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Last Year EA and Nerf released a curiously unique hybrid game and toy. "Nerf N-Strike" was a Nerf blaster that could double as a Wii peripheral similar to the Nyko "Perfect Shot". It came bundled with a game that offered light gun gameplay, but obviously with a Nerf motif. The bundle was a huge success and EA has wasted no time in stepping up a second game.

The first thing you will notice is the gun, and more specifically, the red sqaure "Scope" that can be flipped up on the top. This device is used in game to see through color locks and traps to help you find codes, unlock doors, and defeat certain enemies. It is a practical add on that helps add a little extra dimension to the title. The second big change is that the new game is a full on-rails shooter. Complete with Co-op gameplay and branching pathways. The game features four different characters, each speaclising in a specific type of Nerf Gun. While the character selected won't determine level pathways, playing with a friend will open up the possibility of exploring different areas of each level. Obviously you won't be firing anything but Nerf guns, but you also won't be shooting anything other then robots. Strangely enough, shooting a person with a Nerf gun would cause the ESRB to rate the title "T".

The game uses a mixture of real world Nerf guns as well as a lot of fantasy Nerf Weapons, some of the real ones are not even released yet. One of the cooler aspects of both the weapons and the game as a whole is the customization aspects. As you progress through the game world, you can shoot canisters, which are in game currency. There is an in game shop where you can buy add ons to your aresenal. These add ons can both affect gameplay and be purely asthetic. You can upgrade each weapons performance such as rate of fire, and reload speed. You can also buy extra barrels and scopes for the weapons which obvisiouly add up to increaded Nerf darts being fired in a single shot. You can also color your weapon to your liking, as well as choose what your aiming reticule will look like. Overall, the game has around 5 million different combinations with everything included. One of the more interesting parts of the game is that every weapon has a ammo count. There is not default weapon with infinite ammo. This brings a good amount of strategy to the gameplay and also is a great way to break away from being a title that is to easy and holds your hand all the way through.

The game follows the storyline of a group of kids going through a futurstic world trying to stop a demented robot and a traterous colleague. The dialouge is heavily skewed towards the saturday morning crowd and is overly cheesy and enthusiastic. The music, of what could be heard, was pretty good. The graphics on the other hand were probably the weakest link of the title so far. They were clean, but also very bland. There was little to no lighting effects, everything was pretty low poly, textures were very basic. It gets the job done, and obviously nobody is going to buy this title for a graphical showpiece, but it was still very obviously last generation in that aspect.

"Nerf 2: 'N-Strike' Elite" is coming to America in late October, and will come with the new gun. The gun itself is very comfortable and another great alternative to the horrendous official Wii Zapper. While the red reader on the top will help you through the game, it is not neccassary to complete the title with, so you won't have to worry about that either. Overall it looks like a solid light gun shooter with a surprising amount of depth and survival gameplay and should be another big hit this fall.