Time Crisis is a light gun shooter arcade game released by Namco in 1995. It was later ported for the PlayStation in 1997, bundled with the Guncon light gun controller.
Time Crisis is a three-dimensional first person rail shooter similar to Virtua Cop and The House of the Dead installments, in which the player holds a light gun and goes through the motions of firing at on-screen enemies. Time Crisis is best known for its cover system, in which players can duck behind cover to avoid enemy fire and reload his weapon. There are three stages, each consisting of three areas and a boss battle. Unique features are described here in:
Time Crisis is a first-person on-rails light gun shooter series of arcade video games by Namco. The first installment of the series was released in the arcades in 1995 and later ported to the PlayStation consoles.
The setting of each Time Crisis revolves around a serious threat to usually one nation. However, some games have involved a threat to either the world (as in Time Crisis II) or the protagonist (as in Time Crisis: Project Titan). The V.S.S.E. (Vital Situation, Swift-Elimination), a covert organization, must send in its highly skilled agents to eliminate any security threats. The first Time Crisis had three stages with four screens (areas where fighting occurs) each. The second and third installments have three stages, each with three screens. The fourth installment adds a prologue for a total of 4 stages each with three screens (with the exception of the prologue, which has only one screens). The fifth installment has an exclusive upgrade kit version of (True Mastermind edition) to double the stages from 3 to 6, the largest in the series.
Time Crisis II is a light gun arcade game and the second installment in Namco's Time Crisis series, introducing co-operative multiplayer to the franchise. It was first released in arcades in March 1997, with an enhanced port released on the PlayStation 2 in October 2001, bundled with the GunCon 2 controller (G-Con 2 in Europe). A port for the Sega Dreamcast was in development, but was cancelled and never released.
Time Crisis II was released utilizing Namco's System 23 arcade board in 1997, and was ported to PlayStation 2 (with enhanced graphics and polygon textures) in 2001. The game utilizes the foot pedal system, just like Time Crisis, where players can shoot or hide from enemy fire. One modification to the hide and attack system was the "crisis flash" system which alerts the players whether or not the enemy's attack would cause a direct hit, a feature not present in its first predecessor, Time Crisis. When pressing down on the pedal, the player comes out of hiding, being able to shoot the enemies. Releasing the pedal puts the player behind cover to avoid critical bullets and reload the weapon, though the player cannot shoot whilst hiding. Certain sections of the game give players a machine gun with unlimited ammo.
Time Crisis 3 is the third installment of the Time Crisis arcade series. Like its previous predecessor, Time Crisis II, it allows for two players to cooperate in a link play environment and has the Time Crisis signature pedal system for hiding and advancing and the first in the series to change or select weapons. It was later ported to the PlayStation 2.
Time Crisis 3 incorporates a new type of weapons system allowing the player to switch between the standard 9-round handgun, a fully automatic machine gun that can hold 200 rounds, a shotgun with 50 rounds and a 5-round grenade launcher with powerful splash damage. Only the handgun has unlimited ammunition, though players can shoot yellow-clad soldiers to gain ammunition for their other weapons. This feature was later used in the port of Crisis Zone, with some changes.
The game also refines the crisis flash system which life-threatening shots are brighter, making pedal-releasing advisories easier.
This title was later released for the PlayStation 2, together with a side story featuring Alicia Winston as a player, who is only an unplayable supporter in the arcade version of the game. Gameplay for Alicia is, for the most part, the same as the regular campaign, with occasional sections in which the player must use a Sniper Rifle to deal with enemy snipers. Unlike Time Crisis and Time Crisis II, the home console port features plot elements, features, and weapons not found in its arcade counterpart. As with the PlayStation 2 version of Time Crisis II, players can access the Crisis Mission exercise menu through prolonged gameplay.
Time Crisis 4 is the fourth installment in Namco's Time Crisis series which introduces new features to the cover-based light gun shooter gameplay engine of its predecessors alongside a new story and roster of characters. It was initially released as an arcade game in 2006, and was ported in 2007 for PlayStation 3, with the Guncon 3 light gun peripheral and features a new first-person shooter mode. It was later re-released as part of Time Crisis: Razing Storm with support for the PlayStation Move controller but without the first-person shooter mode.
The game opens in California, where intelligence officials from both the U.S. military and the paramilitary V.S.S.E. organization learn about a top secret weapon targeted for terrorists' smuggling and their plot. William Rush infiltrates a pier to gather more information, and finds that the enemy has already acquired the insect-like weapons (codenamed "Terror Bite"). After being told by Elizabeth Conway about an information leak incident at the airport, Rush then heads to the airport to help VSSE agents Giorgio Bruno and Evan Bernard who had been sent to stop the weapons trade. They escape the airport by helicopter only to find out that one of the terrorists behind the weapons trade, Marcus Black, is escaping by truck. Giorgio and Evan shoot the two rear tires of Marcus' truck with a sniper rifle and secure it from enemy attack before facing Marcus himself. After killing Marcus, they discover U.S. Army dog tags on the enemies' bodies, meaning that they are not terrorists, prompting them to "do some more investigation".