The sixth generation of video game consoles (Dreamcast, PS2, GameCube, & Xbox, primarily) was one in which the general idea of arcade-style rail shooters truly became less & less viable/appealing at home. Whereas the PS1 saw 29 games with light gun support (either via the GunCon and/or the Konami Justifer that came before it) & the Saturn saw 13, their respective successors saw a marked decrease in light gun games, with the Dreamcast only seeing seven (one of which was just for a bonus mini game, at that), while the PS2 only saw 16; meanwhile, the Xbox only saw three, while the GameCube saw 0! Of those PS2 games, one of them only supported the original PS1 GunCon (Cocoto Funfair), another used its own device (or the PS2's USB camera) for motion tracking (The Keisatsukan: Police 24/7), one only supported the GunCon 2 as a bonus for co-op play (Starsky & Hutch), and another three were the aforementioned Gun Survivor games, leaving only 10 games in "traditional" arcade rail shooter genre. So, for the 80th entry in Obscusion B-Side (yeah, we're getting closer & close to #100!), let's go over the PS2's "GunCon 2 Rail Shooter Decet" (yes, "decet" is the equivalent of a duo/trio/quartet/etc. for a group of 10) & see how each of these games fare. Just as with with the Gun Survivor overview, I played all of these games on their default settings on a mid-00s Sony WEGA Trinitron CRT with component video, which allowed me to play them with a GunCon 2 with the best video quality possible, as they were meant to be played, so it's time to (for the most part) reload by shooting away from the screen!
As is usual for these kinds of overviews, we'll be doing this in chronological order, so our first game here (& the first GunCon 2-compatible game, in general) is Time Crisis II! Originally released in Japanese arcades in December 1997 (February 1998 abroad), this was the (mostly unrelated) sequel to Namco's original Time Crisis from 1995, which was also at that time receiving its own home console port on the PS1 & coincidentally was what introduced the world to the original GunCon. Time Crisis was notable for implementing a cover system to the traditional rail shooter by way of a pedal that a player would press with their foot to switch between being behind cover & popping out to fire away; swapping between the two was also how you'd reload your gun. Time Crisis II would introduce co-operative multiplayer by way of two arcade cabinets that were linked together, giving each player not just their own giant screen to play with, but also different viewpoints during the action, making it a big hit. While PS1 & Dreamcast ports were in the works, the only one that actually saw release was for the PS2, which first came out in North America on October 1, 2001, followed by Japan on 10/4 & then PAL regions on 10/19. So how does Time Crisis II hold up over 25 years after its original arcade release, and did it deliver a fun experience on the PS2?
Simply put, yes. Time Crisis II is commonly looked at as one of the greatest arcade rail shooters ever made, and the PS2 version showcases why excellently. Though not a long experience by any means at no more than 20 minutes, which is admittedly shorter than usual for the genre, there is absolutely no cool down time to the experience. The story is admittedly nothing special, even for a rail shooter, but the English voice acting is still just cheesy enough to be enjoyable, and in the end it's all about the active shooting experience, as expected. In that regard, Time Crisis II remains A-class with its cover system, which allows you to avoid specifically indicated shots that will hit you, but with the hectic nature of shooting it's very easy to be caught off guard & take a hit, regardless. Accurate & composed shooting is also a focus here, as consistently hitting enemies without missing not only increases a multiplier for your score but also just feels good, in general, resulting in an experience that's fast paced & kinetic but also encourages composed shooting, since all normal foes go down in one shot. The PS2 version does include a variety of extras, like some shooting range-style "arcade games", a bonus "campaign of sorts" that takes place after the main plot (but is really just training missions), as well as the option to play with two guns, though the cover system does make doing that a bit tricky since you need to hold a button down (mainly the C button on the bottom of the GunCon 2's hilt) to pop out & shoot. The PS2 version also supports multiplayer, both on a single screen (though doing so forces everything into extreme letterboxing, since it's two screens) as well as via link cable support (though that requires two PS2s, two copies of the game, & two tube TVs).
No matter what, though, Time Crisis II remains one of the all-time best rail shooters ever made, and the PS2 version is an absolutely must play & own for anyone who has a PS2, at least one GunCon 2, & a CRT/PVM/BVM to play it on.
