2 SPICY

As a gamer, one of the places i love to be is...the arcade! :3 And my favourite one in London has to be "Namco", there is also "Trocadero", but for me, "Namco" is the best ^_^

Anyway, i went there the other day, with the intention of playing one of my favourite games; "Maximum Tune 2" however, because i had gone quite late in the day, it was being occupied, so i decided to move on, and i began by playing Time Crisis 2, then once i had finished, right next door to me was a brand new arcade machine...



This game, at first, may sound like your average arcade shooter; You hide behind obstacles, come out, shoot the enemy, then hide again. But when you actually get into the game, and begin to understand the complexities of it, you realise that it is in fact like no other arcade shooter, it really is that good.

First allow me to explain the basic control system. You have your gun, and if you hold it down, you reload and hide behind an obstacle, then when you hold it up you come out and begin firing at your enemy. However, each of the 6 characters in the game have their own special abilities, so naturally when shooting you will need to play differently depending on weather you specialise in speed, or power, etc. Then you have 2 panels by your feet, left and right, and by pressing on these once your character will run from one hiding place to the next; But if you double tap, you will do some sort of dodge. One of the characters i played as, "Sicks", goes invisible when you double tap to run across, but his health and defense is very poor.



Now one of the things that makes this game really cool is the story mode. This does also have verses mode, however, i prefer story mode for one particular reason...it also has versus mode. You see you begin by selecting your character, and then you go along in the story taking out main enemies so that the story can progress, but, if you encounter a character in the story that just so happens to be the same character the person standing next to you is playing as, it links your machines, and you fight one another, the winner gets a mission star and then proceeds with the story (a mission star is essentially a life).

One thing about this game is that, at first, it does take a little getting used to, however, once you get into it, it really is so much fun. And one thing that really makes this game worth playing is that you get 3 lives. Whereas in most arcade shooters, when you run out of life, your game ends, but in this you begin with 3 mission stars, if you die you get to go again until you have none left, and of course if you earn more, then you get to play longer, so this game keeps you going longer than alot of others.

The graphic style of this reminds me particularly of Killer 7 on the gamecube, and the characters too remind me somewhat of those from the Killer 7 series; This is a good touch because it gives a really dark feel to the whole game and really makes it all the more enjoyable.



One thing that i am really hoping for with this game is for it to be ported and transferred onto the Nintendo Wii. It is made by Sega, and Sega have done some games with Nintendo in the past, and what with the upcoming popularity of the Wii, I'm sure Sega would seriously think about the possibility of turning this game into a home console game. It really would suit it seeing as the control style is something that would be best achieved playing it on the Wii.

So this is one game i am keeping my fingers crossed for...and as soon as i have enough money, ill get myself up to London again to play this game ^^



The above video isn't perfect quality, but it will give you an idea of how the game is played ^_^