Everyone probably is already aware of the Time Crisis series as it’s been around a long time (since the original PlayStation). The usually on rails arcade shooting game does have a pretty good fan base – the series has always shipped with the “Guncon” gun controller (see how they came up with GunCon? Brilliant!).

In the past, the controller hasn’t been nearly worth the effort of assembling it to work with the PlayStation – usually you had to disconnect your video cable and then put it through the Guncon adapter. It was not fun unless it was the only game you’d be playing on your PS or PS2. The new game comes with the 3rd version of the GunCon, appropriately titled GunCon 3. Namco has gone all Wii on us – instead of the video cable adjustment (which would be difficult with an HDMI cable), you now have to install two “LED markers” on your TV (resting on top if you have an LCD), which then plugs into your PS3 via a USB cable. Your GunCon also plugs in via USB. If you want to play a two player game with two guns and you have the ‘new’ PS3 with two USB ports, you’ll need to buy a hub.

Now that you’ve installed the controller (which doesn’t take that long to install; it’s just a pain), you can get to playing the game. The Time Crisis games have never been known for their depth; however this time in addition to the standard arcade mode there’s also a “complete mission” mode. This mode is designed for one player only and while we’ll give Namco an A for effort, this mode plays like it was tacked on in order to justify adding a d-pad on the Guncon.

The control in this mode is just plain bad; moving around feels like it takes years. It is mind numbing how slow your character “runs” in this game. Oh, and unlike any other FPS, there’s no ‘sprint’ button. After completing various objectives such as “finding an entrance to a building” (yup, it’s that exciting), you’ll then go into “guncon mode” and basically play the same levels that are in the arcade game, which of course are the most fun parts of the mode.

You’ll have to play that mission mode in order to unlock additional modes like the “crisis missions.” The mini games are fun no-brain required shooting games – they’d probably sell for full price on the Wii.

With a Time Crisis game, you expect a short, mindless arcade shooting experience and the ‘arcade’ mode doesn’t disappoint. The graphics are not as good as one would expect for the PlayStation 3 – they are better than the Wii and look clean, but individual characters don’t seem to have a whole lot of detail and instead we are presented with “generic bad guy” over and over again. Again, you don’t see horrific graphical details when killing someone – usually the guy will just fall and disappear – no blood, no gore, no nothing.

Of course the arcade mode is just nonstop shooting, reloading and shooting some more. You do have the option of choosing from different weapons and they all feel and work differently. You’ll have to shoot out some debris in levels in order to shoot the enemies – for example, early on you’re in an airport and you’ll have to blast through glass in order to eliminate the bad guys – a shotgun clears it out very fast, while a pistol can take some time to do the work. This mode is free of actual player control and as a shooter on rails, so all you have to worry about is finding the next bad guy to shoot. The arcade game is relatively quick – maybe two hours or less if you’re good, but it’s still great fun.

The Guncon works as expected in the straight shooting game. The accuracy of the gun is very good; however you don’t have a targeting reticule so you’re using the trial and error method of finding your target. If you have a home theater system, you know how annoying it is if your TV only has an “input” button where you have to cycle through every input before getting on the right one to view a DVD as opposed to a discreet command. Well this analogy works when choosing a weapon for Time Crisis. You can’t go from the basic gun to the grenade launcher in one move – instead you have to cycle through every weapon in order to get to the best one – talk about annoying.