Duck Hunt (universe)

Duck Hunt (universe)
Developer(s)	Nintendo R&D1
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Genre(s)	Light gun shooter
Console/platform of origin	Nintendo Entertainment System
First installment	Duck Hunt (1984)
Latest installment	3-in-1 Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt/World Class Track Meet (1990)
Article on Wikipedia	Duck Hunt (universe)

The Duck Hunt universe (ダックハント, Duck Hunt) refers to the Super Smash Bros. series' collection of characters and properties that hail from Nintendo's classic NES game Duck Hunt, released in 1984. After minor representation in previous installments, the Duck Hunt universe received its first major representation with the introduction of a character trio of the same name in Super Smash Bros. 4. In SSB4, two other games based around the NES Zapper, Wild Gunman and Hogan's Alley, are also considered a part of the Duck Hunt universe.

Franchise description

In Nintendo's product timeline, the years prior to the development and release of the first Game & Watch titles in 1980 included a focus on electronic shooting simulations in which customers would fire mock rifles at targets projected against backdrops by overhead projectors, and whether the images were registered as struck were determined by a mechanism based on reflections. Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi had invested billions of yen in a project dubbed the "Laser Clay Shooting System", with Gunpei Yokoi and Genyo Takeda among the assistants to the development process, and had it set up in deserted bowling alleys throughout Japan. Though this product was on track for success, an oil crisis in 1973 resulted in the cancellation of nearly all of the system's orders in anticipation of a nationwide economic recession. Nintendo enacted a campaign to begin paying off five billion yen in debt—an effort which lasted over seven years—during which Yamauchi proceeded to develop a cheaper version of the light gun shooting simulation concept that was presented in the form of electro-mechanical arcade machines, the "Mini Laser Clay System", as well as enact a separate project to bring shooting simulations into homes, known as the "Light Gun Series". Among the titles in this latter series was a product titled Duck Hunt, released in 1976, in which the projected targets being shot down were depicted as flying ducks.

Eight years later, after Nintendo had established itself in Japan as the dominant leader in the home video game console market in the wake of the 1983 North American video game recession, Nintendo introduced an electronic light gun peripheral for the Famicom, which operated by detecting whether it was pointed at a bright spot onscreen that only appeared momentarily each time the trigger was pulled. The first Famicom title to support this device, Wild Gunman, was an NES remake of one of Yokoi's Mini Laser Clay System products, and likewise, Duck Hunt also received an adaptation as a Famicom title with support for the light gun. When the Famicom was launched in the Americas in 1985 as the Nintendo Entertainment System, the accompanying equivalent to the light gun, the NES Zapper, and its three supported launch titles—Duck Hunt, Wild Gunman, and Hogan's Alley—were, as much as the R.O.B. unit launched simultaneously, an ingredient in Nintendo's ploy to sell the NES to wary western markets as more of a "multi-functioned toy" with compatible peripherals than a typical cartridge-based console. To some extent, Duck Hunt helped the NES revolutionize the world video game market by virtue of being a memorable showpiece for the system and the capabilities of the overall video games concept, despite critics noting that it quickly became repetitive to play. Duck Hunt was subsequently included with Super Mario Bros. in a compilation cartridge that was a pack-in with an NES console in a configuration called the "Action Set", which has since become a collector's item in the United States.

In the NES edition of Duck Hunt, the player must point the connected NES Zapper at a total of ten ducks that fly haphazardly onscreen above a grassy meadow and pull the trigger to shoot them for points. In different Game A and Game B modes, the ducks appear either one at a time or in pairs, respectively, with a second player being able to control the movement of the duck in the Game A mode with a normal controller; in either mode, the player only has a total of three shots to down each set of ducks. Shooting all ten ducks in a given "round" gives a large point bonus, and proceeding to the next round increases the speed of the ducks and the minimum number of ducks required to be shot in order to proceed to the round beyond that. There is technically no limit to the number of rounds that can be progressed through, though after round 99, the game will glitch and eventually end on its own. The cartridge also includes an unrelated "Game C" mode that simulates the sport of clay pigeon shooting. In a 1984 arcade edition titled VS. Duck Hunt (part of the Nintendo VS. System of coin-operated platforms in the late 1980s), two players holding two separate light guns competed for the number of ducks/clay pigeons successfully shot, with each player losing a life for each target that they fail to hit; the game ended once a player lost all of their lives.