By the start of the new millennium, there were arguably two undisputed forces when it came to arcade light gun rail shooters: Namco (by way of Time Crisis & Point Blank) & Sega (by way of Virtua Cop & The House of the Dead). So what would happen when those two forces teamed up? The end result would be Vampire Night, which initially saw release in arcades in February 2001. Developed by Wow Entertainment (formerly Sega AM1) & published by Namco, the game was very similar in style & tone as House of the Dead, which came from Wow/AM1, but in place of the zombie-inspired monsters & science-gone-wrong storyline were vampires & a focus on the occult. Just as with Time Crisis II, Vampire Night's home console release on the PS2 would arrive in North America first, though this time the wait was dramatically short, coming out on November 14, 2001, followed by Japan on December 6, though PAL would have to wait a fair bit longer, not getting the game until June 14, 2002. The reason for the short wait was because the game ran on Namco's System 246 arcade board, which was based on PS2 hardware. So let's see if the GunCon 2's second supported game can follow up on Time Crisis II's strong momentum.
While Namco's name is all over this game, it's undeniable that Vampire Night is 100% a Sega-developed light gun shooter. There's no cover system to be found here, meaning that the game is purely about shooting just about anything that appears on screen, while reloading is the standard "shoot away from the screen" method. In true Sega fashion, though, there are innocents that appear throughout each stage, but this time there's a twist, as shooting them doesn't equate to getting hit by an enemy. Instead, innocents have a heart-like growth on them, and if you shoot the growth you rescue them, while shooting any part of the innocent that isn't the growth will turn them into a "vampire" (though they look more like werewolves, honestly), which you then have to kill right then & there. Environmental damage is also something to consider, as items like bonus points & health recovery are hidden away, and enemies even have a reticle that appears around them as they get ready to attack, Virtua Cop-style. Without a doubt, Vampire Night is best described as "House of the Dead, but with Vampires", because the way the game play is almost exactly the same, minus the aforementioned (minor) differences; branching stage routes are also here, but only for three stages. This also is reflected in the voice acting, which is almost just as cheesy & poorly delivered in English by the voice actors, though it still doesn't quite match the glory that is House of the Dead 2's voice work. An interesting little thing, though, is that Vampire Night is the game that changed up the way boss fights work, as instead of simply shooting you have an extra stun meter that lets you prevent certain attacks from happening, a system that would then be adopted for House of the Dead III the following year, as well as all future entries. This game also includes a weak point system for regular foes, in which hitting those spots do massive damage, if not simply killing enemies with a single shot, and I feel that does result in Vampire Night being a little easier than most HotD games tend to be. However, I did come across a weird problem where I could never get my GunCon 2 to fully calibrate with the entire TV screen, as the top inch of the screen wouldn't register properly, instead interpreting it as being off screen, & it only ever happened with this title; it didn't ruin my experience, but it did result in a couple of cheap hits in the latter half of the game.
Overall, Vampire Night is still a lot of fun to play, and well worth owning for anyone who had a PS2, GunCon 2, & compatible screen. Personally, I still would choose to play a House of the Dead game first, but the PS2 never actually got one of those, so Vampire Night more than makes for a fine replacement, in that regard.
Following that initial one-two punch of Time Crisis II & Vampire Night, the PS2 would see the releases of both The Keisatsukan & Gun Survivor 2: Biohazard -Code:Veronica- in Japan in November (while Europe would get them in April & February 2002, respectively; neither saw North American release), before light gun games more or less dried up completely for a good number of months. In fact, the next arcade rail shooter with GunCon 2 support wouldn't come from Japan, but rather the UK! Released on May 31, 2002 in PAL regions, with a North American release on June 3 (no Japanese release, in this case), Endgame was published by Empire Interactive & developed by Cunning Developments, with the latter known mainly for... digital pinball? Yes, here we have an arcade-style rail shooter developed by a team better known for games like the Pro Pinball series, Mario Pinball Land for the GBA, & Metroid Prime Pinball for the DS, the latter two coming out after the studio changed its name to Fuse Games. That's not to say that a developer shouldn't ever try something different from their comfort zone, but there is a decidedly notable difference between making digital pinball tables & making a rail shooter that uses a light gun, especially when the latter is literally the only non-pinball game the studio has ever made. Does that hurt Endgame's chances at being a good game, especially when compared to fare made by experts of the craft?
