Washington Post expects Wii Zapper backlash, too gun-like

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 18th 2007 at 4:15PM }

The Wii Zapper/Link's Crossbow Training bundle drops tomorrow -- a relatively surreptitious release considering some of the other holiday giants coming out this week. However, something tells us that the political backlash to Nintendo's kinda-gun-shaped-but-not-really peripheral will be anything but furtive -- and Washington Post writer Monica Hesse agrees.

In her article, she gives a brief history of toy guns, and how the Zapper fits into the grand saga of controversial faux weaponry. Some of her sources are firmly opposed to the idea of bringing a gun attachment to the otherwise kid-friendly system, but we feel that 14-year-old Damian Crisafulli's response to paranoid parents is the most insightful soundbite in the whole story: "It's plastic that clips to a video game controller." Well said, Damian.

[Via GamePolitics]

Tags: Controversy, Violence, WaPo, Wii-Zapper, Zapper

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Adam @ Nov 18th 2007 4:29PM

I don't think parents know how to be parents anymore. I mean, if they did, they woulnd't be flipping out over this plastic peripheral. Parents who don't know how to parent their kids are for more dangerous to their kids than any plastic gun.

Fernando Rocker @ Nov 18th 2007 4:33PM

It's like saying that kids should not use scissors in school 'cause they are two blades ductaped together.

gonk @ Nov 18th 2007 4:34PM

exactly

Shadow @ Nov 18th 2007 4:38PM

i have the good parents who told me that shooting stuff is bad, and they told me real from fake, i played duck hunt constantly when i was 5, and i am perfectly fine

albinogoldfish @ Nov 18th 2007 4:39PM

hah two blades duct taped together, in a Nintendo post...oh the irony

Undead Priest @ Nov 18th 2007 4:40PM

A balance of proper discipline with enough leeway, within reason, to allow kids to do dumb things is healthy. Most kids learn the consequences of their idiocy immediately afterwards.

It's the ones that don't learn or who show signs and symptoms of a mental disorder you have to watch and get help for.

In other words, it's the latter group that potentially shoots up their schools. Movies, music and video games CAN influence their behavior since they lack the mechanism to seperate fiction from reality, as much as terrible parenting. Entertainment mediums aren't a cause, but they're not helping these type of kids either.

Joshua @ Nov 18th 2007 5:37PM

And why should they help them? It's up to the parents, and whatever medical help they can provide.

Fullmetal Salchemist @ Nov 18th 2007 5:45PM

At albinogoldfish:

That's not irony. You might want to look up the definition.

Undead Priest @ Nov 18th 2007 5:55PM

@Joshua

Seeing as how my post was about parents, I'm lost as to how anyone can actually find another meaning.

Grey Acumen @ Nov 18th 2007 6:27PM

Plastic weapons aren't a danger to kids, plastic parents are.

Kye, NDF - Fearless Leader (on leave) @ Nov 19th 2007 4:47AM

I fully agree with adam's comment.

tfive24 @ Nov 18th 2007 4:35PM

this thing doesn't even look like a damn gun. parnets today are a butch of pu$$y.

Martin @ Nov 18th 2007 9:05PM

I'm glad you put the dollar signs in there, to protect my virgin ears from a potentially nasty word.

Poisoned Al @ Nov 18th 2007 4:40PM

So, in the US, thins that LOOK like guns are bad, but real ones are hunky-doory?

God I love America.

Dr. S @ Nov 18th 2007 4:43PM

So do I, if only because it makes living in the UK seem so much better. God Save the Queen!

umm....hello??? @ Nov 18th 2007 4:56PM

indeed Dr. S, the grass is ALWAYS greener on the other side. God saved your queen but not your princess...dunno why you consider him on your side.

USA FTW!!!!!

Neebs @ Nov 18th 2007 5:00PM

Hello, that was completely uncalled for, rude, and terrible. It's my apology to myself you live within ten thousand miles of me.

