It still bothers me that I can't remember how or why I got a light gun for the PlayStation. I know I used it to play Die Hard Trilogy, and I'm fairly sure it was a straight up Guncon, which means it was made by Namco and probably shipped with Time Crisis, and yet I have no recollection of Time Crisis at all.
Did I get the light gun second hand? Am I thinking of a different light gun entirely? Did I even have a light gun of my own or was I borrowing it or playing at a friends house or something? These are questions with answers I'll never know, but here's a question with an answer I can: What's Time Crisis like?
There's only so much you can do in on-rails light gun shooters, but Namco added the one thing that was missing from them all until now - ducking into cover.
Most people in the arcades back then thought that light gun shooters were dangerous games. Now, if I were to stand up, I might be killed. But to us, behind this wooden crate, they're pretty safe - so to us, light gun shooters are safe games right here. We feel pretty safe. Do you feel safe?
Fun Times
It doesn't look like much, but Time Crisis, as seen in the arcades or on the faithful (albeit flickery) PlayStation port is rather cinematic. It's very simple as far as plot and characters go, don't get me wrong, but you know who the bad guys are and you know what's at stake before the first area gets moving and a literal 'Action!' is yelled out of the speakers.
As you'd imagine, there's not a whole lot to concern yourself with. So long as you can keep track of your ammunition and health, the game is mostly a case of aiming accurately and pulling the trigger before your target pulls theirs.
An uncountable number of foes appear from pocket dimensions to harass you from behind crates or on ledges. They'll go down in one hit, regardless of where that hit is (how generous), but you'll still have to clip them as they roll in, or pop out of cover, or drop down on you from above, and if you end up getting overwhelmed at these swarms of enemy grunts, you'll see a familiar phrase rear it's ugly head rather often...
You'll only play with the one pistol throughout the short story of saving the Presidents daughter, but you'll use it to shoot an awful lot of guys, as well as blow up helicopters and end the dreams of a few bosses too.
Both the Guncon and its arcade counterpart have a bit of weight to them, so your actions with your weapons seem somewhat meaningful, especially with the blowback of the arcades gun. You're pulled out of the experience every time you duck into cover and watch your characters viewpoint duck but your own view remaining stationary (unless you roleplay ducking in the arcades or something), but the whole ducking mechanic turns the game from a virtual shooting gallery into an action movie.
The PlayStation version (or certainly the way I've set up the emulation) has ducking set to the reload button, which is at the business end of the Guncon. It's not exactly thematic, but you work with what you've got, I suppose. The arcade original, on the other hand, required you to step on a peddle to duck into and out of cover. You have a gun in your hand for shooting, and use the cabinet itself for cover, which works fairly well.
I know this because I unexpectedly found a Time Crisis cabinet in the wild, buried in a hotel that does not really cater to videogamers, or indeed those of us who are under 40 or so. But there was a cabinet, and I made use of it until the credits ran.
Credits ran out, I mean. Christ, no, I wasn't good enough to finish the game on the first attempt. Just look at me and my pink gun.
The trigger was a little sluggish, but the gun was weighty. I wasn't as plagued by reloading problems, probably because I ducked into cover more often. Maybe that's because I felt more involved when stood up with a gun than sat down with a controller. I still didn't get too far, but not to worry: I could read the story on the cabinet itself.
Were it not for a ridiculously placed screw to hold the panels together...
Frustrations
Time Crisis is perhaps too fun when it comes to shooting that you wish your gun would hold just a few more rounds in it. You wish you could spend more time out of cover and shooting things, instead of ducking behind cover, even if just for a split second - which is more than enough to trigger and complete a reload.
These screens are thematically interesting, and they serve a purpose, but spend too long in here and you are eating through your strict time limit for the section, which is constantly ticking to remind you that you should be seeing stuff like this.
For a few seconds at least, until this word makes another appearance.
Time Crisis is very stop-start, and while scenes flow into each other and we meander through a space that makes some sense, it can start to feel a little disjointed. The problem is not that you go from a submarine hangar to a massive diagonal cargo lift to a castle courtyard in the space of a few minutes, but that you do so a few seconds at a time, killing all the enemies in one section before walking to the next a few feet away, killing another ten enemies, walking another ten feet, all the while getting reminded when gameplay will resume with an 'Action!'...
Final Word
On the one hand, Time Crisis is an arcade action title designed for a quick dose of entertainment, which it provides. On the other hand, it set itself up for a semi-serious take on the genre that could have asked players to be much more careful with their actions in the open.
I think that paragraph can be used as proof that I don't know shit when it comes to game design. Obviously, the first choice was better - better for the time, the place, the target audience, the lot.
Did I like the ducking mechanic? Yeah. I did. I liked it when it made sense within the environment, especially. When you encounter a heavy hook at head level, I want to duck. When you round a corner and see four enemies already aiming at you, I want to duck. When you've blown an entire magazine at nothing but air, I don't want to duck. I probably ought to for a safe reload, but I don't want to, necessarily. I want to keep shooting because my aim is there or thereabouts, or the target is one or two hits away from death. But no, a duck into cover and the scene is subtly reset when I return.
Time Crisis is definitely worth a play with a light gun, preferably in the arcades, though whatever graphic settings I had for the PlayStation emulation were pretty good in my opinion too. Am I moaning too much about it? Probably yeah. I must be trying to cover up my lack of skill.
I had fun. I could have had more fun, but didn't, and that was probably my fault more than Time Crisis' fault. Does that answer my question on what Time Crisis is like? I sure hope so.
Fun Facts
While there are no useful indicators as to when a problematic bullet will hit you in the face, your opposition wears different clothing according to how accurate their shots will be, suggesting that you shoot those wearing red first, rather than blue, for example.
Time Crisis, developed by Namco, first released in 1995.
Versions played: Arcade, 1995.
PlayStation, 1997, via emulation.
Versions watched: Arcade, 1995 (Skeleton videogame and arcade's channel)
PlayStation, 1997 (World of Longplays)