With Time Crisis 4 the series has sort of come off the rails as far as the home console versions go. With this in mind I'm going to give Namco 5 ways in which the series could return to the former glories that made the games into one of my favourite series'.

1 - Make it about time again

In Time Crisis running out of time meant game over. In Time Crisis 3 running out of time means you lose a life. Given that in TC3 the army you're fighting are going to launch missiles if you run out of time I don't think just losing a life is worthy. Also put the clock back to a starting value of 60 seconds with a maximum of 99, the length of the station should then determine how much time is added at the time extend. The series is still fun to play but the 40 second timer that's refilled after every station completely removes the challenge of time, this is compounded by removing the feeling that time running out is the worst thing that can happen.


Time Crisis, the original, one of only 2 TC games with an actual time focus.

2 - Remove the life bars
Flamethrowers and machine gunners in Time Crisis 3 have health bars. Given that these enemies are very rarely a threat it seems pointless to give them health bars when more lethal enemies like rocket launchers and the dreaded red soldiers go down in one hit. I'm no fighter for realism but I want a guy to go down like a sack of hammers when I nail him in the head. This is linked to the point about time, whittling down a health bar only serves to artificially lengthen a station and that's something we really shouldn't have time to be dealing with.


Time Crisis 3, free health bar enemy at every station.

3 - Spinoff like mad
My favourite Time Crisis game is a spinoff. Time Crisis: Project Titan which follows on from the special PS1 only mission. If Time Crisis is to succeed outside the arcades its vital that these spinoffs are created to give a point to the gun once the main game has been dealt with. Its also a chance to try out new things for the series and see that way how they're recieved by the fanbase. Best case scenario its an innovation that works and is refined before being added to a later entry (the hiding system in TC4 first appeared in Project Titan), worst case scenario its an idea that doesn't work and the spinoff is discarded by the fans with no damage dealt to the series as a whole. Personally this is how I would've liked to see the FPS mode in TC4 dealt with, and on that subject...


Project Titan, the reason spinoffs need to exist in this series.

4 - Stop giving us shite extras
Here's the deal, either you enhance the home version from what came in the arcade with extra areas or a completely new mission or you just release the game as just the arcade port at a budget price (normal game price with the gun). I don't want that crap FPS mode in TC4 any more than I want herpes. The Special mission from TC1 though, and the rescue mode in TC3 however are excellent. That's what we as the fans want, just a new challenge to reward us for splashing out on an arcade port in 2008.


Time Crisis 4's FPS mode. What the hell were they thinking?

5 - Treat the G-Con with respect
The G-Con 45 is one of the greatest pieces of gaming hardware ever created as far as I'm concerned. The G-Con 2 is an improvement on a masterpiece. The G-Con 3 is an unholy sin. I'm not talking here about the HDTV sensors, I'm talking about the 2 analog sticks. We only need 1 for an FPS like you were trying to give us, we've been taught that by the Wii. Then there's another issue, its now 11 years since Time Crisis was ported to the PS1 so why the fuck does the home version of the G-Con STILL not have recoil? This is the feature I want more than anything else. Keep giving us shit extras, refuse to spinoff, keep the time limit how it is and keep life bars, but for the love of god give the gun what it has been sorely needing for years.


The G-Con 3, seriously what the fuck?

So there's my 5 step plan for bringing Time Crisis back to the glory it has always enjoyed in the arcades. Please Namco, I believe in you as a developer and a hardware maker so take at least one of these on board. I know Time Crisis can be a worthy franchise in this generation of consoles, I say that because I know that we as gamers will never truly tire of the joys of a lightgun, stupidly named heroes and villains and some of the most unintentionally hilarious voice acting ever.

>NJ