Players fire the NES Zapper at a CRT television,[7] with three attempts per round to shoot ducks and clay pigeons.

In 1986, the nationwide launch of the NES included the Deluxe Set bundle with pack-in games Duck Hunt and Gyromite.

Duck Hunt is a first-person shooter game with moving on-screen targets, firing the NES Zapper light gun at a CRT television screen.

After every second round, a bonus stage has ducks flying out of the grass with the hunting dog occasionally jumping into the line of fire as a distraction.

According to Nintendo of America employee Jerry Momoda, the dog was made impossible to shoot on console releases to make the game more family friendly.

[16]: 45–46 Duck Hunt was inspired by a 1976 electronic toy version titled Beam Gun: Duck Hunt, part of the Beam Gun series, designed by Gunpei Yokoi and Masayuki Uemura for Nintendo.

The Action Set bundle of the NES in the late 1980s has one cartridge containing Duck Hunt and Super Mario Bros.[22] The Power Set bundle includes the Zapper, the Power Pad, and a 3-in-1 cartridge with Duck Hunt, World Class Track Meet, and Super Mario Bros.

[28] Upon release in arcades, Eddie Adlum of RePlay magazine praised Duck Hunt and Hogan's Alley as the "cream on the cake" among Nintendo VS. System and for successfully capturing the experience of older electro-mechanical gun games into video game format.

1UP.com users gave it an 8.7 out of 10,[29] and the GameSpot community rated the multi-cartridge of Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt at 9.1 out of 10.

Parish related Duck Hunt to the Wii Remote in that they made their respective consoles more approachable and reach a wider demographic.

[40] The dog makes a cameo appearance in the NES Zapper game Barker Bill's Trick Shooting, where he can be shot.

[42] In the games, the Duck Hunt team utilizes multiple attacks inspired by the light gun, including throwing clay pigeons, kicking an explosive version of the can from Hogan's Alley, summoning the cast of Wild Gunman to fire at opponents with their guns, or comically dodging shots fired at opponents from the Zapper.

Ultimate, and the team is featured in the June 2019 trailer announcing Banjo and Kazooie as downloadable content.

[45] In the 2015 film Pixels, the dog cameos as an achievement trophy sent to the protagonists by the aliens following their victory over the enemies of Centipede in London.