Remington Super Slam Hunting: Alaska (WII)

Remington Super Slam Hunting: Alaska pits players against over 30 aggressive Alaskan animals.

Release Date: Apr 5, 2011

The third title in the series takes hunters into the great white north. At GDC, I observed a PC-based alpha version of the upcoming Wii title, the third in the Remington Super Slam hunting series. The game takes place in Alaska, following games set in Africa and North America. The two levels I observed included your typical summertime coniferous forest and a snow-blind level in which the player is left peering through a white haze.

Play options include solo, co-op, or versus, and are selected just prior to choosing your location on the map. I was able to see the solo play mode, in which a lone hunter stands still or slowly moves through the on-rails environment, picking off targets such as birds, rabbits, deer, lynxes, and even the fearsome jackalope using the Wii Remote pointer. Bonuses are associated with some of the creatures running across the screen, and can be won by first shooting the appropriate critter, and then shooting the bonus. 

The game encourages players to follow appropriate hunting etiquette, such as avoiding head shots and female ungulates. Hunters should shoot to kill, and in an interesting twist of humanitarianism, animals that are hobbling around after a non-lethal shot will stop suffering after a few seconds, pop up, and run away from you. They can also get mad and gore you, resulting in flecks of blood that fly in front of the screen.

The quality of your play is measured with bronze, silver, or gold metals; a bronze metal is required to pass each level. Hunters can also gain additional achievements in each level by successfully following the aforementioned hunting etiquette and by mining, which involves shooting piles of gold.

Players enter this game through an Alaskan hunting lodge which serves as a stealth menu. It contains a gun cabinet, from which to outfit yourself, a map, which leads to the hunting locations, and two smaller rooms for Totems and Trophies. The Totem room fills up with colorful totem poles that grow in size and number as you gain achievements. The Trophy room is built to contain the souvenir heads from species of which you have a sufficient number of kills.

Super Slam Hunting contains an interesting combination of realism and whimsy. All pistols and rifles featured in the game are detailed reproductions of real licensed hunting weapons including the appropriate ammo and functional scopes. They are rated for range and firing speed, including reloading time, and the programming includes realistic details such as a loss of power in ammunition that passes through multiple bodies. The only weapons that are not licensed reproductions are the three hunting bows, which were named after a Mastiff employee’s daughters. In addition to weapons, the gun cabinet contains reproductions of real hunting glasses, which each have special, slightly less realistic properties such as extending the time dilation effect of certain hunting bonuses.

If you've played the previous games, you should have a general idea of what to expect, with the setting and accompanying wildlife being the most significant change. Still under development, some of the animations were stiff, but otherwise, the game seems to be a competent on-rails hunting experience.