Well, the answer to that is "sort of". Simply put, Endgame is nothing more than a straight copy of Time Crisis, and while that does mean that it's an enjoyable enough experience it also means that you could simply play Time Crisis instead. Admittedly, plot is a somewhat larger focus here, telling the tale of a woman who has to stop an evil company from enacting a plan that would give them control, all while the company is actively hunting her down from the very start, but in terms of gameplay it's essentially an exact clone. You pop out from cover to shoot enemies who pop out from all over, go back behind cover to reload, and you have a split second to avoid the occasional incoming bullet you see. That said, I do think Endgame's bullets are just ever-so-slightly faster than Time Crisis II's, resulting in slightly cheaper hits. This is balanced out a little, though, by Endgame giving you a health meter of sorts, where each life you have is comprised of three hits, and when you lose a life the game doesn't stop, instead instantly refilling your health without a hitch. Unfortunately, Endgame's biggest flaw comes from when you lose all of your lives: Game Over... without continues. Since this wasn't originally an arcade game, Cunning Developments decided to go with a "one & done" execution for Endgame, and on its own I can understand that to an extent. However, Endgame also has no mid-campaign saving, so if you get a Game Over you're literally just sent back to the title screen & have to start over from the beginning. Sure, the campaign isn't a long one (it totals no more than an hour), but the lack of any sort of continue option, traditional or saving, is a confounding one to me & makes me think "I'd rather just play Time Crisis instead". There is a secondary mini-campaign called Mighty Joe Jupiter, based on an in-universe TV show, that play even more like Time Crisis (only with a 50s sci-fi bend), but it's no longer than 10 minutes, tops.
In the end, Endgame isn't a terrible game by any means, because by copying Time Crisis so closely Cunning Developments wound up developing a decent rail shooter in its own right. However, by totally aping Time Crisis so closely, Endgame also winds up being something that really doesn't have an identify of its own, so it just comes off a simply being kind of bland. If you absolutely want to have every GunCon 2-compatible PS2 rail shooter then it's at least okay, but it's not essential, otherwise.
While Europe & North America were getting Endgame to satiate GunCon 2 owners, Japan would receive Gun Survivor 3: Dino Crisis (a.k.a. Dino Stalker) on June 27, 2002, which wouldn't see international release until later that September. However, the next Japanese arcade rail shooter for PS2 would finally come out just a couple of months later... and it's a bit of a doozy. Released on August 15, 2002 in Japan, Virtua Cop Re-Birth was a compilation containing both Virtua Cop 1 & 2 (Virtua Cop 3 wouldn't come out in arcades until the following year, & on Xbox-based hardware), but these weren't simple ports of the Model 2 arcade board classics from 1994 & 1995. Instead, these were "enhanced" versions featuring updated visual assets, though it seems as though this was more along the lines of a "remaster" than a full-on "remake". PAL regions would later receive this compilation on November 29, 2002 under the title Virtua Cop: Elite Edition, but unfortunately Sega of America didn't feel that this was worth releasing in North America. Was SoA right in denying American fans of these two arcade classics a brand new way to experience them? Honestly, I'm pretty sure we all know the answer to that question...
I mean, come on, this is Virtua Cop we're talking about, so of course this compilation is excellent! Though definitely a bit simple & straightforward in comparison to what else was available at the time of its release, there's no denying that Virtua Cop 1 & 2 remain absolute classics, and in some ways the simple & straightforward nature make them so instantly accessible to just pick up & play. Shoot the bad guys before they shoot you (indicated by a reticle that indicates when a shot will be made in the next few seconds) and they all go down in just one shot, though if you shoot them in the right places you're allow to link up to three for bonus points, all while making sure not to shoot innocents who pop up in the most annoying places & times possible, lest you lose a life. Beyond coming across alternate guns (Automatic, Shotgun, Machine Gun) that you lose after losing a life or run out of ammo, as well as route splits in Virtua Cop 2, that's really all you have to worry about in these games, and though they start off relatively slow with their respective first stages, they more than ramp up the pace & amount of enemies to shoot in their respective second & third stages; not just that, but you can actually pick the order of stages in both games, giving you slightly different endings. Visually this collection is a notable improvement over the Model 2 originals, with higher resolution texture work across the board, but it's still easy to see that beyond that nothing has really changed, as both Virtua Cop offerings feature the same exact enemy placement, on-rail camera movement, & audio (if maybe in slightly better quality), so if you're familiar with these classic rail shooters then you can just jump right into their PS2 remasters & play it just as well as before, only now with nicer visuals.
Unsurprisingly, Virtua Cop Re-Birth: Elite Edition is an absolute must-have for any PS2 & GunCon 2 owners, and the fact that Sega of America skipped over it for a North American release is astounding, especially when you consider the simple fact that the Japanese version already has a full English translation that you can switch over to in the Options! Regardless, any fan of rail shooters should have this in their collection, ASAP.
