The new Time Crisis is a pretty good port of a great port of an amazing game. It still is not enough to save it.
The original Time Crisis arcade machine is one of the all-time great light gun games. I’d go so far as to say it’s in the top 20 arcade games, period. In an era that was full of really solid “stand-and-shoot” and rail shooter games, Time Crisis immediately stood out as the first major cover light gun game. The cabinet came with a best-in-class light gun and an innovative cover pedal. Seeing it for the first time in person was visually arresting—it caught my attention the same way Dragon’s Lair did.
The attract mode frames the action like a movie, introducing the characters like you already know them. The story is exactly as deep as it needs to be. Go shoot through the castle and save the president’s daughter. You begin the game in cover. Totally safe, but with your time limit ticking down. You step on the real-life pedal to jump into the action. When you pull the trigger, the slide recoils. The gun also has a really nice heft to it, outclassing the Area 51 and House of the Dead-style guns.
What A Time Crisis
You go back into cover to reload or to dodge incoming fire. Every second is a risk-reward proposition as you try to make your way through the levels quickly enough—gaining small chunks of time for taking out special enemies or larger chunks for clearing a section. Each stage has three main sections followed by a boss fight. These can get particularly tense as you try to balance dangerous attack patterns with your timer running down. In full, Time Crisis’ quality and importance to the genre are beyond reproach, and I believe that the twenty-year-old Time Crisis arcade machine also meets or exceeds all modern expectations.
So when we talk about Time Crisis, the question is never, “Is the game good?” The question is, “How is the port?” Time Crisis arcade has one of the best light gun peripherals ever put out: the innovative pedal, the dynamic risk-reward concept, great sound design, solid enemy variety, and very nicely designed levels.
The PS1 version keeps almost all of that and adds a new campaign. The pedal is replaced by a button on the side of the gun, if you have it, or a button on the controller. PS1 Time Crisis with the Guncon is one of the best in-home arcade experiences you can have. As a modernization of the PS1 Time Crisis, the PS4/PS5 Time Crisis is only fine.
Going Through The Motions
Over the years I’ve amassed a deeply unfortunate collection of peripherals. I’ve got two Move controllers, a PlayStation camera, and a PlayStation Aim (really just a Move controller, but it looks like a rifle made from PVC pipe). I also have a pedal peripheral that came with my racing wheel. But none of that is supported. There is no pedal and, worse, there is no gun. This is the biggest mark against the game by a wide margin.
Your options are controlling a targeting reticule with the directional pad (awful and slow) or aiming with the controller’s built-in gyro function (pretty good, actually). The game does an awful job of telling you what any of the buttons do, but once you figure it out on your own, it’s fairly intuitive. R1 acts as your pedal, Circle shoots, and Triangle recenters your targeting reticule once your gyro starts drifting off center. It gets off—just about all the time—but a quick tap to fix it isn’t too bad. You can also remap the buttons if you care to.
Nostalgia Fuel
The best way to play Time Crisis is to be a kid in 1995 and play Time Crisis in an arcade. The second best way to play Time Crisis is to drive 4 hours both ways to Bartari (101 Adams Ave.). Scranton, PA 18510) with a friend and a cup full of quarters and heckle each other while taking turns. This one will only work if you live within roughly 250 miles of Scranton. Playing on the PS4/PS5 with gyro controls is at least the fourth or fifth best way to play Time Crisis, though.
I think this is probably the most fun you can have playing Time Crisis without a gun peripheral. But I’m not sure whether it’s really worth playing without a gun. If you already subscribe to the appropriate PlayStation Plus tier, you should try it out for the low cost of “no additional charge.” I paid $10 for it, and it’s not the worst value I’ve gotten out of a game purchase, but it’s certainly not the best. I don’t think I’ll want to spend more than maybe 6-8 hours on this one.
Accessibility
Many enemies wear the same outfit in different colors. Orange units give crucial bonus time, red units are very dangerous, and blue units are basic Stormtrooper types. Effective play hinges on identifying and prioritizing the various threats on screen. In my test, a colorblind player was able to differentiate the units when looking at a still image but had difficulty processing the various colors quickly in a video. Explosive crates are key to completing some areas quickly, but visually impaired players may have difficulty identifying the relatively small in-game label.
The game has an Easy mode, which gives you two extra health, but doesn’t appear to change enemy patterns or fire rates. If you are already struggling with the gameplay, the Easy mode is unlikely to help you much. If you run out of health, you can continue up to nine times. There is no way to increase your continues. Like many modern emulated titles, though, it does have a built-in rewind mode. Using this, any player should be able to complete the game.
The sound effects and cheesy voice acting are fun, but I don’t believe a hard-of-hearing player would have any significant gameplay issues. I found that the best way to use the gyro controls was to stand about 10 feet away from the TV. Sitting was more comfortable, but I did have to recenter the gyro more often. Players with less space may find the gyro too twitchy. There is no way to change gyro sensitivity.
Verdict
Full credit where it is due—retroactively adding gyro functionality to a PS1 game is an impressive technical achievement, but it’s still overshadowed by the absence of a gun option. A trophy list would have also been a nice addition. Gameplay is smooth, but there’s often stuttering during loading or cinematics. Unfortunately, I don’t think this Time Crisis port has much to offer beyond two or three sessions of casual diversion. It’s good for what it is, but it mostly reminds me of one of the better versions of the game I wish I was playing instead.
Reviewed for PlayStation 5.
Developer/Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment America Inc.
Release Date: Out now
Pros
- Brand new gyro controls
- Same old nostalgic-filled gameplay
Cons
- Technical issues abound
- Feels like a barebones port
- Lacks the impact of the arcade rail gun
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Middling
