Time Crisis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article is about the first game in the series. For information on the series as a whole, see Time Crisis series.
| 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+ |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, PlayStation |
| Input | Light gun |
| Arcade cabinet | Upright |
| Arcade system(s) | 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). 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 1 millennium, the Garo Family ruled Sercia with an iron fist. Year after year, the Garo Family's grip became weaker until in 1995, a covert "problem-solving" intelligence agency called the VSSE (Vital Situation, Swift Elimination) sent out its then best agent William MacPherson (who would later become the president at the time the incident occurred) to lead the resistance in overthrowing the Garo Family and to democratize Sercia. MacPherson succeeded in destroying the imperial rule, resulting in free elections. It has become obvious that William MacPherson would become the first president of the Sercian Republic with the Sercian Resistance Leader being his Vice President. The Republic of Sercia was then founded in January 1996.
However, the security of the newly-formed republic was not as secure as it seemed. Wild Dog, acting under orders from a scorned monarch named Sherudo Garo, kidnaps William's daughter Rachel in order to pressurize President MacPherson to hand control back to him in exchange for Rachel's life. What makes matters worse is that Sherudo gives President MacPherson only up to sunset of the next day in order to resign his position as President of the Republic and declare Sherudo dictator for life. President MacPherson then sends a video to the VSSE Grand Director and VSSE Team Director Porter Davis regarding this atrocity. Recognizing the gravity of the situation, Porter Davis sends an encrypted message through cyberspace, stating that if "The One-Man Army", (Richard Miller), "can't rescue Rachel MacPherson and bring the situation under control, no one can."
[edit] Executing the rescue
Following the emergency order from the directorship, Richard boards the castle basement to deal with the first wave of Wild Dog guards. Miller makes his way towards the grassyards and inside a kitchen table where Rachel MacPherson is being held. However, the ninja assassin Moz complicates the rescue by setting off a trap. After defeating Moz, Richard coaxes him into revealing Rachel's whereabouts. Moz points out that the clock tower will be Richard's next stop but thinks that Rachel should by dead now. Richard doesn't take Moz's comments seriously and continues on.
Richard then infiltrates the hallways, a jewelry room, and makes his way up to the Clock Tower where Rachel has been transferred. As Richard approaches Rachel, knives start flying across the room, cutting Richard off. The scorned monarch, Sherudo Garo, greets Richard in the following dialogue:
- My name is Sherudo. I rule this nation now. So you are the fool that came to rescue Rachel. Since you have travelled this far, be my guest and let me entertain you!!! (knives pop out of Sherudo's hands)
A Gun-versus-Knife fight ensues between Richard and Sherudo, ending with Richard fatally wounding Sherudo. Unfortunately, Wild Dog has re-kidnapped Rachel, attempting to press Richard's patience. Wild Dog cuts Richard off and then attempts to escape with Rachel. Richard then finds a way to catch up with Wild Dog, who tries Rachel away from Richard's sight. Wild Dog tries everything to hold Richard off with his last bastion of guards, but Richard manages to pin him right through the helicopter. Wild Dog then startes detonating the castle to ensure that Richard does not do anything stupid and attempts to escape with Rachel on a helicopter. Rachel then tries to run towards Richard but Wild Dog shoots Rachel in her arm. Richard, enraged about Rachel's condition, challenges Wild Dog to a fight. Richard shoots Wild Dog who then falls into an explosion and is presumed dead.
Richard takes Rachel with him in the helicopter and both Richard and Rachel escape the exploding castle.
[edit] Kantaris Deal
This was the side story made exclusive for PlayStation version of Time Crisis. Richard has received orders to infiltrate a mysterious hotel known as Chateau Du Luc operated by the beautiful but deadly Kantaris, leader of the smuggling network of the same name. Intel came up empty on Kantaris, but this didn't stop the VSSE to receive positive verification that Kantaris did supply arms to the Wild Dogs.
In this mission, players take routes depending on pre-set conditions. For example, if Richard was fast enough to complete a certain section, he will go onto Route A as opposed to Route B.
[edit] Enemies
The main concern for many players is that there's no telling whether or not a bullet will hit them, hence the color coding of the enemy troopers. The player eventually has to hide accordingly in order to ensure no direct hits are taken. The unannounced direct hit problem was ported over to Time Crisis: Project Titan.
- 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 Time Crisis series. When they first appear, the first shot they fire from their handguns will always hit Richard. They have excellent accuracy, and they even rarely miss. 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 straight at Richard with impressive accuracy, even though they rarely miss. 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
Although a rail shooter, light gun game, the mechanic pioneered by Time Crisis of popping out from behind cover went on to influence a number of third-person action games including WinBack, as well as Kill.Switch. The game Gears of Waralso makes use of this mechanic.
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
- KLOV entry for Time Crisis
- Arcade-History.com entry
- VSSE Global Network fan-site
