I sort of feel sorry for kids who have to play watered down non-violent shooters. What they really want to play is Halo, but they're stuck with paint ball shooters or something with the Nerf (tm) license. Or something literally watered down in the case of Water Warfare, which is available as a Wiiware download this week from Hudson Soft, the folks responsible for the passable alien bug killing shooter, Onslaught. Until The Conduit was released, Onslaught was one of the better instances of how to use the Wii controls to do a shooter.

Water Warfare is an awfully earnest name for a game. I actually entertained the thought that it might be some sort of modern naval combat sim in which I had to position Arleigh Burke cruisers along picket lines, deploy sonar buoys, and skirt under thermoclines. The above screenshot disabused me of that notion.

But still, Water Warfare? If I was making a squirt gun shooter, I definitely would have tried to work in the word "squirt". In fact, the press release stumbles across a far better name for the game:

In this fast-paced non-violent game, players can run around playgrounds and beaches and soak each other with squirt guns. With different types of guns, bonus items, and offline and online multiplayer, there's tons of squirt gun fun to be had!