Time Crisis

You duck behind a pillar, watch the bullets fly over your head and pop out at just the right moment to mow down a row of enemies. Time Crisis by Namco from 1995 rewrote the rules of the light-gun genre with a single brilliant idea: a pedal for cover.

Traditional light-gun shooters placed you before your enemies with no way to escape. Time Crisis added a foot pedal to the arcade cabinet, letting the player hide to safety, reload the weapon and dodge fire, then pop back into action when pressed. This created a tense rhythm of reloading, leaning out and precise aim under the pressure of a time limit that ticked away relentlessly. The game thereby gained a tactical dimension that no competing title of the day had.

Namco set the action within a cinematic story about secret agent Richard Miller, tasked with rescuing the president's kidnapped daughter. The B-movie yet likably earnest plot, pre-rendered sequences and constant urgency made Time Crisis a perfect imitation of an action blockbuster that you yourself joined in.

The cultural impact was considerable. The pedal cover mechanic became the trademark of the whole series and its influence can be seen in the cover systems of later action games. Time Crisis moved to the PlayStation console too, where it sold with the iconic GunCon light gun, and became one of Namco's longest-lived arcade brands with a string of sequels.

Time Crisis is adrenaline in its purest form. The time pressure, the constant choice between cover and attack, and the instant feedback make it a title that keeps you on edge from the first second to the last. It is the essence of why arcades are so much fun.

Why play: For the tense tactics of cover and fire that forever pushed the light-gun genre up a level.