Time isn’t on your side. Review

Time isn’t on your side.

Let’s be honest, people – shooting games just don’t work with standard controllers.
When the Silent Scope series was released for
the PS2, secret agents had to fight the bad guys with a targeting cursor and a
dual shock controller. What’s up with that? Does this
guy actually think he’s going to save the world? He’d probably do more damage
with a McDonald’s straw and some spit wads marinated in finely aged cow drool.

But today dawns brighter, my brothers in arms. Namco has answered our prayers.
Finally, the PS2 has a light gun game with an actual light gun! Warm up those
trigger fingers, Time Crisis 2 is here.

The PS2 version of Time Crisis 2 is pretty much an exact translation
of the arcade hit. The graphics are spot on and “The Rock” (this Rock,
not this Rock) style music is
perfect. The voice acting gets the golden cheese award, but since I have yet
to see an arcade shooter with good voice acting, it’s pretty much expected.
All that’s missing from the arcade experience are a few screaming kids, a colorful
assortment of gum stuck to the floor, and a really big TV screen.

Like every other shooting game, you’re a secret agent out to stop bad guys
from doing bad things. Ninja-esque enemies are plentiful and are very skilled
at stopping bullets with their bodies. A simple story for a simple game. On
to the armory!

Your weapon of choice? The brightly colored Guncon 2, which comes packaged
with the game for a mere $10 more than buying the game on its own. The original
PSX Guncon is also compatible for those of you that bought the original Time
Crisis, so all of you vets can hang on to “Old Faithful.”

The gameplay is just like the arcade. You duck and hide behind objects, and
pop out to face your enemies with the simple push of a button. It’s much more
interesting than the traditional fixed rail ‘target shooting’ formula.

As expected, the Arcade mode is pretty short. Scratch that – it’s REALLY short.
Any decent shot will beat it in about 20 minutes. Between the three stages of
the game, it should only take a few tries to pass the game on the default settings.
The more adventurous agents can crank up the difficulty, but I would recommend
doing it before you first start playing.

Then again, you’ll definitely want to be able to pass the game for the unlockable
goodies. One of these is Crisis Mission, which puts you through different scenarios.
Some tasks include killing an enemy from a moving train with a single shot,
defeating a specific number of enemies or scoring a certain amount of points
in a limited amount of time.

Fortunately, you won’t have to pass the game to get the other modes like Agent
Trainer, Quick & Crash, and Shoot Away 2. Agent Trainer is your basic target
practice mode, Quick & Crash is a neat quick draw mode, and Shoot Away 2 is
a Namco skeet shooting game from back in the day. It’s really not a bad set
of extras for an arcade shooter.

All of these extra games are fine and dandy, but if you want some serious fun,
make sure to use the Double Gun option. Naturally, you’ll need two light guns
to play this mode, so if you only have one, you’ll be missing out. Basically,
you just go though the Arcade mode with a gun in each hand, lighting up enemies
with twice the firepower. And as a guy who regularly dropped a dollar into the
arcade machine just to play with
both guns, I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am that this feature is
included.

The multiplayer game is also strong. You can play it with a split-screen or
even I-linked if you’re lucky enough to have all the necessary components. It’s
a great experience for all of those hot dates with other
gamers!

But again, it won’t be a very long experience. I really wish this game
took longer, maybe a few extra levels or something. As it stands, it’s way too
short. But if your trigger finger is lookin’ for a good time, grab a copy of
Time Crisis 2. It’s got everything you’re looking for in an arcade shooter
and more. Just don’t expect it to last forever.