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Following up on December’s i Love Katamari, Namco Bandai adapts another one of its popular franchises to the iPhone with this week’s release of Time Crisis Strike ($5.99). This all-new entry in the classic light-gun arcade shooter series features multiple stages, along with unlockable challenges in the form of “Crisis Missions.”
To my knowledge, Time Crisis Strike is the first non-arcade Time Crisis game to somewhat accurately simulate the series’ duck-and-reload mechanic. The standard Time Crisis reloading procedure is controlled with a pedal in arcade releases, while home ports up until now have mapped the reload feature to a button on Namco’s GunCon controllers. This always bugged me, as pushing a button on the barrel of a gun is not only uncomfortable, but it lacks the important physical action of shifting your body to dodge enemy fire.
Time Crisis Strike, on the other hand, allows you to duck and reload by tilting the iPhone toward your body — a brilliant design decision that could end up making the game a worthwhile purchase, assuming the touch-based shooting mechanics are also done well. Anyone try this one out yet? As a fan of the arcade releases, I’m intrigued.
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