Two-player shooting

We've been bringing you regular field updates on Teyon's WiiWare lightgun shooter Heavy Fire: Special Operations since its announcement in April, and we recently got the chance to sit down and blast through two missions from the completed game.

Played out entirely on-rails, Heavy Fire is immediately reminiscent of arcade light gun shooters such as Operation Wolf. You stop automatically at certain locations along the route and hordes of enemies swarm the screen, but they're all terrible shots which gives you plenty of time to pick them off before they can set their sights on you, indicated by a marker above their heads. If they have chance to take aim and fire they'll shoot you (naturally), with three bullets enough to finish you off. For players reared on quick reaction shooters such as Virtua Cop it'll mean making a few adjustments: the screen is almost always filled with enemies, so rather than pick them off with clean, accurate shots your best bet is to hose them with bullets to take them out.

Where's Wesley Snipes, then?

As you'd expect the controls are simple, with B to fire and reloading handled by a Remote shake, and playing with the Wii Zapper gives an appropriately arcadey feel. This feel is boosted by a heavy score element, with extra points given for taking out enemies quickly, with multiple hits or for hitting one of the leader characters that tend to hide within scenes. Scoring big points sees you move upwards in the military rankings, with better ranks giving you access to better guns, of course.

According to its official website, Heavy Fire: Special Operations will be ready for launch in North America on July 26th, so if it sounds like your cup of tea there isn't too much longer until you can give it a try yourself. Stay tuned for our full review shortly after the game's launch.