Nintendo Scope 6

by Gregory Moffett

As the first Christmas I have memories of, it would be wrong not to acknowledge the other game found in my stocking in 1993, or rather, my brother’s stocking!

My dad, my brother and I slipped the polystyrene tray out of the huge box to reveal what looked like some sort of bazooka, the Nintendo Scope. After figuring out how to attach the sight, before ultimately realising we wanted it fixed to the other side of the scope (there were clips on either side), we inserted the batteries and unearthed the accompanying cartridge, namely Nintendo Scope 6.

As the name suggests, there were six different games squeezed onto one little SNES cartridge. Upon starting up the game and shooting at the screen for the first time to calibrate his aim, my brother was given the option to enter either ‘Blastris’ or ‘Lazer Blazer’, each comprising of 3 games. ‘Blastris’ contained ‘Blastris A’ and ‘Blastris B’, both of which involved firing at blocks on the screen, and ‘Mole Patrol’. Moles would pop out of holes in the ground, challenging you to shoot them before they disappear again. This is where we started as it looked like loads of fun!

Sure enough, I watched on in awe as my dad and my brother took their turns at controlling the pests. Finally my turn arrived and I suddenly came to the realization that I wasn’t particularly good at keeping one eye closed and the other open at the age of 6, something of a requirement for the Nintendo Scope. I managed to get there eventually but my first experiences with the game were certainly difficult, despite still feeling magical.



After getting to grips with it all and challenging in both single and multiplayer games with my family, ‘Intercept’ became a favourite as part of the ‘Lazer Blazer’ set of games. This particular game involved judging how far away missiles were that were flying across the screen and firing to take them down just at the right time. It was a joy to battle it out against my brother until the 6 AA batteries would inevitably run out, especially when Mario would suddenly fly across the screen being chased by a koopa kid on a missile and you’d have to save the plumber.

‘Engage’ turned out to be our least favourite as we never quite got to grips with it while ‘Confront’ completed the set and certainly provided great entertainment in taking down enemy ships from an invasion before they could fire at you.

It would be amazing to play Super Scope 6 again to see how it holds up in 2015 but the Nintendo Scope is unfortunately incompatible with modern televisions, requiring an old CRT to function. I always wanted to see an attachment for the Wii Zapper to allow for Super Scope 6 to be released on the Virtual Console, or at the very least some Wii U Gamepad functionality where the screen acts as the sight. Neither of these options is ever likely to happen so I’ll ultimately have to hunt down an old TV at some point to relive some cherished childhood memories.