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Here at IGN.com, we’ve been doing a lot of coverage of the extremely promising FPS title for Wii, Medal of Honor: Heroes 2. It doesn’t take a college degree to know that Wii’s current first person shooters haven’t measured up. Games like Call of Duty 3 and Red Steel have just proven to be a nuisance to play in the long run. Why? Cumbersome control schemes and irritating gameplay make them some of the least enjoyable experiences on the Wii. Which is a shame, because Nintendo’s inventive controllers simply beg for shooters.

However, there seems to be a light at the end of this dark tunnel: Medal of Honor: Heroes 2. We’ve played it, using the same Wiimote & nunchuk controllers that Treyarch and Ubisoft made Call of Duty 3 and Red Steel on respectively. Our good buddies at EA have taken these controls, built on them, rearranged them, improved, and fine-tuned them until they created a masterpiece that’s easy to use. Now that we have a fun control system and a fun Medal of Honor game, there’s never a dull moment.

But there’s always a downside to everything. For MOH, it’s their utilization of the Wii Zapper. Nintendo's newest Wii add-on allows you to strap in your Wiimote and nunchuk into a holster so you can hold them like a rifle. Now, when you get your first grip on this thing, it’s kind of nice – it’s comfortable, maneuverable, and an excellent weight. It feels just right. Unfortunately, this great experience is immediately tarnished by how it handles in MOH. First, let’s get something straight: the Wii Zapper and the W&N combo are NOT the same. They don’t feel the same, they don’t look the same, they are NOT the same. So shouldn’t that mean that there should be a secondary control scheme setup to switch to when using the Wii Zapper. This would be ideal when making such a drastic change from W&N to Zapper. Unfortunately, no such thing exists, and it really hurts the experience.

So I headed over to Nintendo World on Saturday, and you wouldn’t believe my excitement when I saw Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 being played by someone on a huge screen plasma TV. I’m obviously eager to try, to the point that I’m running over people to get there. Never before had I been that excited to get to a demo station. Even better, I saw it was to be used by the Wii Zapper, which I had never used before and was raring to test. I watched as the guy played the Arcade mode, and my anticipation only grew and grew, until the guy died and handed it over to me. Finally! I was able to play Medal of Honor: Heroes 2!

Now, the first time I played it, it wasn’t so bad. That was because this time I was playing the Arcade mode, which is meant to replicate an arcade on-rails shooter, in which all you have to do is point and shoot. As the computer controlled my movement, I worked the trigger and the trigger only and shot what I saw, and I loved it! It was awesome! Later in the day I returned and played the regular campaign. I did NOT have fun.

I started in a small house, and immediately I had trouble. It wasn’t Arcade mode anymore. I had to control every aspect of my characters’ actions. It felt most natural to hold the Wii Zapper with the trigger hand in the back and left hand in front, like a normal gun. But since the Wiimote is in the front, the trigger is in the front and the control stick in the back. This confused me to no end. I was used to having the control stick in the left hand, but now I had to use it in the right hand. Plus all the functions of the Wiimote that my right hand was naturally accustomed to were passed on to my left. So I was completely confused.

It showed to be worse in battle, because trying to decipher which buttons I had to press at which time made me forget that I had to aim. So it was a crapshoot during firefights. Finally I killed my first two enemies, and went over to pick up the shotgun. But wait I need to change weapons with the D-pad. So my left hand is searching for the D-pad that’s mounted all the way on top of the Wiimote that would have been so easy for my right thumb to reach. It’s really confusing, especially since the Wiimote mounted atop a holster that elevates the Wiimote high above my left hand. Finally I switch weapons and need to pick it up. Now to search for the minus button.

Eventually I manage to get through where I needed to be and encountered probably seven German soldiers firing at me. I knew where to find cover, thank god. Now I’m jerking my left thumb all over the place, looking for the control stick. By the time I realized it was controlled by my right thumb, it was too late. I died and passed it on to the next person in line.

So in a nutshell, Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 is a great game with outstanding controls. Only problem is that these controls don’t work when using the Wii Zapper add-on, which could have been the trump card for this game to blast past its competition on other consoles. This game could have been on top of the awesome games list if only the utilization of the Zapper had worked out. Obviously, whether or not you want to try it with the Zapper is your choice and yours alone – but take my advice: if you’re going to get this game, use the regular Wiimote and nunchuk combo and spare yourself the disparity.