To no surprise, Namco would wind up being the primary supporter of the GunCon 2, with this decet alone featuring six with their involvement, in some fashion. We reach the halfway point, both of this entire list & Namco's involvement, with Ninja Assault, which originally came out in arcades in November 2000. Co-developed by Namco & Now Production (a duo that's given us the likes of Splatterhouse 2, 3 & Wanpaku Graffiti, Klonoa on the GBA, & Rolling Thunder 3), the game was developed for Sega's NAOMI arcade system, but wouldn't see a home release until after the Dreamcast was good & (mostly) dead, so it couldn't get released on similar hardware. Instead, Namco would release a PS2 port on September 12, 2002 in Japan, October 4 in PAL, & November 18 in North America, even getting a bit of sly marketing by way of an in-game e-mail advertisement in Monolith Soft's Xenosaga Episode I, which came out earlier in 2002 in Japan (though, ironically enough, would come out after Ninja Assault in North America). While not involving Sega at all this time around, this Namco rail shooter is still more "traditional" by not utilizing Time Crisis' trademark cover system, but let's see if that affects the gameplay in any way.
Right away, Ninja Assault is memorable almost solely because of its general aesthetic. This is an on-rails shooter where you play as a pair of ninja who, instead of using this like shuriken or "ninja magic", simply shoot everything that gets in their way using guns, and despite all of this taking place in a medieval Japan setting (though one in which things like karakuri robots also exist, because of demons) everyone speaks perfect English, even in the original Japanese release; naturally, the voice acting is also amusingly cheesy. Beyond the highly amusing & anachronistic aesthetic, though, Ninja Assault is simply a fun & straightforward rail shooter that focuses solely on shooting foes in brisk & breezy stages, and even traditional boss fights are only reserved for specific moments, instead of giving each stage one; stages that don't feature bosses instead see you fight a new type of stronger foe, who later becomes semi-recurring in other stages. While you don't get access to alternate guns in any way, this is balanced out by your gun holding a little more ammo than the usual 5-6 shots most rail shooters give you, and since this is a medieval setting (so not everyone has guns) this is further balanced out by having most foes take multiple shots to take out, though there are single-shot foes as well, mainly those who fire arrows or charge at you with spears. While the first four stages go by fairly easy the difficulty ramps up well after that, and at nine stages it's a surprisingly long campaign for an arcade rail shooter... and this is only one route in the PS2 release! Yes, Ninja Assault actually has a lot of replay value, as while the original arcade campaign is included, it's only one of four different campaigns, with the other three involving a third character (a kunoichi) & some stages and bosses that aren't in the arcade campaign at all! Gameplay can even change slightly, like giving you an even larger clip for your gun (16 shots!), as well as a limited amount of screen-clearing bombs; this isn't even mentioning the bonus content, like the mission training modes.
Without a doubt, while Ninja Assault's gameplay is rather straightforward & simple, it's also instantly charming & a lot of fun to play, and the extra campaigns alone make it one of the more fully featured rail shooters for the PS2. While it may not topple something like Time Crisis 2 or Virtua Cop Re-Birth, Ninja Assault more than makes up for that with sheer replay value, making it another essential must-own for PS2 & CRT-owning players.
Following Ninja Assault's release, North America would go mostly without any new light gun games, outside of Resident Evil: Dead Aim in early to mid-2003, while Europe would get both that & Virtua Cop: Elite Edition during that same time. In Japan, though, there was one release exclusive to that region that came out before Gun Survivor 4: Biohazard - Heroes Never Die (still the best video game title ever) in early 2003. Said release would be Gunvari Colletion+Time Crisis on December 12, 2002, a compilation containing direct ports of the PS1 games Gun Bullet, Gunbarl, Gubalina (a.k.a. Point Blank 1, 2, & 3), & Time Crisis, all now compatible with the GunCon 2. Yes, that is right, instead of porting over the NB-1, System 10/11/12, & Super System 22 arcade originals, respectively, Namco instead used the PS1 versions for all four of these games. To be fair, that likely was for the best when it came to the Point Blank games, due to the extra content they all had, but it does come off a little underwhelming when it comes to Time Crisis, as the original arcade version (with its improved visuals & the like) has never seen an official home port; however, as the title of this collection indicates, Time Crisis is essentially a bonus game. Regardless, a collection of four beloved light gun games from the PS1 does sound like an outstanding deal, so let's see how it holds up.
