Developer: Nex | Publisher: Namco | Format: PS3

Reviewer: Craig Jay Gallagher Light Gun
games are one of the last remnants of a bygone age valiantly struggling
for some sort of relevance in a market where the novelty of pointing a
piece of plastic at your TV has worn off.

The Time Crisis franchise was
the last game to bring anything of note to the genre and here in it’s
fourth outing, it’s first on the PS3 it combines traditional lightgun
duck and shoot fare with the freedom of a traditional FPS.

Like the Wii sensor bar the new G-Con3 comes with a sensor, though
unlike the sleek and simple Wii variant the G-Cons sensor consists of
two rather imposing sensors which are placed at either end of your TV.

The gun its self is a large orange contraption which resembles a much
bigger version of the G-Con2 with the added bonus of a jutting handle
to the left of the barrel, some extra buttons and an analogue stick at
the back. These buttons and sticks are used to control the character in
the game. This redesign actually turns a rather cumbersome old model
into a comfortable and natural feeling piece of equipment, granted that
you are in fact right handed.

Playing Time Crisis 4 is a rather mixed bag. The traditional option
of duck and shoot is fully explored in the arcade. Taking a handgun,
shotgun, grenade launcher or submachine gun you can literally lose
yourself in a barrage of mad cap violence. It’s generic as hell and
takes it’s self far too seriously but at the end of the day it delivers
exactly what it promises. The story involves some terrorist group with
evil intentions and the three law enforcement officers attempting to
thwart said evil plans.

The main thrust of the game is based around the games main selling
point, the modernisation of light gun gaming. The new revolutionary
step for the genre so to speak. Or it would be if it all didn’t feel
so, meh. The controls are the same as in any FPS, you use the left
analogue stick to move and the other one to look up down and all
around. The only difference is that you still use the light gun to aim.

The rudimentary implantation of this development is decently done even
if some aspects are shockingly bad. One encounter between yourself and
a helicopter is torturous due to the fact that tracking a helicopter
with your gun is extremely difficult when moving and aiming at the same
time.

If TC4 had been released a decade ago it would have been a landmark
title, as it stands it’s an adequate distraction. While far from the
promised next step for FPS it still remains a decent time waster which
arcade fans will lap up. For everyone else there’s Call of Duty 4.

Games reviews thanks to Irish games website GamesToaster.com.