Time Crisis II is a 1997 light-gun shooter video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. It is the second installment in the Time Crisis series. The game incorporates the same mechanics of its predecessor, with some minor changes, but with the addition of co-operative two-player gaming. The game's story focuses on the efforts of two secret agents, Keith Martin and Robert Baxter, as they attempt to thwart the efforts of an industry mogul's plan for world dominance.
The game was ported to the PlayStation 2 in October 2001, as part of a bundle to coincide with the launch of the GunCon 2 controller (G-Con 2 in Europe), with enhanced graphics. Ports for the original PlayStation and Dreamcast were cancelled during development. The game received mostly favorable reviews for the arcade and console versions. A sequel to the game, Time Crisis 3, was released in 2002.
Gameplay
thumb|left|The game's arcade machines
The game utilizes the foot pedal system, just like Time Crisis, allowing players to hide from enemy fire. The "crisis flash" system alerts players when the enemy's attack would cause a direct hit, a feature not present in its predecessor, Time Crisis. When pressing down on the pedal, the player comes out of hiding and can shoot enemies. Releasing the pedal puts the player behind cover to avoid bullets and reload the weapon, though the player cannot shoot while hiding. Certain sections of the game give players a machine gun with unlimited ammo.
The player loses a life if hit by a critical bullet or an obstacle, and the game ends when the player loses all lives. Players also lose a life if the time limit (which is replenished after each area is cleared) drops to zero, unlike the first game, where running out of time results in a game over. Players can continue from their current position, as opposed to the PlayStation version of Time Crisis, which requires players to restart from the beginning of a section.
This was the first Time Crisis game to enable two people to play simultaneously,
Reception
In Japan, Game Machine listed Time Crisis II on their June 15, 1998 issue as being the second most-successful dedicated arcade game of the week. It went on to be the sixth Japanese highest-grossing arcade game of 1999 and 2001 respectively.
The game was met with positive reviews upon release. Edge gave the arcade version the award for 1998 Coin-Op of the Year, above Sega Rally 2 and Get Bass. Edge described Time Crisis IIs "separate-screen" two-player mode as "one of the most convincing forms of cooperative play ever seen in the arcade". AllGame gave it a score of four-and-a-half stars out of five.
Next Generation reviewed the arcade version and commented: "Not as big a milestone as the first, but definitely a superb game from Namco". They were less enthusiastic about the PlayStation 2 conversion, saying that while it was "great for what it is", wasn't as good as other lightgun shooters.
Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating in the 0–100 range, calculated an average score of 81 out of 100 ("Favorable") for the PlayStation 2 version, based on reviews from 21 professional critics. the PlayStation 2 version of Time Crisis II was a nominee for The Electric Playgrounds 2001 Blister Awards for "Best Console Shooter Game", but lost to Halo: Combat Evolved.