(Arcade/Various Home, Taito, 1985)
As of this writing it's the very beginning of the year 2010. Now, to me, 2010 sounds pretty much like it's "The Future" (Although SNK always assured me that the future "is now") but as I look around I see that, sadly, old movies and 1940's Bugs Bunny cartoons were lying all along, I have no hoverboard, no laser-gun, no spaceship car and The Running Man isn't a legitimate gameshow (Yet) What I'm missing most of all though, is super cool anime girls time travelling in ridiculously small costumes. For that, I still have a couple thousand years wait left, until then, 1985 will have to suffice.
Time Gal is the second Laserdisc game to enter the 100 list. I explained at length in my Dragon's Lair entry what LD games mean to me and why, so I'm not going to fight for their existence here. You know how the game works, video plays out and you react to the linear controls with split second timing in order to prevent our heroine from a grisly demise. In Time Gal, the player controls Reika, who appears to be some kind of law enforcement official in the year 4001. The game begins with the evil, beardy, Luda stealing a time-travelling device capsule and laughing like only a badguy can as he disappears into the fabric of time to wreak havoc.
Reika is hot on the case, using a small gem in her smaller costume, she travels through various time periods taking on every single deadly situation known (and not yet known) to man. Armed with a laser pistol and the ability to briefly pause the action "TIME STOPPU!" Reika must track down Luda and stop him before any paradoxial damage can be done. Reika is Sarah Conner and Luda is Miles Bennet Dyson.
Time Gal is one of my favourite Laserdisc games, with classic old-school anime art and a wide range of action packed scenes that take much pleasure in re-writing events that may or may not have happened. For example, did you know the world was full of ghosts in the year 666A.D? or that Godzilla roamed the earth in the year 70000000B.C? Time Gal can certainly teach you a lot about history you didn't know. The game also correctly predicts the Gulf war by having the 1990 level take place on a tank filled desert battlefield. Taito and their wacky crystal ball. If I was in charge, Time Gal would be a part of the education curriculum.
I love Time Gal, the game and the girl herself, Reika is a beautiful and lovable heroine, her blantantly sexist design counter-balanced with her skilfull abilities and quick wits. Time Gal, being a Laserdisc game, suffers all the perils and pitfalls that come along with that genre, linear non-gameplay, lack of control and much trial and error.
But if you've been reading this far into my project, you'll know that I'm beyond caring about those issues in a game like this. Time Gal has great art, nice tunes and a real eighties feel to it, more so than any other LD game I've played (and believe me, I've played them all) For anyone wishing to try it out, I strongly recommend the rare Playstation version for glorious video and some nice dip-switch options.
If girls in the future are as cool as Reika, Y'know what? You can shove your hoverboard, Marty.
3 comments:
My favourite LD game - only played the Mega CD version, and was fully unaware of the PlayStation version until now.
My favourite part's how whenever you do something wrong, she turns into a weird little fat girl before being killed. Fun stuff.
The huge selection of funny Super Deformed death scenes make the trial and error problems more bearable.
The PS1 version is mega rare as an original (Im lucky enough to own a copy thanks to a huge assist) but it can be found "elsewhere" if searched for hard enough.
I'll be on the lookout for it, in any of its "other" forms if need be.
For now, I've just put the Mega CD version onto my PSP, the game needs to be played more :D
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