Obviously, the "main attractions" to this collection are the "Gunvari"/Point Blank titles, and those games have always been an outlier when it comes to light gun games. Namely, instead of being on-rails shooters, they're instead best described as "The WarioWare Equivalent to a Shooting Range", as the Arcade Mode of each game in the trilogy is all about completing a number of challenges that require the player to shoot specific targets, while avoiding others, all within either a time limit (usually 15-20 seconds, though some are under 10 seconds); most of these challenges allow for unlimited ammo & no reloading needed, but some do limit your ammo. The end result is a very fast paced light gun shooter, one where absolute accuracy is arguably more paramount than ever for a high score, since this is all about fast-yet-pinpoint shooting, due to the mix of a minimum number of hits & the short time limits; it's not quite as blazing fast as a WarioWare game & its microgames, but it's still very fast. The PS1 versions of the Point Blank games included here also feature extra modes, namely a "Party Mode" for up to four players & as well as a trio of "Quest Modes" that essentially are mini-RPGs, only with shooting gallery challenges in place of traditional combat. In all honesty, the original Time Crisis winds up truly looking like nothing more than a "bonus game", as it's much more limited in terms of modes... and, to be perfectly honest, after playing Time Crisis II the original game is definitely a little underwhelming, in comparison. Time Crisis 1 isn't a bad game, but you can definitely see that the sequel improved on literally every single aspect, and the difficulty in the original is definitely a bit too cheap, at times. Also, though the entire collection does modify the text to reference the PS2 memory card & GunCon 2, the games themselves haven't been updated to support the GunCon 2's d-pad or C button, which means that you have to scrunch your non-shooting hand around the trigger so that you can hold the A or B button to pop out & shoot in Time Crisis; it's not unplayable, but I do wish I could have just used the C button instead.
Regardless, Gunvari Collection+Time Crisis is an outstanding collection of games for the PS2, with the Point Blank games (& their Quest Modes) giving you tons of value all on their own, while Time Crisis does help add just a little bit of extra flavor. Unfortunately, this is easily the least well known release covered in this overview (Japan-only, & it looks like it didn't have a massive production run), so today you'll definitely have to spend a little bit more than usual if you want a copy of this for yourself, physically.
We're now fully into 2003, and beyond the games mentioned last time it was mostly quiet on the GunCon 2 front, with the only other exception being Starsky & Hutch, a multi-platform driving/combat game released in the middle of that year based on the iconic 70s TV series (the game predated the 2004 Hollywood movie adaptation). Though the game was meant to be played with a controller, the PS2 & Xbox versions both included light gun support in which Player 1 would drive with the controller, while Player 2 would shoot at the screen using the light gun to damage the car they were chasing, instead of the on-screen crosshair they'd normally use; not enough of an inclusion to warrant its own section here, but a nice little bonus, nonetheless. Following that, the next "proper" light gun game would be Time Crisis 3, the proper (unrelated) sequel to the OG GunCon 2 game. Originally released in arcades in September 2002 in North America, followed by a Japanese release in April 2003, this Nex Entertainment/Nextech-developed entry in Namco's beloved series wouldn't have to wait long for a home port, as it was made using the System 246 board (just like Vampire Night), so a PS2 port would see release by the end of 2003, with North America getting it first on October 21, PAL on October 31, & Japan on November 20. Despite being developed by a third-party, Nextech would be trusted with both spin-off title Cobra the Arcade in 2005 (based on the Buichi Terasawa manga, though it still played like Time Crisis) & Time Crisis 4 in 2006 (as well as the Time Crisis: Razing Storm compilation for PS3 in 2010), so let's see if Time Crisis 3 can show why Namco was willing to let another studio be the steward for such a beloved franchise for a while.
Simply put, Time Crisis 3 is a perfect example of making a sequel "bigger", as while it's still a three-stage campaign for Arcade Mode, even from Stage 1 Part 1 everything quickly escalates. You have more enemies on screen more often, you have a somewhat wider variety of foes (including some that take multiple hits), and wild set pieces are much more common across the game; Stage 1 Part 2 literally has you making your way through a sinking freighter! Not just that, but there's also some extra depth in the shooting itself by way of now being able to select between four guns: Handgun, Machine Gun, Shotgun, & Grenade Launcher. Handgun is the traditional gun you often use & needs reloading, while all of the others eschew reloading but have limited ammo, which can only be replenished by shooting specific yellow-jacketed foes repeatedly. The machine gun lets you spray & pray to take our hordes of foes & shred armored foes' health bars, the shotgun fires in a five-way X-spread to cover more screen space, & the grenade launcher only allows for up to five shots but is essentially a screen-clearing bomb (& does big damage on bosses). The end result of all of this is a frenetic & exciting game right from the start, and the GunCon 2 trigger gets tons of usage, since the way to switch between guns is to pull the trigger when in cover (or auto-moving from spot to another). The PS2 version also adds in some bonus content, namely an entire second campaign where you play as Alicia Winston (who supported the main characters in Arcade Mode) & experience the plot from her perspective; she even gets some sniper sections that are exclusive to her campaign.
