
One hit wonder
Nintendo never bothered to follow up Duck Hunt with anything later on – even though it surely would have been a fun game. That is sad considering the Super Nintendo had a bazooka style “zapper” and then the Nintendo Wii was basically the zapper for all games. It just seems like Nintendo missed a chance to sell some accessories over the years.
Duck Hunt is a rather common title so don’t spend too much on a zapper gun and a copy on eBay.
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