Retro|Spective 202: Arcade Lightgun Shooters

[charlesr]

Sorry, but the actual best shooter is Ghost Squad on the Wii. That got EVERYTHING right. You could probably play it today if you had £30 spare to buy a Wii and the game.

Also Target: Terror is hilariously terrible

[Asura]

I liked the measured approach top the gameplay in Virtua Cop ... with the target frames zeroing in to give the game a kind of rhythm. It made you feel more skilled that you really were ... but picking targets off with timing and precision always felt more rewarding than the more frantic lightgun games. I'm a sucker for those lovely AM2 visuals too.

Actually this makes me think of something good about Time Crisis II.

The main thing that made it work was the colour-coding of the enemies. One of the main skills in that game is threat appraisal; i.e. when presented with a screen of enemies, the player's ability to rank them in order of threat and take them out in that order. TC2's colour-coded enemies made that second nature.

I think TC1 did the same thing, but maybe it's just because the game in general was visually lower-fidelity, so it wasn't as obvious.

[QualityChimp]

Anyone else get chance to play Gun Survivor 2 BIOHAZARD Code: Veronica in the arcades?

You got this sweet controller that let you walk about, shaped like a MAC10 with a Snake Plissken silencer on the end.

[wakka]

Actually this makes me think of something good about Time Crisis II.

The main thing that made it work was the colour-coding of the enemies. One of the main skills in that game is threat appraisal; i.e. when presented with a screen of enemies, the player's ability to rank them in order of threat and take them out in that order. TC2's colour-coded enemies made that second nature.

I think TC1 did the same thing, but maybe it's just because the game in general was visually lower-fidelity, so it wasn't as obvious.

The more we talk about this on here, the more I think that lightgun games were in many ways one of those concepts that was prototyped (Virtua Cop, TC1) then very quickly refined to the point of near-perfection (TC2) and then overcomplicated almost immediately (every other TC, the Resi Gun Survivor games, Police 911, etc).

There are exceptions of course but like most very simple formats the beauty is in the simplicity, which makes it quite difficult to effectively build on.

Charles has already mentioned it but one that did buck this trend was GHOST Squad. That game was really, really good and for me is one of the absolute best lightgun games. It was great in the arcade and the home port was also a lot of fun. When I was at uni we played tons of it in 4 player.

I didn't know Gun Survivor had an arcade release QC! I haven't actually played one of those but always heard they were a bit meh.

[fuse]

My elevator pitch for a new lightgun game is "Ghost Squad with the Commando license".

[QualityChimp]

I have GHOST Squad, but only really tested it worked before archiving the Wii (shoving it to the back of a cupboard).
I'd dig it out, but realistically, I'd probably get more fun out of Arizona Sunshine or the like on VR.

I can confirm that GSBC:V was indeed "meh", but the controller/gun combo was a cool novelty, despite the sluggish movement.

[Atticus]

A killer combo

[Baseley09]

Mechanised Attack is forever in my heart.

[QualityChimp]

Mechanised Attack is forever in my heart.

"MECHANIZED A-TACK!!!"

[charlesr]

[MENTION=10111]QualityChimp[/MENTION] get it done. You will love it. It has loads of replay value too because you can choose different guns each time. Or water pistols with gravity drop. Or throwing stars.

[QualityChimp]

[MENTION=10111]QualityChimp[/MENTION] get it done. You will love it. It has loads of replay value too because you can choose different guns each time. Or water pistols with gravity drop. Or throwing stars.

Pretty sure I have your copy, Chaz!

[Neon Ignition]

Game 07 - Point Blank
Time to go Namco. Point Blank was a mini-game collection of sorts with players using light guns to hit targets against time limits and/or conditions. Delivered in a light hearted, cartoon looking style, the game would rank your performance making it a full on test of skill. The game was so well received that Namco went to the effort to release it on PS1 with the GunCon which is where many came to experience it.









Was this one a point blank hit?

[fuse]

I'm fairly certain the first time I ever saw this was in person (rather than in a magazine) and first impressions were that it was daft and potentially rubbish. Still played it though, and any negative impressions from how it presented itself were quickly crushed. Going to do that smug thing of patting myself on the back here and quoting myself from page one of the thread -

I've also got to give a lot of love to Point Blank for throwing out the pretense of "YEAH! You're a COP! Shoot the BAD GUYS!" and just being the most videogame-ass videogame that ever videogamed

Throwing out the story-based design in favour of the fairground-style mini-games does great things for the gameplay as well as the flow, allowing them to test your single-shot accuracy in one round, and then your capacity to utterly hammer the trigger in the next. It is the game equivalent of a reduction, condensing a load of flavour into dense but ultra-tasty morsels. It's not even a complaint, but one of the few things that I struggle with is how luck (and manipulating it!) can play such a huge part, with some of the 'Insane' stages being much harder than others, and things like the bonus round being far more generous if you've already lost lives.

[QualityChimp]

Yeah, what a bloody great arcade game this is.
I played it recently at NQ64 and my friend and I had a friendly rivalry, keeping each other in the game but trying to get the high score each round.

As Fuse says, there's a real mix of levels, testing different skills.

My faves are the unlimited ones with no penalties, but am I the only one who uses the "Guncon Grip"?

You hold the barrel in your left hand, then put your straight finger through the trigger guard and turn it into a machine gun.

[wakka]

I deffo use Guncon Grip for Point Blank levels that require it - never heard that name for it before but I like it!

It's also useful for bosses on Time Crisis.

And yeah, Point Blank is a brilliant game. Timeless, really.