On the whole, Time Crisis 3 is a stellar follow up to Time Crisis II, expanding on the gameplay in fun ways & doing whatever it can to make its campaign feel like an even bigger experience than last time. However, I still hesitate to call it the superior game over its predecessor, and instead feel that such a decision really comes down to personal preference. Yes, TC3 is a somewhat beefier experience with a little bit of extra gameplay depth from the multiple guns, but at the same time TCII's campaign just feels so honed to perfection that its simpler execution kind of makes it feel so welcoming to just boot up & play instantly.
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| If the PS1 can produce "mind-boggling effects", then why can't the PS2, as well? |
Up next we have probably the most infamous game in this entire overview, if only due to association. In 1996, CAD-developer-turned-game-studio Ecole Software released a light gun rail shooter for the Sega Saturn called Death Crimson, a game so abjectly terrible in every single way (except for the music, which is "amaziiiiiiing!") that it wound up becoming a surprise minor hit for Ecole, relatively speaking, because it was just so bad that people wanted to experience it for themselves! Ecole would follow that up with Death Crimson 2: The Altar of Melaneet for Dreamcast in 1999, a sequel that combined the rail shooter gameplay with free-roaming exploration & visual novel-esque storytelling. For the third time around, Ecole decided to make a proper arcade rail shooter, resulting in 2000's Death Crimson OX (and, yes, it is indeed pronounced "Ox", not "Oh-Ex") for Sega's NAOMI board, which took the visuals & character models of Death Crimson 2 & told its own self-contained story with them. OX would then get ported to the Dreamcast in 2001, a port that would wind up being the only part of the series to ever see official English release(!), but two years later Ecole decided put out a new port. Released in Japan on November 27, 2003, Death Crimson OX+ for the PS2 was everything the Dreamcast port was, only now with GunCon 2 support & a new Time Attack mode. Just over a year later, on December 10, 2004, OX+ would see release in PAL regions by Play It, though now bizarrely renamed to Guncom 2, which you'd think was a coy play on the GunCon 2... but over there the light gun was called the G-Con 2, so I'm just left confused. Anyway, I wrote about Death Crimson OX(+) back in 2017 as part of a giant Death Crimson retrospective, but let's see if I feel any different about it now, almost six whole years later.
As mentioned, Death Crimson OX is often cited as an abjectly terrible game, mainly because it's part of a series known for being nothing more than "kusoge/crap games", and the fact that OX is made solely out of assets used in Death Crimson 2 certainly doesn't help. However, I do feel that instantly calling this final entry in the series to be a "kusoge" simply because it has the name "Death Crimson" is selling it short, because this not just the best game in the entire series, but it's honestly an enjoyable thrill ride of a rail shooter, in its own right. Now, to be fair, I'm in no way saying that this is one of the best games covered in this entire overview, as it has nowhere near the fine polish that the likes of Time Crisis, Virtua Cop, or even Ninja Assault all have, and in many ways this can be a janky game (complete with a handful of moments where taking a hit is literally impossible to avoid) with a "unique" visual style (to put it politely), all things considered. However, what makes Death Crimson OX+ work in the long run is the simple fact that it is just a ton of fun & right from the start of Stage 1 never really lets up on the brisk pace it has. Enemies come one after the another in each section, there's the occasional shooting gallery bit for nothing more than bonus points, bonus items are a common sight that either give you access to the machine gun (which you charge up by holding the trigger first) or can simply remove all foes currently on screen, & it really just seems as though Ecole wanted to make sure you were shooting at just about any time, outside of cutscenes. Said cutscenes are also a hoot, as while there's no voice acting to be found at all, 99% of the cutscenes simply move the character models around like they're mannequins, which honestly feels like it was intentionally done. Combine all of that with an honestly great musical score, and you wind up with a game that, though nowhere near one of the best rail shooters on the PS2, is still a fun ride through sheer gumption alone.
The original Death Crimson on the Sega Saturn is, without a doubt, one of the worst games ever made & is effectively only barely playable, at best, while Death Crimson 2 really isn't much better due to it trying to be more ambitious by mixing together different genres. In comparison, Death Crimson OX(+) is kind of the most generic of the trilogy by being nothing more than a (mostly) competently made arcade rail shooter, but that's also what makes it the "best" entry of all, from a pure gameplay perspective. While it's nowhere near the best light gun game on the PS2, I'll still easily take it over something like Endgame or even Resident Evil: Survivor 2 -Code:Veronica-. Would one consider this an example of "damning with faint praise" or "enjoying it ironically"? If you see it that way then that's on you, but I do have legit fun playing Death Crimson OX+.
