Time Crisis

The Good
The gameplay's great for 1996 arcade games everywhere; it's the perfect arcade game to play at a friend's birthday party or at the pub. It's simple but surprisingly effective.

The Bad
It's a rail shooter and though I find it a part of its charm others may be dissuaded by that aspect. I understand though I respectfully disagree with that.

The Bottom Line
It's Die Hard mixed with Lupin III (which is essentially an anime Indiana Jones and James Bond combo with trace elements of Tintin and Scooby Doo). And it's as 90s as 90s gaming can possibly get!

The Good
Time Crisis is much like many of the better 3d light gun games and every gun game before hand. you shoot, you reload etc. But in Time Crisis you are given the added dimension of hiding. Each gunfight situates you behind an object and you must leap out and fire at your enemies but hide again to avoid being shot yourself. This feature brings a different kind of skill to the standard light gun fare. Audio is great with loud booming gunshots and some cool action movie style music that really gets the adrenaline pumping. The arcade version of the game is faithfully replicated and plays identically to its coin-op father. This is great by itself but what about extras? Gun games are always short games which is fine for the arcade but a console version needs additional features to sustain interest. Namco have you covered here with a new mode called 'special'. In this mode you are given a new mission to undertake with new levels, music, enemies and bosses. This mode has diverging pathways and 3 different endings too which really add to the experience. Put simply, 'special' mode is another Time Crisis style gun game to play so this package really has two great gun games on one disc.

The Bad
The translation looks fair, but doesn't match the arcade version in terms of visual quality. The faithfulness of the translation also means that naturally, there are the same faults. The duck and cover gameplay is interesting but it also creates a few problems, the most prominent of which is the way that you can sometimes pop up from behind your hiding spot and be shot immediately with no way of dodging or being able to know that the shot was coming. This can prove most frustrating and result in a few cheap hits. Also it is a necessity to own a light gun, as is the case with all light gun games, preferably Namcos own G-Con as playing without one is extremely dull.

The Bottom Line
Time Crisis is a good gun game. While it's no House of the Dead 2 or Confidential Mission, it's certainly worth picking up if you like the genre and are still sticking with the Playstation.