Featured Image Credit: Tassei Denki Co.,Ltd.
Topics: Retro Gaming, Reviews, Tech
I think we all have a vague memory of playing a lightgun game in a dingy old arcade when we were kids. For me it was the arcade machines at Stoke-on-Trent Odeon circa 2001, wasting away plenty of time on the original Time Crisis and House of the Dead units.
Even if you don’t necessarily play video games, you’ve probably stepped into an arcade and become addicted to beating the high scores on at least one of the machines in there. And even with the decline of arcades, some of the games that appeared in these venues can’t be matched by anything you get on a home console like the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S.
This is especially true for lightgun games, a genre that requires such a specific setup that it’s pretty difficult to emulate the experience at home without the right equipment. Sure, the Nintendo Wii and the rise of VR gaming definitely helped to evolve the genre along the way, but there still hasn’t really been anything that matched those original arcade machines for me.
This was until I tried out G’AIM’E, a new plug & play system that allows you to play Time Crisis at home with very little faff.
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The unit itself is very compact, around the size of a small box, and simply requires plugging into the mains and into your TV’s HDMI socket. Connect up one of the guns and you’re good to go.
After an initial calibration, you’re thrown into the menu, where you can play Time Crisis (along with a few other titles, if you’ve bought one of the more expensive editions). And it looks beautiful on modern screens.
Playing Time Crisis on a 4K television from the comfort of my living room was an amazing experience, simultaneously transporting me back to those childhood Saturday afternoons spent at the arcade, while also making me hyper aware of how modern technology has reached a point where we can simply plug in and play a whole arcade machine on just a tiny box.
For a game that is now 30 years old, Time Crisis holds up well too. Perhaps I’m caught up with the nostalgia, but the early 3D art style, to the heavy beat of the soundtrack and weighty gun audio, it’s incredibly clear to me that the game has withstood the test of time and remains an excellent game to play at home in 2025.
But as much as I’ve loved revisiting Time Crisis, I can’t help but feel like the collection of games is missing some of the later entries. For example, I’d argue that Time Crisis 2 and Time Crisis 3 remain just as iconic as the first game, and it’s a shame to see them left out of this release. Especially considering the sequels add two-player co-operative gameplay, it would have been a nice addition to the Ultimate Edition, which comes with two controllers.
G’AIM’E does at least package a few other games with the more expensive editions, at least. By buying Premium or Ultimate, you also get access to three additional games, Point Blank, Steel Gunner, and Steel Gunner 2. I hadn’t played any of these games before, and it was a nice treat to be able to play them for the first time.
Be aware that the cheapest edition of the product also doesn't include a pedal, which was a key part of the Time Crisis experience. You can use a button on the gun to reload, but it doesn't feel as intuitive as using the pedal. It also gets quite uncomfortable after a while, as you essentially have to hold the gun with two hands for a long time.
Being Namco’s first-ever light gun arcade game, Steel Gunner’s inclusion in the collection feels particularly important. The same goes for Steel Gunner 2 and Point Blank, two titles which also predate the release of Time Crisis.
Of the three additional games, I think I particularly enjoyed playing Point Blank the most. This is the game a lot of light gun arcade fans swear by, and the series has seen numerous ports to PlayStation and Nintendo DS over the years. I can certainly see why it’s popular, with the slapstick violence and fun graphics winning me over.
Steel Gunner and its sequel, on the other hand, were also enjoyable. However, I found the difficulty to be much higher than Point Blank, which impeded my enjoyment of it a little.
Still, considering Steel Gunner has never been made available on home TVs before this release, I can’t say this doesn’t feel like a special little addition to the overall deal you’re getting here.
I guess it all boils down to how serious of a light gun fan you are. If you’re a hardcore enthusiast, you likely already have a custom-built set-up, at which point this release wouldn’t really entice you much. I mean, it isn’t really aimed at that demographic.
On the other hand, it might appeal more to casual fans who have fond memories of playing Time Crisis in arcades when they were younger, as I did. In that case, I’m not sure if the price is all that enticing. Sure, it’s the most accessible way to play Time Crisis at home since the early PlayStation days, but that price point is a little disappointing without including a few more games. With prices ranging between £99.99 and £199.99, you’d have at least hoped for the sequels to be there too.
The G’AIM’E: Plug & Play TIME CRISIS Gun ships in early December. A review sample was provided to GAMINGbible.