Our penultimate entry of this decet is an interesting one for two main reasons. First, it's the only European/PAL-exclusive game in this group (unless you count Cocoto Funfair, but that doesn't support the GunCon 2 & did eventually see release abroad on the Wii), just like Gunvari Collection+Time Crisis was the only Japan-exclusive game; sorry, but there was no North American-exclusive GunCon 2 game. Second, this has three different release dates listed online, one of which would put it before both Time Crisis 3 & Death Crimson OX+, chronologically, but in the end I decided to go with the one most commonly used online. Anyway, back in late 2001 Ubi Soft released Gunfighter: The Legend of Jesse James for the PS1, which was developed by Rebellion (then of Aliens vs. Predator fame, now of Sniper Elite fame) & was a straight-up clone of Time Crisis, gameplay-wise. While it did see release in both North America & PAL regions, it must have only really done well in the latter, as in 2003 Rebellion & Ubi Soft would release a sequel, Gunfighter II: Revenge of Jesse James, for the PS2 as a PAL-exclusive. Now, to bring up the confusion, I have seen this game as being released on April 28, 2003, November 30, 2003, & finally December 31, 2003, with the last one being the most commonly seen online, despite the cover using the old Ubi Soft logo, even though the company changed its logo & name to Ubisoft in September 2003; yes, this is all very stupid & not really worth this much attention. But enough about confusing release dates & whether or not the publisher's name is one or two words, how is the game itself?
Just like the first game, Gunfighter II is an unabashed Time Crisis clone, and to be fair I would say that it fares better than Endgame did, at least in terms of having an interesting conceptual identity to it & having some neat little touches. For example, when you take out the initial group of enemies in a section, but haven't fully cleared out the section itself, you'll literally see the next group of enemies run into their positions & quick and accurate shooting can let you take them out early. There's also a simultaneous two-player co-op mode where both players share the same screen, which does sound a bit odd since this is a cover-based rail shooter (& both players seem to share a single health meter, too?), but props to Rebellion for at least including the option. However, just like with Endgame, there's just this feeling that it's nothing more than an also-ran when compared to the games that Gunfighter II is aping its entire gameplay from, which in turn just makes me feel like I'd rather simply play Time Crisis II or 3. There's also two main modes, Story & Arcade, but all Arcade Mode really amounts to is a run through a single stage in Story Mode that you've already completed, only now with an accuracy percentage that you have to be above in order to properly "complete" it; Story Mode is, for all intents & purposes, a traditional Arcade Mode, right down to having limited continues. However, the biggest flaw I had with my time playing Gunslinger II comes to down to GunCon 2 calibration, which was terrible. Maybe it's because it's a PAL-only game that I'm forcing to play on my NTSC CRT TV, which does result in the screen being squished slightly on the top & bottom, but no matter how many times I re-calibrated my GunCon 2 my aim would always wind up being off to the right a bit, and even re-calibrating the GunCon 2 while playing the aim would instantly be off again; the calibration itself worked fine, but the moment I returned to gameplay it was off. There's nothing worse than playing a light gun game that can't keep the light gun properly calibrated, though I won't necessarily fault the game itself in this case, since I'm playing it in a region that it wasn't designed for.
Even with that snafu, though, I still put Gunfighter II: Revenge of Jesse James on a slightly higher pedestal than Endgame, if only because it still had more charm to it, and I honestly didn't feel bored playing it. However, I'd still rather play any other PS2 rail shooter covered so far over Gunfighter II; yes, even Death Crimson OX+.
Finally, we come to the end with the last GunCon 2-compatible PS2 game ever released (thanks, Cocoto Funfair!), the partially-redundantly named Time Crisis: Crisis Zone (though in Europe it's simply Crisis Zone). Considering that Time Crisis II was a four-year-old game when it debuted the GunCon 2 in 2001, it's only fitting that the last GunCon 2 game is also a "port" of a multi-year-old game, in this case Crisis Zone. Originally released worldwide in March 1999, Crisis Zone was the direct follow-up to Time Crisis II (though still telling an unrelated story, of course), with the main gimmick this time being that you hid behind a portable ballistic shield & instead of a handgun you now shot using a machine gun, with massive environmental damage being a major appeal. However, I put quotation marks around the world "port" to describe the PS2 version of this game, which actually never came out in Japan (only PAL on September 17, 2004, Korea on October 18, & North America on October 19), because Time Crisis: Crisis Zone is technically a remake. Developed by Tose, the PS2 game features better visuals, re-recorded dialog, and numerous gameplay additions, so let's see if Time Crisis: Crisis Zone delivers a proper farewell to the GunCon 2.
