Time Crisis 2nd Strike
Tap, Tap, Tap = Bang, Bang, Bang.
Posted September 17, 2010
Do you remember pumping quarters into Time Crisis at your local arcade? Do you remember those red and blue plastic guns attached to the machine? Namco is reviving the Time Crisis franchise for handhelds, specifically the iPhone and iPod Touch. While you don’t have a lightgun to fire at the small iPhone screen, you obviously use your finger to fire the weapon and blow away the enemies populating the screen. The loose narrative follows Giorgio, a Jack Bauer-esqe super-secret agent that fires first, then fires again just to make sure. Giorgio’s job is to stop terrorists from killing thousands with nukes / nerve gas, thus he’s required to murder hundreds of poorly trained enemies to get to those point. This is an arcade shooter, so don’t expect quality story-telling.
Just like the original, you are racing against the clock. As you move along the linear path, you have to shoot all the henchmen before moving on. This adds more time to the clock. As previously mentioned, you shoot the enemies by tapping your finger on the screen. You also have the ability to crouch out of enemy fire and reload your handgun with the on screen buttons at the corners of the screen. Beyond the handgun, Giorgio also has the shotgun, machine gun and grenade launcher. The shotty is an excellent close quarter’s weapon and works best on the enclosed sections of the levels.
Unfortunately, the control scheme can be problematic due to the way that Namco wants you to hold the iPhone or iPod Touch. They want your hands on the corners of the handheld to tap the reload / dodge triggers. This makes shooting problematic as your hand often covers up potential targets. The faster method of shooting is holding the phone in one hand and tapping with a single finger to avoid covering the screen. This doesn’t make dodging or reloading easy though. The problem is exacerbated when targets are almost too small to hit accurately. It’s almost if the game was built for the iPad first and ported to the iPhone.
Like previous games, the enemies are targeted by color to designate their threat level to you. If Giorgio is pleted by one to many bullets the screen will flash red. Levels can be knocked out pretty quickly, but trial and error is required to memorize the pattern of enemy movement; thus compensating for the poor control scheme.
This seems like a poor pricing decision on Namco’s part, playing more on the Time Crisis name rather than delivering a quality experience to people who grew up with Time Crisis in the arcades. Time Crisis vets will probably knock out the game in a matter of a few hours, but become frustrated and bored of the design / control scheme of this rail shooter. Kids that grew up with Time Crisis won’t give this app another thought with much more advanced, higher quality and cheaper applications on the App Store.
Just like the original, you are racing against the clock. As you move along the linear path, you have to shoot all the henchmen before moving on. This adds more time to the clock. As previously mentioned, you shoot the enemies by tapping your finger on the screen. You also have the ability to crouch out of enemy fire and reload your handgun with the on screen buttons at the corners of the screen. Beyond the handgun, Giorgio also has the shotgun, machine gun and grenade launcher. The shotty is an excellent close quarter’s weapon and works best on the enclosed sections of the levels.
Unfortunately, the control scheme can be problematic due to the way that Namco wants you to hold the iPhone or iPod Touch. They want your hands on the corners of the handheld to tap the reload / dodge triggers. This makes shooting problematic as your hand often covers up potential targets. The faster method of shooting is holding the phone in one hand and tapping with a single finger to avoid covering the screen. This doesn’t make dodging or reloading easy though. The problem is exacerbated when targets are almost too small to hit accurately. It’s almost if the game was built for the iPad first and ported to the iPhone.
Like previous games, the enemies are targeted by color to designate their threat level to you. If Giorgio is pleted by one to many bullets the screen will flash red. Levels can be knocked out pretty quickly, but trial and error is required to memorize the pattern of enemy movement; thus compensating for the poor control scheme.
Graphics
- Visually, the game has not been upgraded for the Retina display of the iPhone 4 and the new iPod Touch players. The low resolution graphics are pretty ugly on the iPhone, but it does run smoothly. I have to wonder why Namco thought that they could get away with the low resolution design, especially priced at $10.
Audio
- The voiceovers are just as corny as I remember them in the old school acrade. It’s still incredibly annoying and seems much more at home in a noisy arcade than the personal experience of the iPhone. The music is average at best and the sound effects pay homage to their arcade roots.
Conclusion
This seems like a poor pricing decision on Namco’s part, playing more on the Time Crisis name rather than delivering a quality experience to people who grew up with Time Crisis in the arcades. Time Crisis vets will probably knock out the game in a matter of a few hours, but become frustrated and bored of the design / control scheme of this rail shooter. Kids that grew up with Time Crisis won’t give this app another thought with much more advanced, higher quality and cheaper applications on the App Store.