Worst Video Game Gun Controllers
Light Guns games have been around far longer than television sets, with one of the first known games dating as far back as 1936 with the “Seeburg Ray-O-Lite”. Though one could argue that it’s breakout sucsess in households wasn’t until the NES Zapper in the mid 80’s. But as th gaming industry evolved, Light Guns struggled to evolve with it, as there’s only so much you can do with a gun controller.
Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at some of the Worst Light Guns, however we’re going to be doing things a little bit differently. Today we’ll be taking a look at gun controllers where Light Guns that tried way too hard to reinvent the wheel, as well as key examples of light guys that contributed to an oversaturating of the market.
Sure there were irrelevant exmples such as the “Atari XG-1”, but arguably the first sign that Light Gun’s were on their way out the door was in the mid 90’s with The Super Scope. It served as the successor to the NES Zapper, only they took the cute design of the Zapper and (in keeping with the ‘90s theory of overkill) amplified it tenfold to create an enormous bazooka which did nothing but eat up living room space. It was also wireless, which meant that it required six AA batteries to run – batteries it would eat up in a matter of hours. Its size also intimidated young players, who found it difficult to use, and there were few exclusive games released for the Super Scope, making the massive beast nothing but a battery-hungry, space-wasting, heavy piece of plastic.
However, Gaming during the 90’s was also the midst of a major console war between Nintendo and Sega, so guess what Sega created as a competitor to Nintendo’s Super Scope?
The Menacer was released in 1992 for both the Sega Genesis and Sega CD consoles, but it was such a massive commercial and critical flop that no one seems to remember its existence. To begin with, the Menacer is a bit of an eyesore – it looks like it was cobbled together from different accessories and protrudes in numerous directions, altogether making it look like the Frankenstein’s monster of light guns. It also had little support in the software department and was expensive, while the constant and lengthy recalibrations grated on your patience.
So with both major console makers releasing flops of light guns, the genre largely remained within arcades. Though that didn’t stop many companies from trying. Konami’s Justifier guns, designed for both SNES and Genesis had some minor sucsess. But home lightguns ultimately had its resurgance with the first Playstation, where it was Namco’s sucsessful range of “GunCon” controllers designed to be played with titles like “Time Crisis” and “Point Blank.”
But of course with any sucsess comes a wave of immitators that flooded the market, such notable exaples at this time were the “Super Jolt Gun” from Joy Tech, which suffered from a poor build quality and an innacurate sensor. These same problems were also noticable with Nuby’s “The Heater”. You also had the “Erazer MP5” which was based off the real world gun of the same model number. Aside from it’s look, there wasn’t anything spectacular about it.
By the time the 6th console generation came around, video games were becoming more complex and First Person Shooters were starting to leave Rail Shooter games in the past. There were some companies that tried to reinvent Light Gun games though, with one such example being InterAct’s “StarFire LightBlaster” for the Sega Dreamcast. Can you take a guess as to why this eyesore failed?
What ultimately killed home Light Guns however was advancements in Television technology. Light Guns were heavily reliant on the Cathode-ray tube in classic TVs in order to work, And the technology could not be replicated to work with Plasma and LCD TV’s. Bundle that with such a low demand for Rail Shotoers games, and not many people invested in new technology to make such games workable. Unless of course, you were Nintendo.
With the release of the Wii, and its focus on using IR motion sensors in their remotes, Rail Shooters suddenly had found a third wind. Even if the technology wasn’t technically “Light Guns” anymore, we ended up getting what was arguably it’s sucsessor: The Wii Zapper.
Sure, it was nothing but a gun-shaped plastic shell in which you placed the Wiimote and the Nunchuk. We can’t say it wasn’t functional, because it did exactly what it advertised – hold your remotes and give you the feeling of brandishing a weapon. That said, it was a bit of a mess in terms of function and appearance. It looks goofy and childish, and the trigger placement was rather awkward. The trigger was also unreliable, and it was hard to access to Wiimote’s buttons, making some games difficult to play. It’s nothing but a piece of obtrusive plastic, thus making the shell redundant since you were better off simply playing games bare remote and nunchuk.
But just like the Menacer, one of Nintendo’s biggest rivals couldn’t help but try to mimic the Big N. Thus we got the PlayStation Move Sharp Shooter. An add-on for the Playstation Move, which was designed to replicate Nintendo’s Wii Remote.
The Sharp Shooter certainly had its upsides, and is arguably the most well-made accessories on this list. Unfortunately, it was nonetheless little more than an expensive plastic shell, the button layout was awkward, and aiming was very touchy. The Sharp Shooter was fun for the hour or two that you played with it, after which it became just another overpriced gun accessory you regretted buying. Couple all this with the failure of the Playstation Move itself, and the Sharp Shooter was a failure.
And thus with the failure of both the Wii Zapper and the Playstation Move, the rail shooter genre is pretty much dead. Their last stand only being in arcades, but they too are slowly dying out. It’s kinda heartbreaking, especially for those who are fond of gaming history, but it’s an undeniable fact of reality that we have to face: Games have become more complex, and the rise in “First Person Shooters” has made the Rail Shooter obsolete in comparrison.
Still, were not going to end this video on a downer note. So lets take this moment to laugh at the most absurd light gun product to ever exist: The Konami LaserScope.
We hope that whoever thought up the Konami LaserScope is no longer working in the video game business, because this thing is one of the worst video game accessories of all time. It was a head-mounted, voice-activated gun, meaning you had to scream “Fire!” at the television to get it to fire. Now that’s a great way to annoy both yourself and anyone in your immediate vicinity. To make matters worse, the microphone wasn’t picky. You could scream anything to activate the LaserScope, and the microphone was known for being so sensitive that it would pick up all manner of random background household noise. Plus, you looked absolutely ridiculous wearing it.
