After playing Duck Hunt as a child in 1987, I became an instant fan of Nintendo's Zapper peripheral. There was something magical about pointing the orange & grey gun at the screen and seeing the game respond to my attempts at shooting the waterfowl flying about. As the years passed, I played other enjoyable Zapper games like Hogan's Alley, Wild Gunman, and Barker Bill's Trick Shooting. After such great experiences, I was convinced that all Nintendo-developed light gun games were as good as the previous ones I played. "They can do no wrong!" I said—famous last words of a naive fool.

I knew very little about Hogan’s Alley back in its heyday. Judging by the mean-looking gangster fully armed with a gun and grimace on the front cover, I figured that the game must have been some 3D action title featuring all sorts of wanton violence that my impressionable mind just couldn’t handle. However, as the years passed I eventually learned the facts of this game’s less menacing purpose.

Duck Hunt is an interesting relic of times past and one that I have conflicting feelings about.  While it was my earliest NES memory and no doubt fun from what I can remember, it also hasn't aged quite as well as I would have hoped.  But sometimes, that's just how it goes with the games we played as children.  I suppose the biggest letdown is realizing that the game simply isn't as stimulating to me as it once was, mostly due to its limited nature.  At its core, you're just shooting the same objects round after round until you fail to reach the required quota.  Be that as it may, Duck Hunt's importance in Nintendo's history cannot be overlooked.