(This machine was played in the upper floor of Funland in Blackpool. Gun's aim is slightly off by an inch but workable.)
Keeping up the tradition of rarely updating a blog, I thought it's finally time to update some milestones in my Time Crisis rankings this year.
2013 has been a difficult year for me personally (hence the post's title). But after being inspired to pick up on Time Crisis and reach new achievements, I can be proud of at least of my game playing skills.
And it started with getting to know an expert player who has taken many first place spots in the Time Crisis machines of Britain: Smraedis. If you haven't seen him in action, here is his YouTube channel. This guy has practiced hard on shmups and light gun games for a long time and it shows. In the late 2000s, I used to keep seeing my scores in nearby arcades taken over by a certain ".SM". I wondered who this new challenger was for a long time! After meeting him in Replay 2011 and Play Expo 2012, I was inspired to take up a game I used to play regularly once more. At long last, both of us had a reason to practice. A drive to aim for the top!
I took many shots of our rankings but I'll stick to my best ones. I couldn't keep track of all the rankings and I can't remember all of SM's times so I'll show what I was up against.
Time Crisis 1 (AC)
STORY MODE
My best time: 10'22"02 (VS .SM 10'23"25)
(28th August 2013)
Previous records:
23/2: 10'56"20 (SM: 10'39"67)
16/3: 10'52"97
30/3: 10'44"27
6/5: 10'43"97 (SM: 10'38"35)1/6: 10'34"75 (Finally reached 1st beating SM's previous time)
24/7: SM defeated my 10'34"75 (Afraid I can't recall what exact time it was. I will update this if I know what it was)
Between May-August, SM and I had meetups to practice and compete our best times. During these meetups, SM discovered new strategies to beat his time of 10'38"35. By our last meetup, he went from 10'34"53 to his best time 10'23"25. I started to study and learn his new methods of taking down enemies quicker than before. Our times were so close, any little mistake in our playthrough would cost precious seconds.
After several attempts, I finally reached 1st place! I was slower than usual in Stage 1 (which usually isn't a problem) but had a quick boost by Stage 2. I was able to pull off head shots more consistently (the quickest way to take down a wave of enemies. Three point shots is the 2nd fastest way). Stage 3 was mostly a great run. Successfully taking down enemies quicker like SM could. I didn't think it was ever possible but we were pleased that our meetups produced good results from both of us.
So what's next? Unless we can buy a cabinet (and get a home with lots of space!) or Namco makes a spot on arcade port for today's consoles (the 1997 PlayStation version is very much inferior to the arcade version), there hasn't been much chance to play TC1. Hopefully, our competition shall continue...
"Good luck, Richard!"
北斗のショック
On a personal note: I haven't made regular trips to arcades lately for various reasons. Some personal. Some practical. I have to travel for mainly two hours by train to play in a seaside arcade. So many trips have taken their toll and going on weekends have been personally overwhelming. Blackpool for one isn't so much the family-friendly spot it used to be. My enthusiasm has waned too. With the quality of the cabinets deteriorating over time and with lack of maintenance, it limits what games I can enjoy. In Blackpool's Coral Island, over half of the machines have major faults. In my last trip, a worrying number of games didn't have their displays working. And all it takes is usually reconnecting the signal cables.
So I think from now on, arcade trips will be occasional and practice will continue on console versions. At least at present.
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