Poisoned Al @ Nov 18th 2007 5:20PM

Don't worry about it. What the UK says about America makes their insults rather quaint in comparison.

umm....hello??? @ Nov 18th 2007 5:21PM

@Neebs and Dr S-

Sorry. That didn't (and probably would never have) come out correctly...it really wasn't meant to be a slam against the UK or its Queen. Just stupid sarcastic humor that shouldn't have been posted. My apologies.

Pawsaldo @ Nov 18th 2007 6:21PM

oh by the way, I'm guessing you were talking about Diana as the princess, but to let you know she was a princess until she and Charles divorced, and to be honest I hated the stuck up cow and can't see why she is worshiped so much anyway.

But yeah, just wondering was there upheavels other stuff like the G-Con and shiz?

This is just stupid.

Synner @ Nov 18th 2007 9:37PM

All guns are ok, it's how you are taught to respect and use them that makes your actions with them good or bad.

I'm glad I live in a country that allows me to make the distinction, instead of just not trusting me, or the police, like I am a criminal.

Dingting @ Nov 18th 2007 10:50PM

I celebrate Princess Di's deathday every year with streamers and balloons

Crono (NDF - Knight of the Old School) @ Nov 19th 2007 9:05AM

Yeah, because tabloids covering Paris Hilton are SO MUCH better than covering Princess Di.

Shotgun Steve @ Nov 18th 2007 4:49PM

Compared to the other third-party attachments, this one seems pretty tame. But really, how is this worse than, say, giving a kid a BB or airsoft gun? I don't see anyone getting upset over people selling those.

Rubang B (BRUSH WITH FAME) @ Nov 18th 2007 4:51PM

I don't think this backlash will be that big or matter that much, simply because while you needed the NES Zapper to play Duck Hunt, Hogan's Alley, and Barker Bill's Trick Shooting (and even the beautiful unlicensed Chiller), you don't need the Wii Zapper to play Ghost Squad, RE: Umbrella Chronicles, House of the Dead 2/3, or Medal of Honor Heroes 2. In fact, the only game you NEED it for is Link's Crossbow Training, which is the least interesting one.

Man I love how the Wii is getting all these arcade shooters. I'll never need quarters again...

Clack @ Nov 18th 2007 5:54PM

The arcade shooters are serving another purpose as well. They'll teach people how to properly aim with the wiimote for when more serious FPSs besides MP3 and MoH:H2 start hitting the system (its inevitable, the controls are made for them).

Dopple Boppler @ Nov 18th 2007 6:23PM

Actually I don't think you do need it for Link's Crossbow Training, aside from the fact that it comes with the game I guess. It's not like the Zapper has any new technology, it's just forcefully making you hold the Wiimote and Nunchuk in a certain position, which I think is ridiculous of Nintendo, but whatever.

Rubang B (BRUSH WITH FAME) @ Nov 18th 2007 7:56PM

Yeah that's what I meant about Link's Crossbow Training. I doubt they'll sell it alone.

umm....hello??? @ Nov 18th 2007 4:52PM

yeah, that thing totally looks like an AK-47. Harmful to children for its IR signals that will be used to castrate each other (hence the name Wii Zapper)....

Diskoboy @ Nov 18th 2007 4:54PM

Here's a prime example of why political correctness is destroying this country.

When I was a 10 years old, in 1984, The Transformers had just come out in America. Megatron - the leader of the decepticons, was a realistic looking luger pistol.

I used to take mine to school, because all the kids would bring their transformers and play with them at recess. I would bring Megatron often, and my teachers saw it, and never said a thing about it. I was never suspended. Never sent home from school. Never arrested.

At the pool, during the summers, we would all have our realistic looking water pistols (remember the AK Centerfire?) and run around the crowded pool, spraying each other. And those water guns looked more real than msot other toy guns at the time. Yet we never started a panic at the pool.....

It really makes me sick to see how far we, as a country, have devolved.

sheppy2.0 @ Nov 18th 2007 5:03PM

Yep, I was five in 1984 but I remember a few things quite well. Like Dungeons & Dragons being the cause of violence in our youth since it encouraged no penalties for doing bad things. Or GI Joe becoming a huge fricking hot topic because of all the guns and such. And Tranformers because, as you said, one of them was a scale pistol.