The NES version and its VS. arcade counterpart feature a character depicted as a cartoonish hunting dog that enthusiastically jumps into the tall grass at the start of a given round, wherein he proceeds to panic the resident ducks into flying out into the open for the player to shoot. As a method of keeping score, the dog will pop out of the grass to hold up each duck that is successfully shot down, but more infamously, whenever the player fails to shoot a single duck, the dog will emerge out of the grass giggling at the player with a digitized laughing sound effect. The Duck Hunt dog has since endeared himself both as a video game icon and as a meme, both for the intended, unabashed annoyance element and the idea that a dog would be confident enough to laugh smugly at a likely frustrated human with a loaded rifle. Although widely touted as an urban legend, the ability to shoot the Duck Hunt dog is, in fact, possible in VS. Duck Hunt, where in a bonus segment that took place after every two rounds, the dog occasionally jumped out of the grass as the player shot at the ducks flying out. However, shooting the dog in this circumstance immediately ended the bonus stage. The dog made a similarly vulnerable cameo appearance in the NES Zapper game Barker Bill's Trick Shooting. Twenty-four years later, the dog reemerged alongside one of the ducks that could be hunted and the off-screen hunter wielding the NES Zapper as a surprise team of characters in the fighting game Super Smash Bros. 4, with their inclusion resulting in them succeeding the Ice Climbers, Mr. Game & Watch and R.O.B. as the latest "retro" Nintendo fighters.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

Duck Hunt receives minor representation in Melee in the form of a collectible trophy of the eponymous ducks, among the first trophies revealed at E3 2001 during the Special Movie. Interestingly enough, in an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, the Super Smash Bros. Melee article mentions that Assist Trophies were to be implemented in Melee. The only trophy concept they gave details on was one that would release the ducks from Duck Hunt to fly around the stage and interfere with the fighters.

Trophy

• Ducks

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Duck Hunt again receives minor content in Brawl, this time in the form of a sticker of a duck from the game. The title screen music from the NES game is also included in the Famicom Medley track.

Sticker

• Duck

In Super Smash Bros. 4

Duck Hunt receives larger representation with a single new playable character and a stage in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

Characters

• 
  Duck Hunt: The dog, one of the ducks, and the off-screen hunter from the NES game Duck Hunt appear as an unlockable team of characters. The dog's main role is to provide the team's mobility and is capable of wall jumping, but also engages opponents directly with his neutral attack, neutral aerial, grabs and throws. The dog also initiates three of their special attacks: Trick Shot, Clay Shooting and Wild Gunman. The duck also provides offense in the form of its neutral infinite, tilt attacks, forward aerial, back aerial, up aerial, down aerial, pummel, floor attacks and edge attack. However, the duck also provides recovery in the form of Duck Jump. Lastly, the hunter assists with their smash attacks, Trick Shot and Clay Shooting. Duck Hunt's neutral special is Trick Shot, where the dog kicks out a can from Hogan's Alley that explodes after a set number of shots from the hunter or if it comes into contact with an opponent or even the dog and duck. Duck Hunt's side special, Clay Shooting, has the dog throw a clay disk, which the off-screen gunman can then shoot into pieces. Duck Hunt's down special, Wild Gunman, involves the dog summoning 8-bit gunmen from Wild Gunman to fire a single shot. Duck Hunt's up special, Duck Jump, is a involves the duck lifting the dog while flying upward in order to recover. Lastly, Duck Hunt's Final Smash, NES Zapper Posse, is a cinematic Final Smash like Captain Falcon's Blue Falcon. It consists of the trio capturing their opponents in a flock of 8-bit ducks, which then places them between the gang of gunmen from Wild Gunman and the cutouts from Hogan's Alley, after which the gunmen immediately fire at the opponents repeatedly.

Stage

• 
  Duck Hunt: A stage based off of the original game Duck Hunt for the NES featured in both versions of SSB4, albeit being added to Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS via update 1.1.1. It is available in 8-Player Smash.

Music

• Victory! Duck Hunt: A remix of the beginning tune heard when starting a level in Duck Hunt.
• Duck Hunt Medley: A medley which remixes the title jingle, round start jingle, good shot jingle, and the round clear jingle. In addition, sound effects from the game such as gunshots, quacks, and the dog's infamous laugh can be heard in their original forms at certain points of the song. It plays on Duck Hunt.

Both versions

• Duck Hunt/ Duck Hunt Duo
• Duck Hunt (Alt.)/ Duck Hunt Duo (Alt.)
• Wild Gunmen

Wii U version

• NES Zapper Posse
• Clay Pigeon
• Can
• Dog
• Duck

Trivia

• Duck Hunt is the only universe with a playable character in the entire series to go from minor universe status to primary universe status, as it only had a trophy, a sticker, and a music snippet prior to Duck Hunt's debut as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4.