Chiller (NES) 1990. Genre: Lightgun.

Chiller is an unlicenced port of the 1986 arcade game by the same name. If it wasn't for its distasteful aesthetic I might feel some sympathy for my opinions of this game. The actual style of the game is reflective of a bygone era of shooting galleries. The game is broken up into four stages and one bonus stage. Each stage is made up of about two dozen slow moving or completely still targets.

More so than any other genre, Lightgun games are based on physical skill. The aim of a lightgun game is then to express your physical interaction with the game through a series of reflex and accuracy tests. The NES Zapper is known for its aim inconsistency. The developer should then put less weight on accuracy and instead focus on reflex. You will find that the three big names in light gun games, Duck Hunt, Hogan's Alley and Wild Gunman, all have notably large targets. If this was one of the first Lightgun games I might have graded Chiller more lightly but it was released in 1990 making it one of the last. It seems that this was a cheep, lazy cash-in on a port that itself may have already been a cheap lazy cash-in in built on shock value.

I am finding it difficult to justify not giving this game a 1. This game attempts to have a middle of the road basic gameplay style, not realizing that the goal post had shifted since the release of the NES. I think that they did have a game that would perk up the ears of young edgelords and they are successful in that respect. I think that had I not played the original arcade of Chiller I would have given this game a one but, seeing the failure of the source materiel, I know that the game could have been worse.

(2/5)