I can't really recall what I've done with myself for my last two birthdays. I think I ate some cake, played some video games I forgot about, and chilled for a while? It really does feel like I've lost my sense of time these last two years among many other things. But I'm trying my best to get myself out of this funk. And in the light of revisiting old classics and old ramblings to get myself back in the mood, I decided to make this year's birthday a bit more memorable.

I took a half day today, working the morning and then taking a train to NYC to the "nearby" Dave & Busters down near Times Square. All the up and coming titles and some newer classics were there: Minecraft Dungeons, Mario Kart Arcade DX, Lane Master, etc. And of course, they've got their light gun arcade cabinets. The newest House of the Dead, the newest Elevator Action, a Jurassic Park game, some Tomb Raider adaptation, and a few more. But I couldn't find Time Crisis 3 or 4, and I was left unfocused. There was something about these newer light gun arcade games that just wasn't bringing a similar engaging experience as my middle school days playing Time Crisis; something was missing. So to finally settle the score, my cousin and I went down to the nearest Barcade that evening, found the Time Crisis 3 cabinet, and armed with $20 of arcade tokens, endeavored to clear it that very night.

2 minutes in, I could already tell. Time Crisis 3 hits you straight from the get go with furious cover and shoot action. Most of the newer light gun games I played this afternoon at the Dave & Busters more or less felt like endurance tests; you can't prevent damage altogether, because there are going to be too many things firing at you sending out hitboxes and mitigation by killing as many as you can will only go so far before you run out of health and will have to pop in more tokens. Conversely, Time Crisis 3 (and the series in general) utilizes a quick fire cover system: press the pedal to come out from cover and take your potshots, and release the pedal to reload and dodge enemy attacks. But you can't afford to play lame either; those enemies aren't gonna off themselves, and there's a timer ticking; when your time runs out, you'll take damage too. As a result, Time Crisis is about a furious push & pull of balancing aggressive shots with on the fly defense from ducking behind cover + reloading; there's no room to breathe in this game. It's theoretically possible to beat the game without taking a single point of damage; bullets that have the potential to deal damage have a flashing red crosshair visual cue, a "DANGER" warning pops up when environmental hazards are about to collapse into you, and even the more subtle environmental cues of bullet streams/flamethrowers turning towards you or clawed ninjas jumping towards you, about to take a swipe, can all be figured out and reacted to in due time. No one said this was easy; after all, human reactions can only do so much at the end of the day. But it's possible, and that's all that matters; you've got a chance to make it big, and you best better know I'll take what I can get.

Moreover, Time Crisis 3 has crazy potential and depth for optimization. Good aim and a fast trigger finger to get rid of bulkier enemies is important of course, but Time Crisis 3 is every bit an awareness test as it is an execution test. As with most light gun games, you'll be able to pick out the spawn and attack patterns of enemies as you play more and more; figuring out how to quickly dispatch enemies will ultimately reduce your risk and lower the amount of times you'll even have to quickly duck in and out of cover to reload and avoid shots. Enemies are also often color coded to correspond to their attacks and level of danger: green guys are the standard peons, yellow skinny guys give special ammo when hit (make sure to hit them thrice to get as much special ammo as you can!), yellow machine gun guys have more health and threaten to mow you down with bullet fire, red guys have crazy good aim, and blue guys will use rocket launchers, throwing axes, and grenades with deadly accuracy to make your life living hell. Speaking of which, don't forget to use your special ammo; knowing key moments when to use the machine gun to tear down a single enemy, the shotgun to quickly deal spread damage, or the grenade to clear out a crowd or immediately blow up explosive objects is just as important as managing your handgun ammo effectively so you know exactly when to dip in and out for the quick reload. There's definitely a learning curve, and my cousin and I approached it quite differently; I, being the stubborn individual I am, used the handgun for almost the entire game and paid the price dearly when fighting loads of special enemies, while my cousin, unafraid to use the machine gun or shotgun, more than held his own in tense situations despite never having played the game before. Situation awareness and experimentation definitely take you far in this quick fire action arcade adventure where new enemies will constantly spawn at the most unexpected moments while you're constantly racing against the clock, and it's one of hell of a physical and mental execution test. But it is a more than worthy contest that you can absolutely draw from and improve upon.

I hadn't played Time Crisis 3 for almost 10 years now; I've played the first stage for hours upon hours collectively, fighting the helicopter with my handgun and deftly picking off the peons on the beach like a hawk swooping its prey, but nevertheless didn't make it farther than the middle of Stage 2 due to always running out of tokens or time. So needless to say, I got my ass handed to me so many times in that last stretch, cursing myself due to missing an obvious visual cue or forgetting to use my machine gun to take down that boss a few seconds faster, or even having 5 spare grenades left by the end of the final boss fight... whoops! But I hadn't felt that exhilarated in a long time; I never realized how much I had missed Time Crisis 3, with its fast and furious mix of offensive and defense, its over the top B-movie narrative with cheesy voice acting and enough explosions to make fresh college grad Michael Bay blush, and batshit crazy boss fights with furious, challenging, yet approachable stage sweeping. All until I got the itch to do something familiar yet different this year for my birthday. This is probably the strangest, most incongruent 4.5/5 I've given so far, but what can I say, Time Crisis 3 has left a mark on me and playing it for the first time in years today has left me more than convinced that it's aged like a fine wine. I've still got half of my tokens left, and I will be back to that Barcade for more. And of course, it's good to be back playing Time Crisis 3. Middle school me would have shed a tear, finally conquering my arcade demon. Here's to another year of great gaming, and I'll see you soon Time Crisis 4.