Time Crisis
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| Time Crisis | |
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| Developer(s) | Namco |
| Publisher(s) | Namco |
| Designer(s) | Takashi Sano (supervisor) |
| Series | Time Crisis series |
| Release date(s) | 1995 (ARC) 1997 (PS1) |
| Genre(s) | Light gun |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T (Teen) ELSPA: 15+ OFLC (AU): M15+ |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, PlayStation |
| Input | Light gun |
| Arcade cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system(s) | Namco System Super 22 |
| Arcade display | Horizontal orientation, Raster, 640 x 480 resolution |
Time Crisis is a video game initially available in arcades and later released for the PlayStation and cell phones. A first person rail shooter similar to Virtua Cop and The House of the Dead, one of the distinguishing features of the arcade original was the presence of a foot pedal that controlled whether the player's character ducked behind cover (and was thus invulnerable but unable to shoot) or was in a standing position (and could thus attack but was vulnerable). Taking cover also reloaded the player's gun, whereas other games in this genre required the player to pull the trigger while pointing the gun off-screen to do so. A countdown clock, recharged by clearing an area of "bad guys", forces the player to take risks and stay up and vulnerable most of the time, shooting quickly at any enemy spotted on-sight.
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[edit] Story
The main plot of the original Time Crisis arcade release involves an attempted coup in the fictional republic of Sercia. For a millennium, the Garo family ruled Sercia with an iron fist. In 1995, the organization VSSE sent William MacPherson, who successfully toppled the Garo regime and became its first democratically elected president.
The last remaining member of the Garo family, Sherudo Garo, sought to recapture the throne from the hands of President MacPherson. He sends a mercenary named Wild Dog and captures the president's daughter, Rachel. Garo demands military secrets in return for Rachel's safe return or he will kill her by sunset. VSSE sends its best agent, Richard Miller (called the One-Man Army) to invade Garo's castle and rescue Rachel.
Miller makes his way up through the castle and finds Rachel and Garo. Garo pulls out his knives and they battle, which ends when Miller fatally wounds him. However, Wild Dog reappears, captures Rachel, and drags her away. Miller pursues Wild Dog, and it finally ends on a bridge just outside of the castle. Wild Dog begins detonating the castle and is planning to fly away on a helicopter. Miller shoots him, causing Wild Dog to drop his radio detonator. Miller and Rachel safely make it out as Wild Dog is engulfed in the explosion of the castle.
[edit] Kantaris deal
The Kantaris deal is a side story excluve to the PlayStation version of Time Crisis. Miller has received orders to infiltrate a mysterious hotel known as Chateau Du Luc, which is operated by Kantaris, leader of the smuggling network of the same name. The VSSE has received positive verification that Kantaris supplied arms to the Wild Dogs, and it is Miller's mission to disband this organization.
[edit] Enemies
The main concern for many players is that the game does not offer a detection system when an enemy is about to hit the player. Enemies in different colors have varying accuracies; for instance, soliders in blue have the worst accuracy, while soldiers in red have the best accuracy.
- Blue Soldiers: These enemies are the most common of all enemies in this arcade game. They have poor accuracy but they can still fire a lucky shot at Richard. They are armed with a handgun.
- Brown Soldiers: These enemies are also quite common. They act as commanders by leading a group of soldiers and ordering them to fire at Richard. They're also armed with a handgun but their accuracy is slightly better than the blue soldiers.
- Blue Soldiers with Shield: These enemies are fairly common. They protect themselves with a large shield to block Richard Miller's shots. They also carry a handgun, and their accuracy is the same as a blue soldier.
- Red Soldiers: They are arguably the most dangerous normal enemy in the series. When they first appear, the first shot they fire from their handguns will always hit Richard. Their accuracy is very high. Some of them even plan a surprise attack (i.e. a quick shot) the moment they come on to the screen. The frequency of the soldiers is fairly moderate.
- White Soldiers: They accompany Sherudo Garo and Wild Dog in the fight against Richard Miller. Their accuracy varies depending on what weapons they carry (from handguns to daggers).
- Orange Soldiers: Even though they are armed with handguns, these enemies never pull the trigger. They act as time bonus soldiers. Sometimes, they can be used as a distraction to the enemy's advantage. It is worth noting that the time bonus is based on how quick the player shoots them. The earlier they're shot, the higher the time bonus (5 seconds maximum).
- Machine Gunners: These enemies wear green clothing. Unlike the Red Soldiers, they can't get a direct hit with their first bullet but their constant firing makes them particularly dangerous, and they have excellent accuracy just like the red soldiers. The frequency of these soldiers is moderate.
- Bazooka Soldiers: These enemies, wearing light brown clothing, carry bazooka launchers, and they fire a single rocket that will hit Richard. Their accuracy is slightly higher than a red soldier. They don't appear too often in the game.
- Grenadiers: These enemies wear a yellow jacket, green pants, yellow hat and sunglasses. The grenadiers throw a stick grenade which always results in a direct hit but can be shot and detonated before it hits the player. They do not appear too often.
- Pole Soldiers: They wear the same clothings like the grenadiers. These enemies come up close to Richard and hit him in the face with an iron pole. Their attack is always a direct hit. Note that some of the white soldiers are armed with this kind of weapon. Like the grenadiers, they don't appear too often.
- Gray Clawmen: These enemies are somewhat rare. They first appear accompanying Moz, the leader of the clawmen wearing a gold mask and vest. Moz and the gray clawmen scratch Richard from up close and their attack is always a direct hit. They are extremely fast and hard to hit because they jump around a lot. Gray clawmen can be taken down in one shot while Moz takes 3 shots (as a boss).
- Helicopters: They are the rarest enemies of the game and the player will see these choppers twice. They are armed with chainguns meaning that their accuracy is extremely high. Even though they move slowly, they take a lot more hits to get shot down.
[edit] Mobile game
In 2006, Namco Networks released a mobile version of the game, which offers innovative use of the cell phone keypad to achieve the duck and shoot action without the foot pedal and GunCon.
[edit] Influences on other games
The mechanic pioneered by Time Crisis of using cover went on to influence a number of games like World Combat. Its influence is not limited to the arcade as a number of third-person action games including WinBack, Kill.Switch, and Gears of War have also adopted similar mechanics.
Richard Miller appears as a bonus character available to play as or against in Anna Kournikova's Smash Court Tennis, for the PlayStation, alongside fellow Namco characters including Reiko Nagase, Pac-Man, and Yoshimitsu and Heihachi Mishima in their Tekken 3 outfits.
[edit] External links
- Time Crisis at MobyGames
- Time Crisis at the Killer List of Videogames
- Arcade-History.com entry
- VSSE Global Network fan-site
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Time Crisis • II • 3 • 4 |
