Peripherally Speaking: Nyko's Perfect Shot

2:00 PM on 07.14.2009   |   Jonathan Holmes

53 comments

Three things you should know about me before reading this: I hate doing stuff I don't feel like doing (some call it laziness, I call it "strong willed"), I'm a sucker for free stuff, and I hate gaming peripherals. Those are the three aspects of my personality that came to a head in the process of being put to the task of reviewing the Perfect Shot. I promised Nyko I would review this thing weeks ago, and I kept putting it off, until I heard that they wouldn't be sending us any more free stuff until we reviewed all the free stuff they've already sent us.

So here it is, the official Destructoid review of Nyko's Perfect Shot, with cute sales girl included -- though unlike the Nyko girls at E3 09, she's totally wigless. Other than that small oversight, this post is the greatest thing in the history of the Internet. Hit the jump to see what I'm talking about.

Perfect Shot
Company: Nyko
MSRP: $14.99

Ugh.

OK, so here's what I can tell you about the Nyko Perfect Shot. It is a white toy gun with a rectangular cavity that you can insert a Wii remote into. You can also connect a Nunchuk to the Wii Remote through the gun's handle. The downside to all this is that the only button you have access to on the Wiimote while it's in the toy gun is the B button, which is pressed by pulling the trigger. All this comes together to make playing shooting games on the Wii feel a little less like aiming a remote control and "turn-off-to-death" a bunch of zombies/aliens/terrorists/whatever-targets-are-in-the-game-in-question, and a little more like aiming a real gun at your TV and killing the zombies/aliens/terrorists/whatever-targets-are-in-the-game-in-question. 

REVIEW END.

What, you want more?

Huh.

Alright then, I'll tell you about the rest of my experience with the Perfect Shot thus far, but don't say later that you didn't ask for it.

To really make this review thorough, I invited some friends and family over to try out the Perfect Shot. They ranged in age from 6 to 69. We played about ten games, some of which were intended for play with the Perfect Shot (House of the Dead: Overkill, Ghost Squad, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, House of the Dead 2 & 3, Link's Crossbow Training) and some that weren't (The Munchables, MadWorld, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, The Conduit, Animal Crossing: City Folk). The kids and old ladies present at this most strange house party universally preferred playing games with the Perfect Shot. It didn't matter if it was Ghost Squad or Animal Crossing; the consensus among the very young and the pretty old was that "every game is more fun when playing with a gun."

That said, the old ladies generally  had the most fun when not playing any videogames at all, regardless of the shape of their controller, and the kids could usually only last about thirty seconds before unplugging the Nunchuk, abandoning the game, and using the Perfect Shot as toy pistol. It's in this regard that the Perfect Shot really stands out, as these days, toy guns that look like actual guns are pretty scarce. As you can see for yourself, the Perfect Shot looks way more like a real gun than the Wii Zapper, that NERF thing, or your average G.I. Joe or Transformers licensed piece of crap plastic. The Perfect Shot also has a really nice sense of weight to it. When using it for gaming, or just pretend-shooting people, it really feels like the thing could do some damage.

The Perfect Shot takes a little bit of a stumble when playing games that involve use of the Wii Remote's face buttons. Most, if not all, of the games that the Perfect Shot was meant to be used with don't require any use of the Wiimote's face buttons, so it's not totally fair to fault it in this area. The reason I bring it up is that the Wii Zapper, the Perfect Shot's primary competition, actually does give you fair access to the Wii Remote's face buttons, which can be a nice thing. Since the Wii Zapper cradles the Nunchuk for you, you can let go of the Nunchuk if you need to to use your Nunchuk hand to press the Wii Remote's face buttons without dropping the analog stick. The Wii Zapper also places the trigger close enough to the A button that you can hit it with your trigger-hand-thumb if you need to. With the Perfect Shot, the trigger and the A button are miles apart, making a trigger-hand-thumb reach-around an impossibility. As for using your other hand for face button work, taking hands off the Nunchuk means dropping it completely. That can really ruin your fun time if you need to quickly pause your game while avoiding a smack upside the head from a little kid armed using an oversized Totoro foot warmer as a giant, furry boxing glove.

The Perfect Shot also makes playing games like Trauma Center: New Blood nearly impossible. That's a shame, because as a lot of you know, the Wii Zapper really does make it easier to keep a steady hand during stressful videogame surgeries. When it comes to unconventional uses like that, the Perfect Shot isn't in the same league as the Wii Zapper. This is a plastic gun for plastic gun games only (and maybe The Munchables.) 

To sum up, the Perfect Shot is a great toy gun, a good all-game peripheral for people who don't like videogames, and a fine fake gun controller for the games it's actually designed to be used with. It can't be played with quite as many games as the Wii Zapper can, but what you lose in versatility you make up for in doesn't-look-like-a-long-and-curvy-white-turd-ability. 

Thanks, Nyko!