Simply put, Time Crisis: Crisis Zone is almost a nonstop barrage of bullets being fired, both by you & your foes. It's also a slight barrage of audio to deal with, but it's at least helpful audio, namely a voice saying "Action!" whenever you can start spraying & praying, and even an audio cue to let you know when an enemy is about fire bullets that will actually hit you, which is great since it's essentially impossible to keep you eyes on the entire screen in this game, due to just how much is going on at any point. If Time Crisis II is cover-based rail shooting at its honed simplistic perfection, & Time Crisis 3 expands on that gameplay with extra guns to pick from, then Crisis Zone is indeed the point in between where the dev team at Namco (&, in turn, Tose for this remake) just decided to say "Screw it... let it ride!!" & went full bore with the shooting. One can argue that it sometimes can be a bit much to take, and there are indeed some very cheap hits that you simply won't be able to avoid the first time around (or even if you aren't paying attention at just the right time), but at the same time there is just a sense of pure catharsis in playing Crisis Zone that you really can't find in any other PS2 rail shooter. Combine that with some nice touches that can add a bit of strategy, like being able to stop an enemy from firing damaging shots by hitting them with one bullet (but not quite killing them, so you can come back to them a few seconds later), Virtua Cop-esque stage selection, & the sheer amount of environmental destruction left in the wake of all of everyone firing off bullets like it's a John Woo movie on crack, the end result is a can't miss experience that, quite honestly, is still rarely attempted in a rail shooter.
For being the last GunCon 2-compatible game released, Time Crisis: Crisis Zone more than delivers a fun & always replayable swan song for the light gun. The title outside of Europe may be redundant, but the gameplay itself is anything but.
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If you're looking for a rank of any sorts, I guess here's mine:
Time Crisis II
Virtua Cop Re-Birth
Time Crisis: Crisis Zone
Time Crisis 3
Ninja Assault
Death Crimson OX+
Gunvari Collection+Time Crisis
Vampire Night
(gap to indicate notable enjoyment drop)
Gunfighter II: Revenge of Jesse James
Endgame
Following Time Crisis: Crisis Zone, the only other light gun-compatible game released on the PS2 would be the PAL-exclusive Cocoto Funfair on April 7, 2006, but (as mentioned numerous times already) that game only supports the original GunCon made for PS1, for whatever reason. Therefore, we have come to the end of this long overview, one that also pretty much acts as a look back at the end of the golden age of light gun games on console. Around a year after Time Crisis: Crisis Zone's release, Microsoft launched the Xbox 360, a console designed to be played on then-new digital HD displays, & while it's generally stated that light guns are "incompatible" with modern digital displays, the truth is more that digital displays are simply too slow for the input-output speeds that old light gun games were designed around with CRTs, i.e. "there's too much lag". Sony would follow suit with the PS3's focus on HD gaming, and while light gun-style gaming has continued to see support in some fashion to this very day (whether it be based on infrared technology for the Wiimote & the PS3's extremely short-lived GunCon 3, camera technology for the PS Move, gyro technology for the Switch's joycon, or even VR), the experience just isn't quite the same, especially when older games get ported to those later machines; they can be good & fine on their own, they're just different.
The only thing truly comparable to an old light gun looks to be the Sinden Lightgun, which uses software that draws a white border around the game screen to allow the Sinden to imitate what old light guns did to judge hits & misses, and from all reports it's extremely accurate to that old feel. However, it's currently only available for PCs using Windows or Linux (a version for the Polymega is planned for release... eventually), is understandably expensive for the tech used in it (Time Crisis II bundled with a GunCon 2 for $60 in 2001, or ~$103 after inflation, vs. $109 for just a base model Sinden light gun & no game), & it technically isn't "officially" supported by any new releases, to my knowledge. Simply put, there still isn't something that has (easily) replaced the feel of a good light gun mixed with a tube TV, so if you have one absolutely cherish it, because they're only becoming more & more scarce (in proper working condition, at least).
Time Crisis II © 1995 1997 2001 Namco Ltd.
Vampire Night © 2000 2001 Namco/Sega/Wow Entertainment
Endgame © 2001/2002 Empire Interactive Europe Ltd.
Virtua Cop Re-Birth © Sega © Sega-AM2/Sega 2002
Ninja Assault © 2000 2002 Namco Ltd.
Gunvari Collection+Time Crisis © 2002 Namco Ltd.
Time Crisis 3 © 1995 1997 2001 2002 2003 Namco Ltd.
Death Crimson OX+ © 1996-2003 Ecole
Gunfighter II: Revenge of Jesse James © 2003 Ubisoft Entertainment
Time Crisis: Crisis Zone © 1999 2004 Namco Ltd.
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