I'm rating this game without considering the terrible sound and graphics lags.

-Genre: 3D Shoot'em'up (Rail shooter, Vs time)

-Developer and Publisher: Namco

-Year: 1995 (arcade) - 1997 (Playstation)

-Players: single player

-In a fistful of words: The plot isn't original (save the president's daughter, kill all the bosses and bad guys, fight versus time, get your prize walking in the sunset...) But the action is frenetic and really enjoyable. Even Though, The shoot'em'up genre quite always works like this, and if You don't know, I'll tell You this is one of the most important ancestors of arcade (and not just arcade) light gun shoot'em'up games. And a great game too. You must play this game, even if You don't complete it, just to do this good gaming experience.


Introduction:
The lag is terrible or... beautiful: I'll explain You later. But You're gonna love this game, the cornerstone of light gun shoot'em'up, the granddaddy of Killzone, the progenitor of Medal Of Honor, the... Ok, ok, I'll stop. Just imagine the arcade, a crowd of friends supporting your actions screaming:"Kill him!", "Pay attention on your left". Or if you are a lone wolf, You can just forget all your friends (You sick egomaniac! XD ). By the way You are the one-man-army, the terrible gunner, the slayer, the sorrow and death distributor, with the... PINK (or azure...) light gun!


Plot:
1995: The republic of Sercia is finally ruled by a democratically elected president: William MacPherson. He is the agent of the VSSE International Intelligence Agency who successfully stopped the despotic dictatorship of the Garo family. Now the freedom finally rules and no one will harm the population of Sercia once again. No, just kidding. The last member of the Garo, family, Sherudo, isn't really happy. And if you think that in about a millennium he's the only Garo that has been removed from the throne...So, he decided to hire Wild Dog's mercenary army and take his country and power back. Oh, and of course, he kidnaps the president's daughter, Rachel MacPherson. Now it's up to You: Richard Miller, the VSSE best agent (Why not William MacPherson himself?! If he did it one time...), the one man army (with the infamous pink or azure gun). You have to save Rachel, destroy the mercenaries army, take back Sercia from Sherudo Garo and Wild Dog's hands. Oh, and do it in a little break-time. Not very original (even for its times), but still works though.


Aesthetics:
Good work! But precisely

Graphics:
Realistic 3D (and 2D parts too), good pixeling from the soldiers (very nice and "precise" selection of bad guys! You'll see) to the backgrounds. I love the clock tower, the Garo and the Iron Claw boss stages... And Wild Dog stage too. An important matter about the terrorists: You can recognize them by different things.

NORMAL TROOPS
-Blue soldiers: the basic minions of Wild Dog. They will quite never hit You. Really, You must be very unlucky if they hit You. In years of gaming, I never had the satisfaction of being hit by them...
-Brown soldiers with red beret: middle difficulty soldiers. They are something like sergeants or lieutenants. They will hit You by and by.
-Red soldiers: The best and well trained normal troops. They will easily hit You if You don't kill'em!

SPECIAL TROOPS
-Red camo soldiers with crested hair: they have got a rocket launcher. Can't fail. But when they go down...Ka-BOOOOM!!!
-Blond soldiers with green pants and yellow jacket: They could throw grenades or hit You with a lead pipe. You can surely spot the difference...
-Iron claw soldiers: the minions of the first boss. They are really fast and agile, but not the hardest problem in the game. They will appear even after You defeat their boss.
-White soldiers: the elite forces of Wild Dog. Pay attention, they rarely fail a shot!

This differentiation is a good thing: You'll know how to decide your killing strategy.
So the characterization is well done even for the bosses, between stereotypes and ironic ideas. I mean, look at Garo's movements and at Wild Dog's bad boy behaviors! And What about their combat styles (the same thing for the Iron Claw boss!).

Sound: What a pity! These lags kill me. A good music and sound combination is now unheardable. 


Gameplay: The founder of the light-gun+pedal modern shoot'em'ups. So, You know what to do: hide yourself when the terrorists are firing, and then fight them back until the end of your delicate mission. A mission composed by three stages, divided into different areas that You can play in "Story Mode" or "Timed Mode". The former is the "normal" mode, when you have to successfully complete your mission from the start to the end; in the latter You can select a particular stage and try to complete as quickly as You can (with unlimited lives). A bad new: We can't play the Kantaris Mission, a special mission You can play only for the Playstation version. A nice Mission where You have to destroy a special mecha weapon that is going to be send to Wild Dog by another terrorist organization (Kantaris). But We can play the original arcade game, so, no problem! 



Conclusions: Even with all these lags, You could really enjoy this game. A good time killer... Between study or work sessions. I hope someone will find a better version... Oh, on the Wikipedia page of this game, I read: "The game holds an average aggregate score of 9.0 out of 10 at GameStats" and "The noted novelist Stephen King stated that he enjoys playing Time Crisis". Yeah, We like it too...


Your newbie-newbie reviewer, Jamal999  

WOW... never seen a noobie-reviewer this good other that Acemonman : 0.0 Good job

Jamal999 : I have 5 words to say.

YOU ARE AN AWESOME REVIEWER!!!

Thank You! I always try to do my best (even if English isn't my mother tongue, I guess You could spot it ). But now I have to leave my home (and my STABLE INTERNET CONNECTION!!!). All because of University exams... But if I can, I'll write other reviews. I'll tell you later. Bye!

Jamal999 : Alright!

*All Hail The Awesome Reviewer Leaves!*

XD thanks. Wait just a few minutes and You'll see the "Sunset Riders" review I love this game, what about You? I'm writing all the reviews that I can in this last days of freedom...

Jamal999 : Never heard of it, but it sounds good. 

Yes a good game. Even if it lags really a lot...