My (Quick) Review of the New NRA Game

In my last post I mentioned the infamously bad video game licensed by the NRA called NRA Gun Club.  To make it quick it sounds like all you do is take allegedly authentic guns to the range and shoot them.  Which is allegedly as boring as it sounds.

Well, God help us, there is a sequel.  It’s called NRA Practice Range.  I don’t know if it is available for more than the iPhone, but there you go.

First the good news.  It’s free.  You don’t have to pay a single red cent to own this thing, although you will have to pay money to unlock additional guns (you start with three).

Now the bad news.  It’s overpriced.  Get it?  Because it’s free?

Look I am not hostile to the NRA.  And at first blush this sounded like something that would be okay for a free app.  But no, this is so bad, I am deleting it the moment I am done with this review.  It’s literally not worth the space on your device.

The basic set up is very simple.  You can shoot at an indoor range, and outdoor range and skeet shooting.  The indoor range is now moderately famous because you shoot targets that look like this (see left).

That is from the indoor range, and idiot Think Progress claimed these were coffin-shaped targets.  I don’t know if the author, Annie-Rose Stasser is ignorant, or she just knows her audience is ignorant, but here’s a hint: coffins don’t actually look like that.  They’re just targets, done in a vaguely human fashion because you are practicing to defend yourself.

By the way, as an aside, in the comments to this Think Regress article, they were deeply horrified and offended by the idea.  Then they launched into murder fantasies (while accusing the NRA of hypocrisy, no less).  One wrote:

Wonder how hard it would be to whip up a game with Wayne LaPierre, David Keene, and Ted Nugent's faces on the targets?

Another:

How about every right wing leader? I know it would make me feel a lot better about Congress if I could play a video game where Republican Congressmen are the targets. /sarcasm

And another:

Don't forget to add Grover Norquist!

Another:

how about charging into one of their meetings and gunning down anyone who gets in their way see how they like it. TIME TO STOP THE NRA.

And finally some logic:

There you go! Cardboard targets = sinister, shooting at images of real people = desirable. Typical guncontrol extremist thinking.

And humor:

Honestly, I think they look more like cocktail shakers. This is absolutely irresponsible, as it encourages shooting guns while drunk on cosmos. I can't believe that the NRA would so thoughtlessly incorporate unsafe practices into a phone app.

And other random silliness:

The second amendment has not kept pace with gun technology. The second amendment was written when we had muskets which take 15 seconds to reload. You want your second amendment rights? Ok...you can have them. You are allowed to own as many muskets as you would like. Go for it.

This comment was written with a quill pen of course.

Moving on.  So the indoor range is simply a bunch of these things pop up in seemingly random places.  I mean they don’t move up, or realistically pop out of the floor.  They just blink into existence, without so much as a *poof* to let you know they are there and then after some time they disappear.  And the goal is to hit as many of them as possible.  Just hit them, mind you.  There is no apparently scoring for accuracy that I could see.

The controls meanwhile, are rough.  You have two options.  The first is a gyroscope tilt control set up.  Which works really well for aiming, but then when you go to shoot, you have to kind of tap the screen and it only intermittently realizes you are trying to shoot.  The other option is to use a virtual analog stick and fire button.  In this case the trigger works better but the stick is just not responsive.

Of course it doesn’t really become a problem until you reach the Outdoor Range.  Here’s a picture of that (right).

That target you see basically pops out of the ground, goes up and then comes down.  And it does it really fast.  As in faster than you can cope with.  If you use the gyroscope, you’re going to go nuts with the hinky trigger because it will not shoot when you need it to and timing is vital.  And the analog stick is just hopelessly slow.

I fared better with the skeet shooting, and it was the closest to actually being fun.  But it wasn’t worth it.  And I miss the Duck Hunt dog.

Come to think of it, Nintendo should totally make Duck Hunt into an app.  Use the gyro as the movement and then a simple trigger.  That might be a lot of fun.

Back to this game, each range allows for three different guns, one of which is free and the other two which is $0.99.  But honestly I don’t see nearly enough fun here to justify that.

It also serves as a vehicle to promote the NRA itself.  During the loading screens (and there are a lot of those—this is a slow app) it will give you either NRA facts or gun safety tips.  And of course the front page has links to information about the NRA, gun safety training classes, etc.  They hope to recruit people with this.

Of course if they wanted to do that, they should have done a much better job with the app.  Simply awful.

But if they fix the controls and stop it from being so “crashy,” it will be just okay.  Of course if you want a better “pointless shooting” app, you could try Zombie Gunship, where you shoot zombies from a plane.  It’s a buck today, but it was free for me, with all kinds of things like progression and in-game goodies.  If you are looking for a little dumb fun while waiting at the pharmacy counter, or something like that, you could do much worse.

P.S.: Over in the App store the reviews sadly are about 99% based on what you think of the NRA.  Which I guess isn’t so bad with a free app, but it is annoying.

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My wife and I have lost our jobs due to the harassment of convicted terrorist Brett Kimberlin, including an attempt to get us killed and to frame me for a crime carrying a sentence of up to ten years.  I know that claim sounds fantastic, but if you read starting here, you will see absolute proof of these claims using documentary and video evidence.  If you would like to help in the fight to hold Mr. Kimberlin accountable, please hit the Blogger’s Defense Team button on the right.  And thank you.

Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.  And you can purchase my book (or borrow it for free if you have Amazon Prime), Archangel: A Novel of Alternate, Recent History here.  And you can read a little more about my novel, here.

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Disclaimer:

I have accused some people, particularly Brett Kimberlin, of reprehensible conduct.  In some cases, the conduct is even criminal.  In all cases, the only justice I want is through the appropriate legal process—such as the criminal justice system.  I do not want to see vigilante violence against any person or any threat of such violence.  This kind of conduct is not only morally wrong, but it is counter-productive.

In the particular case of Brett Kimberlin, I do not want you to even contact him.  Do not call him.  Do not write him a letter.  Do not write him an email.  Do not text-message him.  Do not engage in any kind of directed communication.  I say this in part because under Maryland law, that can quickly become harassment and I don’t want that to happen to him.

And for that matter, don’t go on his property.  Don’t sneak around and try to photograph him.  Frankly try not to even be within his field of vision.  Your behavior could quickly cross the line into harassment in that way too (not to mention trespass and other concerns).

And do not contact his organizations, either.  And most of all, leave his family alone.

The only exception to all that is that if you are reporting on this, there is of course nothing wrong with contacting him for things like his official response to any stories you might report.  And even then if he tells you to stop contacting him, obey that request.  That this is a key element in making out a harassment claim under Maryland law—that a person asks you to stop and you refuse.

And let me say something else.  In my heart of hearts, I don’t believe that any person supporting me has done any of the above.  But if any of you have, stop it, and if you haven’t don’t start.