Now you can get the Wii Top Shot Gun Controller to use with Cabela’s Big Game Hunter. The Top Shot Gun Controller adds another level of interactive realism to Cabela’s hunting games. It’s easy to use – just load your Wii remote and nunchuck, and you’re ready for heart-pounding, action-packed hunting adventures! Fits gamers of all ages. Wii remote and Nunchuck sold separately. NTSC region coded. Available: Top Shot Gun Wii Controller only.
This game is totally off from simulating hunting. As others have said, it is more of a shooting game. That being said, I do enjoy doing the shooting gallery, but as a hunting game, it is awful. I do not think the designers have ever been hunting themselves. As a hunter myself, these are the points the bother me most about this game: -guides you directly to your animals (no real hunting) -Even when hunting with a rifle, you have to sneak almost all the way around the animal within 30 yards to get enough bonus points to unlock more levels. Real hunting is shooting at the first good opportunity, considering your shot angle, weapon, distance etc. -when an animal is 30 yards away, without the scope, it looks as if they are 150 yards away. -Shots at 40 yards or more with a rifle and you do not get any ethical bonus points for being too far away from the animal. Really! 40 yards is about the maximum for a bow, and ridiculusly close for a rifle! -The animals are in the exact same location if you repeat the same level, and you only have one chance. Spook them or wound them, and the round is over, you have to start over. What about trying to track them? Sometimes you have to track a wounded animal. How about a level that has many animials roaming around? If you spook one, go looking for another. -how about having options to ride a quad or a horse? -each level only has 3 animals. If you are lucky, two of them are of the male species that you can shoot, thus giving you the option of picking which one. However, the scope tells you exactly how big it will score. Why not have the antlers or body size be realistic, and allow the hunter to choose based on what he sees, and find out the score after downing the animal? -when you go to shoot an animal using a gun with a scope, you get an x-ray vision of the animal's heart and lungs, with the heart lighting up red. I am aware of night vision binoculars and scopes, and range finding binoculars and scopes, but I have never heard of x-ray vision equipment for hunting!
I have a computer hunting game that I thought was pretty good. Lots of options. Buy calls, bait, scent, equipment. Choose your location, which species to hunt (with many species on the same level), chose your animal size (keep looking for that trophy animal or shoot the first legal one you see), time of day, etc. I thought the wii would be a fun platform to have a huting game on, but not with this game. I will have to keep looking. I would like a more realistic simulation of hunting.
The 2010 Big Game Hunter Combo has been a great game to teach my son basic hunting techniques and have loads of fun doing it. The graphics are realistic enough to keep the game interesting. You can go back to different hunts to improve your scores/medals. I have not tried the game without the Top Shot Gun to hold the controllers; I would recommend playing the game with the Top Shot Gun. I have read some reviews that express frustration with the predators (i.e. mountain lion). I have succeeded by moving out of the lion's path as it charges toward you; it gives you a few seconds to take aim and fire on the animal. I preferred the semi-auto shotgun for that hunt. I am anxious to see what Wii hunting game comes out next as long as it uses the Top Shot Gun or something similar.
We own quite a few Game Cube games and now Wii games, and I've NEVER been as disappointed in a game as I have been with this one!
First let me say that I have played the Game Cube version of Big Game Hunter, and as bad as I thought that one was---this one is infinitely worse! All of the calls, scents, decoys, etc., are gone from the Wii version. As cheesy as some of that stuff was they were fun to use and made the game more interesting. In addition it was much easier to navigate the terrain, and there were far fewer walls in the Game Cube version.
Now for a point-by-point review.
I'll start off with the most disappointing aspect of this game, and that is the fact that there is no option to save your profile. In other words, this is essentially a single person game. If one person plays and opens up a new territory to hunt, that same territory will be open for the next player. The same goes for medals scored, points accrued, etc. If you have children who like to compete with one another this really destroys the fun of the game. Why on earth the developers didn't allow for at least four saved profiles is beyond me?? My kids enjoyed the challenge of trying to take a larger trophy, score more points, etc. in the Game Cube version than their siblings did. This option is entirely lacking in the Wii version with the exception of the shooting gallery games.
If you enjoy tramping around the countryside looking for game you'll be sorely disappointed. The Wii version is nothing more than walk-through. You follow the prompts until you run into the game. It would be more accurate to call this a shooting game rather than a hunting game. And when I say "walk" I mean walk! The Game Cube version at least allowed you to run when you needed to cover some ground. Jack moves around at the rate of drying paint and it can be quite annoying at times.
Another annoying aspect is the silly mix of game species. Pheasants near timberline while hunting Mule Deer? Why not make it more realistic and substitute Blue Grouse? Also, is it out of the question to think that pheasants should flush from cover one or two at a time rather than flying overhead like a bunch of migrating geese? It really is silly and severely detracts from the game.
Another problem is the design of the "Top Shot" gun. The Wii remote is placed at the very end of the barrel instead of farther back near the forarm where it should be. Being so far forward it makes it very tiring to hold the gun since your right (or left) arm has to remain suspended to operate the controls. Both my sons complained about this and one of them simply won't use the gun because he says his arm gets so tired "sticking out all the time".
Another annoyance (and one that the Game Cube version also had) is the poor simulation of distances. Anyone who has been hunting knows what an elk, mule deer or bear looks like at 20 yards. It wouldn't have been that difficult to simulate the size of an animal commensurate with the distances involved. And yet in the game you will locate animals that appear to be a very long way off---so far that you can't even see the rack of a mature bull elk---then when you place the scope on the animal you will be informed that it is only 20 or 30 yards away. The relationship between animal size and distance in this game is ridiculous. Another sad thing is that you get more points in the game by using a smaller caliber gun---as though assuring a clean kill has nothing to do with hunting! And finally, as others have mentioned, for a Wii game the graphics are very disappointing.
There are so many more irritations that I simply can't list them all. Like I said, this game is a major disappointment to myself and my two sons. If you're looking for a "hunting simulation" game you should keep looking.
This is a very good game. I wasn't quite what i expected at first but once I began to play I was hooked. The game has great graphics and it could teach a first time hunter a few things on what to look for when out in the woods. I like the fact that you can just about hunt anything you want. Overall a great game and I would recommend this to anybody.