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Link's Crossbow Training is really two things in one. It introduces the new Wii accessory, the Wii Zapper, and gives you a fantasy target shooting game starring Link. If you haven't previously made the acquaintance of Link, he's the young hero of the Legend of Zelda series. He looks like a blonde elf-boy (he has pointy ears — to me that says elf or Vulcan, and he doesn't look like a Vulcan) with a serious look on his face and wears the traditional Robin Hood looking garb of a green tunic over a shirt and man-tights. You'll actually get to pick one of your Miis to hold your game stats, but within the game, you are Link all the way.

Link's Crossbow Training isn't really designed to be a super long game. It's mainly to give you some eye candy while you learn how to use the Wii Zapper. There are nine total stages to the game (one through eight and final) and there are three types of mission to each stage. A sharpshooter is going to cruise right through Link's training session. The rest of us are going to be at it a little longer.

The target shooting stages will have you shooting at wooden targets. Initially they're standing still, but that doesn't last for long. The defender stage has you in a fixed position where you shoot at incoming enemies. Don't let them get to close, because you will lose points from your score. The ranger stage actually has you wandering around looking for enemies to shoot. In all cases, you are fighting against the clock for your score. You'll have just 60 seconds to accomplish each mission. Yikes!

The enemies and locations will change as you go through the game, but you're going to keep practicing the same skills as the difficulty increases. Initially only the first three stages are unlocked. You're given a points target for each stage. You have to get at least the minimum amount of points for that level to unlock the next stage. You get serious bonuses for hitting multiple targets in a row without any misses. You can shoot pretty much anything in the landscape, sometimes releasing objects you can shoot for even more bonus points. I've also seen that you can get more points for shooting smaller targets or those that are further away. Depending on how many points over the threshold you get, you'll earn either a bronze, silver or gold medal for the stage.

Once a stage is unlocked, there is a practice area for each mission of that stage. If you're having trouble in a particular area, you can do into the practice mode and just work on the parts that are giving you trouble. Unfortunately, because they have to be unlocked, you can't practice for stages you've yet to visit.

There is a multiplayer option for Link's Crossbow Training, but you aren't really competing head to head. Since there's one Wii Zapper provided, you have to share it amongst the players and take turns.

In my real world background, I used to do archery. I've used both a recurve bow with feather-fletched wooden arrows, and a compound bow with some really nice aluminum arrows. In neither case did I use a scope, and in both cases I shot only at the traditional, round, stationary target. I wasn't an expert by any means, but I did reasonably well for the amount of practice I put into it. In the archery I did, I had time to get my stance just right, nock the arrow and draw to my anchor point, line up my shot just right, and finally, only when everything is just right, release. It took skill and accuracy, but not so much speed. I have no experience with firearms – either crossbow or gun. I've never done that kind of target shooting. The aiming is different and the pace (from what I've seen) is much faster.

Physically, I like how the Wii Zapper is put together. This feels a lot more like target shooting than when I'm just pointing the Wii Remote at the screen I enjoy the game part but I wish there was a way to set levels of difficulty. I'm just not all that fast switching between targets. At my current rate of success, I may never get past stage four. My real world experience helps with accuracy, but I'm nowhere near fast enough to get all the targets in the time allotted.

Considering that you're getting both the Wii Zapper and a new game, despite my frustrations with my own level of skill, I still feel like I'm getting quite good value for the price. I don't anticipate (at this time anyway) using the Wii Zapper for anything but Link's Crossbow Training, but it is compatible with a few other games right now and I'm sure there will be more to follow. It's a great little addition to the interface.

One last thing — to me it was really thought-provoking to be holding a generally weapon shaped device while shooting at virtual creepies and crawlies. With all the crap gamers take now whenever some kind of shooting tragedy happens, I can only imagine what the talking heads will make of some of the new accessories coming out for the Wii. My real hope lies in the incredibly broad appeal of the console. A device that mom and dad and the grandparents use to play Wii Bowling isn't unknown and scary. It's hard to demonize something that a whole lot of folks are happy to have sitting in their living rooms. I'll just take my soap box now and mosey on home.