People act like this is something that's new. It's not. It's been around my entire life. But at least I don't look through rose colored cglasses back to some era that actually didn't exist.

God, remember when Jazz music was the corrupting influence?

jamma @ Nov 18th 2007 6:39PM

Dude, you Americans have got it relatively lucky: games have actually been BANNED from the UK (manhunt 2) because some government official thinks that the population of his own country don't understand the difference between reality and games, yet he is the only one who does.

And Manhunt 2 was aiming to be rated 18+, so no kids would be allowed to buy it anyway.

Synner @ Nov 18th 2007 9:39PM

That's ok, the way people are looking ot the government to take care of theri every need nowadays it is only a matter of time before we are having our freedom of expression trampled by the thought police as well.

aggrocrag @ Nov 19th 2007 10:21PM

The idea that the Wii is just a child friendly system is completely laughable. Especially considering how the system has been marketed towards pretty much every single age group imaginable.

Also the fear that some parents have of their children playing with the Wii Zapper is silly as well. It's not like Nintendo representatives are going house to house forcing the Zapper on their households. Although it might be nice if they did since I'm broke and can't afford the Zapper until I get paid next month.

Kyattsuai @ Nov 18th 2007 5:04PM

The NES Zapper was unambiguously a gun. The Wii Zapper looks like a giant high-heel shoe you hold backwards.

Shockgamer @ Nov 18th 2007 5:08PM

Well heaven forbid a plastic husk designed to make the wiimote and nunchuck feel like a gun.....succeeds at feeling like a gun. The worst part is that it doesn't; it would take a special kind of person to be able to mistake that pearly white hunk of excess with a real weapon.

I remember playing on my big brother's Nintendo, shooting at ducks with the original, grey zapper. How I envy the japanese for not having to play with bright neon orange light guns.

Then again, maybe if the police could stop blowing away kids with waterguns and schools would stop giving students reasons to shoot them up, this issue would be a non-issue.

So many places to direct my annoyances, so little time.

Dio @ Nov 18th 2007 5:09PM

And why aren't these parents opposed to Nerf guns and squirtguns? Or any of the other toy guns that have been around for centuries, including the wood pipe with cork and string?

fester @ Nov 18th 2007 5:16PM

Just paint them bright orange like a baboon's ass-nobody but a tardstick would hold up a bank with an orange gun. Idiots. lol

name123 @ Nov 18th 2007 5:15PM

What about the backlash because it sucks?

Nintendo should have made the Wii controller gun shaped. It would have made aiming a lot easier and more comfortable. They could've made the barrel short so it didn't look too much like a gun. It also would have allowed one handed shooting instead of this two handed crap.

Catprog @ Nov 19th 2007 12:36AM

And how would you play tennis or excite truck.

Slaziman @ Nov 18th 2007 5:16PM

Jesus, you can tell how much effort Nintendo put into making this as little gun-like as possible while maintaining it's purpose, and people are still bitching? It's white, it's plastic, it doesn't resemble a gun for shit, there is no way anyone could mistake it. It's pearly white for fucks sake!

Kyattsuai @ Nov 18th 2007 5:33PM

You mean you don't remember that James Bond movie, The Man with the Porcelain Gun?

Vince UK @ Nov 18th 2007 9:32PM

You hold it like a gun, you aim it like a gun, you fire it like a gun.
It's a gun.

Synner @ Nov 18th 2007 9:41PM

You sound like an idiot, your post is idiotic, you are an idiot.

Vince UK @ Nov 18th 2007 10:18PM

Introducing Synner - gun nut.

Synner @ Nov 18th 2007 10:28PM

you'd have been around here longer you'd already know that. I do like guns, and I think people should be given the responsibility to own them, then feel the full force of the law up to and including the death penalty if they abuse that trust, so what? I know you brits prefer the nanny state, but let me explain to you.

The Wii Zapper does not fire a bullt or other projectile past the opening of the muzzle, hance not a gun. A toy gun, is not a gun, it is a toy shaped like a gun. A gun is a gun, playing with a toy is not going to make you any more or less likely to go on a killing spree.