For three consecutive nights, my girl and I have loaded our WiiMotes as if they were pistols, complete with nerdy sound effects, and found more multiplayer fun with The Darkside Chronicles than any other game we’ve played together this year. With a guilty weakness for light gun games, but a collection of titles that left plenty to be desired, we initially went into the game with a healthy amount of hesitation.
As stifled as the genre is, given that no amount of fancy words changes the fact that players are simply pointing at the screen and pulling a trigger, this release offers a reminder that there’s a genre to develop a game within, as with any other. And while the mechanics are straight-forward, that doesn’t rule out the possibility of creating a memorable experience, so long as developers accept that challenge rather than trying to shoehorn existing franchises into the setup.
Keep in mind I’ve largely ignored Dead Space Extraction for this very reason, simply because it’s burdened with the perception of providing a quick and easy means of moving the franchise onto the Wii.
When it came to The Darkside Chronicles, I did only expect to play long enough to get my Resident Evil fix. And yet for three nights in a row, we’ve played until our eyes were swollen red and our trigger fingers went from itchy to aching.
