Why Time Crisis?

I've always heard good things about Time Crisis throughout my life, but never got a chance to play it. By the time had the chance to go to the arcade regularly, arcade games turned into gambling for kids via redemption games. Such as the case for the North American arcade scene.

Luckily, there are still people passionate out there about retro arcade games, and arcade games in general. I learned about such an arcade about 90 minutes north of me that hosts nothing but retro arcade games. Naturally, Time Crisis was there in its full glory, CRT and all.

How was the story?

With any arcade game, it's going to be difficult to make a compelling story. Some games, even from 1995, have longer cutscenes than it takes to beat Time Crisis. Because of the arcade nature, I didn't actually catch any of the characters' names, despite trying to focus on the story while available.

The story was very basic, but that allowed it to be easy to follow and understand what your motivation is. A bad guy wants to take over “The Nation” and kidnaps the presidents' daughter of said “Nation”. In typical cool guy fasion, you defeat the guy and get the girl.

Were the graphics and audio any good?

I don't have much to compare it to, but it looked wonderful for a game that predates the PlayStation. I assume the hardware running the game is stronger than the PlayStation, since the home console version of Time Crisis looks slightly worse.

The audio was… fine, for an arcade. The surrounding machines overpowered a lot of the audio, which is usually the fault of the other cabinets and not necessarily the speakers. I didn't notice this until I watched a YouTube gameplay video, but the music is very well done.

Most importantly, did you enjoy the gameplay?

I had an amazing time playing Time Crisis. I thought the gameplay was very fun for a short, rail shooter, arcade experience. With that said, it's important to remember that this was the first game in the series. I did have some issues with it, but let's start with the good rather than the “not as good”.

The formula has you shooting enemies with a pistol and hiding behind cover. Hiding behind cover reloads your weapon and protects you from damage. here's also a time limit which prevents you from hiding the entire time. You progress through three stages and three areas per stage, usually ending in a boss fight. The enemies you fight have tiers of importance, which you can tell by what they're wearing. Some exist to distract you, while others are there to make you react quickly or take damage. If you take damage three times, your game is over. You can continue where you died by spending more tokens.

The entire game takes place within and around a castle. I found this to be okay, given it's a short 20-minute experience. There were enough interesting spaces within the castle to fill out each stage and keep it fresh. The same can be said about the enemies. There was a surprising level of variance between each enemy type. The bosses were all unique as well, although, the difficulty of them (and the entire game) was wildly skewed. The first boss was effortless, and I could barely tell he was a boss. The second boss, the main villain, was unbelievably challenging. He was definitely designed to eat up your tokens. It did make for a very epic fight, though. The final boss, the main villain's right-hand man, was decently easy. If you had good reaction time, you could take him down without losing any health.

Because it's an arcade game, there are many times when the game tries to make you take damage. This is something that's been carried to arcade games today, however, if you're good enough, they give you a chance to dodge. They have clear indicators when you're about to get hit, allowing skilled players to react accordingly. However, due to the screen quality at arcades, it can be a little difficult with no experience.

Aside from the difficulty being skewed, the only other thing I didn't like was the enemy placement in some locations. I had numerous issues with the light gun not hitting enemies at the top of the screen. I had to hold the gun way up in the air to hit them, and even this didn't help much, as it wasn't very accurate. This cost me a couple of lives, sadly, but it only happened twice throughout the whole game.

Do you think it has any replay value?

For most people, you're going to have to commute to an arcade and spend real money every time you want to play. It definitely has replay value in the form of increasing your accuracy and finishing with a faster time. Doing this will give you skill points out of ten. I, personally, won't be playing it again for those reasons, but if you're a fan and have the means, totally. Push for a better time and more skill points.

Does the game appeal to completionists at all?

I'd say beating it once is enough to consider it complete. You don't get anything extra for getting a better accuracy, faster time, or more skill points.

Gameplay Stats (WIP Design)

I completed the game on 1 November 2024. It took me 18 minutes and 15 seconds. I got a 45% accuracy and 3/10 skill points.