Retro|Spective 202: Arcade Lightgun Shooters

[Asura]

Game 30 - Crisis Zone
A spin-off of the Time Crisis series, this title is about a complex taken over by a terrorist group. A special forces group are sent in to take them down which the player is part of, the machine using the same pedal system for reloading and cover that the Time Crisis games do but here you are using a machine gun. Players can choose which order to tackle the main three missions before tackling the final mission.

Tried this and didn't like it much; I just don't feel it worked, having a machine gun all the time.

Gunblade worked because every enemy was like a boss, leaping all over the place - but a regular gun game feels a bit monotonous with it.

[QualityChimp]

Playing Time Crisis 3, where you can get a shotgun, grenade launcher and machine gun made me think "wouldn't it be ace if you could play the whole game with the machine gun?!"

Then Crisis Zone came out, but it gave all the enemies loads of armour, so it removed the exciting pop-up one-hit thrills with bulletsponge enemies, instead of making you feel OP against them.

It's alright, but not as fun as I'd imagined.

[wakka]

Basically completely agree with you guys. I never liked Crisis Zone. The constant force feedback of the gun was uncomfortable and the bullet sponge enemies made you feel paradoxically less powerful than when you were wielding the ordinary pistol in TC2.

Another one I've never bothered to get further than Stage 1 on. Maybe it gets better later in the game...?

[Neon Ignition]

Game 31 - Point Blank 2
Namco returned with this sequel to its mini-games light gun game, the title was a reworking of the PS1 port of the original game. With expanded mini-games, this released five years after the original given the franchise renewed prominence in arcades.









Was Point Blank 2 a worthwhile follow up?

[Neon Ignition]

Game 32 - LA Machine Guns: Rise of the Machines
Sega's follow up to Gunblade NY used Model 3 and took the action to four new stages with an unlockable fifth. Set in the near future, the arcade shooter would later be ported to the Wii, packaged alongside its predecessor.









Which was better, LA Machine Guns or Gunblade NY?

[QualityChimp]

Point Blank 2 is "more of the same" and I'm 100% okay with that!

[Neon Ignition]

Game 33 - Razing Storm
Another spin-off from Time Crisis, this entry shifts action to 2030 and uses the pedal mechanic to hide players behind a ballistic shield. The main change here being that enemies are more clearly marked by threat level bringing the gameplay closer in line with Virtua Cop, the game also placing a higher emphasis on scoring than Time Crisis does.








Did this second spin-off Raze the bar?

[Neon Ignition]

The least popular Time Crisis it seems!

[Neon Ignition]

Game 34 - The House of the Dead 4
Taking place between the second and third games, the fourth entry handed players sub-machine guns and the ability to throw grenades. The focus in game is to target enemy weakpoints rather than generally gun them down with the usual structure involving branching paths to attain one of four possible endings. A Special edition was also produced involving a shaking seat and twin 100 inch screens in front and behind the player so that they feel they're being attacked in both directions. To accommodate the changed action the game features a separate story taking place shortly after the events of the main game, this entry can be unlocked on PS3 following completion of the main game.










Was HOTD4... Special?

[fuse]

I'm not even sure if I've even played Raizing Storm, but I'd like to try it for sure. I don't think it's going to dethrone you-know-what, but I'd certainly have welcomed some more time with Crisis Zone too - it did at least feel somewhat like a Time Crisis game once you got past the change in the gun.

House of the Dead 4 is another that I suspect is actually pretty good, but on first play was pretty incomprehensible to me. Rather than methodical dispatching of individual enemies, this one felt like you really needed to have a knack for crowd control. That you'd sometimes have to chuck grenades into a huge pack of zombies is but one example of this.

[wakka]

Exactly the same as Fuse re: HOTD4, it's always seemed like a good game that I've just not had the chance to play properly. I did make an effort, buying a Move and the camera and the gun shell and so on, but was hamstrung by the fact that the Move made a simply godawful lightgun - so I never really spent much time playing the game.

Would like to play more one day via emulation + a decent lightgun.

I did play Special once, in Japan, on the same trip to Joypolis where I first played Outrun 2 SP SDX. It was pretty cool, swinging you about 180 degrees.

Raizing Storm I also had on PS3 and don't think I played it more than once or twice, again due to the issue with the Move just being completely crap as a lightgun. So I don't really have an opinion on that one. I never saw it in the arcade.

[QualityChimp]

Not played either of these last two, but they both look decent.
I like the sci-fi setting of Razing Storm and have always loved those MAC-10/Ingram M10 style guns used on HotD4, especially when they have a massive silencer bigger than the gun itself...

[Neon Ignition]

Game 35 - Wild Gunman
A game I know only for seeing future Frodo Baggins claim it was outdated for needing your hands in Back to the Future Part II, Wild Gunman came from Nintendo and used an electro-magnetic arcade unit to create its lightgun experience. FMV plays and when the enemies eyes flash the player takes aim and presses the trigger, whether the player presses it in time determines whether the next sequence played shows the gunman firing at you or falling down dead. This is different from the precise unit shown in the DeLorean led film, that arcade unit never actually existed.






Any experience of this early game?

[Neon Ignition]

Game 36 - Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Released in 1991, this arcade shooter digitised some of the actors and saw the player broadly go through the films events facing off against enemies to save John Connor. The game is going to be rereleased by Arcade1Up.










Worth saving or worth saying Hasta la Vista to?

[Yakumo]

Game 36 - Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Worth saving or worth saying Hasta la Vista to?

It's total wank like most if not all American gun game. No gameplay or skill at all. Just blast whatever you can. Doesn't matter what because you'll never get everything.