Time Crisis

"After revolutionizing the Light Gun Genre with OODLES of features..."

Namco is just one awesome company---always willing to find ways to improve a stagnating genre piece by piece. However, Namco uses gameplay in order to sell its products. Time Crisis, the light gun arcade hit that revolutionized the Light Gun Genre 4 years ago, still stands tall for all the fast and frantic gameplay.

To start out this review, Time Crisis IS REALLY HEAVY IN STORY. This means that you will be seeing all these scenes of story as you go further through the game. All the polygons and the acting have been faithfully done. Running under System Super 22, Time Crisis moves at a Tekken-esque 60 Frames Per Second. This allows the game to display flicker-free cinema scenes, and the polygons move surpisingly smooth in these scenes. The slowdown scenes are also impressive, just like these slowdown scenes were in Tekken (alas, "The Replay Animation").

Now here's the MAIN DISH: Gameplay!!!! It's only natural that Namco uses Gameplay to sell their products but Time Crisis was one light gun game that the players were really sold on. An Action pedal allowed you crouch to avoid direct hits and to reload your gun. It also allowed you to attack whenever you're ready. This allows the player to dodge blows that might be fatal to the amount of lives you have. A nice twist and turn over here.

Like the Point Blank Games, Time Crisis features a highly-tested gun that uses an internal lens instead of an infrared sensor for enhanced accuracy. The internal lens allows it to keep the image fresh and to "directly" point to the image you pull the trigger at. Not only the internal lens feature helps keep the image fresh, but the gun has a simulated recoil feature to add the realism of using a simulated DESERT EAGLE.

With this game, look for a challenge that won't quit because even with the Action Pedal and Namco's trademark "Internal Lens" Light Gun, there's a strict time limit that ensures that you can't hide forever, so you have to move quickly. NOW THIS REALLY GIVES THE GAME ITS NAME!!! Although Beginners will be worrying about the amount of lives they have (You usually have 3 lives to start), it's the time that you have to really worry about because even if you clear a part of a stage, the time is ticking and ticking like nuts and in order to get the highest score, you have to find the FASTEST AND MOST VALIANT way to clear a stage and to even defeat the bosses. Yes. The bosses can prove to be challenging and at times they have pretty confusing patterns and the help the bosses have may be overwhelming at times, so it's always helps to have quick reflexes. Now that's how I define gameplay.

The Graphics overall are highly exceptional. The animation hits an eye-candy 60FPS and the polygons are highly detailed. Nothing impresses me more than a trademarked committment to a schedule of smooth 60FPS games.

Overall, this is one light gun game that adds twists and turns to a stagnating genre. With the Action Pedal, super-strict Time Limit, and it's *powerful* gameplay, this game makes you feel like you are involved in a critical situation in real-life.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/09/00, Updated 04/07/02