A few months ago, Hasbro announced a new line of Nerf guns, competing with the Nerf N-Strike series by offering a new, non-dart-based form of foam projectile. The company started showing off Nerf Vortex discs, and unveiled four new Nerf Vortex blasters to use them. Well, the Nerf Vortex
Instead of using compressed air to blast out foam darts, Nerf Vortex guns fling discs like little frisbees, sending them farther with less effort. Hasbro sent me the four new Nerf Vortex guns, and after spending some time with them I can safely say that they’re the go-to weapons if you want the most range without modding your weapons. They’re far from perfect, though.
The new guns are the Proton, Vigilon, Praxis, and Nitron, Vortex equivalents of the Nite Finder, Maverick, Raider, and Stampede. They’re notably alien in design, with green color schemes and more curvy, organic lines than N-Strike guns. They also look Liefeldian in their barel design; instead of round barrels, the Vortex guns have rectangular barrels for firing the discs. If you ever wondered how Cable’s guns worked, well, he must have been fighting Apocalypse with foam discs.
The Proton is a small, one-shot pistol that loads a dart into the back, cocking it in the process and firing it with a quick pull of the trigger. Despite its small size, it still shows respectable range. However, one shot isn’t much for a Nerf war, which is why I recommend immediately trading up to the Vigilon. While the Maverick is a revolver, the Vigilon is a pistol with a built-in magazine. Pressing the thumb lever opens a door on the side of the gun where you can drop in five Vortex discs, stacked evenly against a spring-loaded cylinder. After you close the door, you can cock and fire just like a Maverick. Because you can stack the discs, it’s much faster to reload than a Maverick, but you still have to handle the discs on their own because the magazine is built in.
The Praxis is the first of the Vortex guns to use the new Vortex magazine. While the N-Strike guns’ magazines are rectangular and their barrels are round, the Vortex guns’ barrels are rectangular and their magazines are round. The Vortex magazines are orange pipes that hold stacks of the discs and slide into round holes in the bottom of the Praxis and Nitron. Besides their shape, they effectively act just like dart magazines. Similarly, the Praxis and Nitron act just like the Recon/Deploy/Raider and Stampede. Slide the magazine in and cock and fire (with the Praxis) or hold the secondary trigger button down to spin up the motor and pull the trigger to fire (with the Nitron).
And how do the Vortex discs work? Pretty well. In fact, if you’re concerned about range, the Vortex blasters absolutely destroy every stock N-Strike gun. Thanks to the wonders of aerodynamics, the discs fly much farther than darts while keeping decent accuracy. However, since the discs are round and flat, a stiff breeze can throw them off far more than darts. Imagine little frisbees getting blown to the side from a gust and you’ll know just how vulnerable Vortex guns are to the wind. Also, the discs are green, so you’re going to lose a lot of them in the grass. These are indoor Nerf guns.
If you want to have a Nerf war outside, you should probably stick to N-Strike darts. If you want the longest reach without modding your gun for a cube war, the Vortex guns could be your new greatest weapon.
Next to the Stampede used with the Raider 35-shot drum magazine, of course. There is no greater weapon.
