time crisis 5 is the most mysterious time crisis to me, i'd call it the black sheep if operation titan and crisis zone and razing storm didn't exist, though it feels even more strange than those, with a weirdo release schedule that caused it to be released both only 10 mins long and unfinished and not being on consoles at all, it's certainly the most interesting from an outsiders POV, though that does leave it with high expectations and while it doesn't quite live up to the sky-high standards of its predecessors, it's still time crisis and still a damn good time if you can somehow manage to find a machine for it, or at least, one that has the full game. i found one such machine in arcade club in bury during a trip where i met up with some site affiliates and it was the first game i played the moment i got there.

the game's release was strange, with the base version releasing only with the first 3 levels, only one of which is even a full level since the other two are gimmick stages, one in a helicopter and one on a bike, this did not go over well and pretty rightfully, it was only about 20 mins long, 8 with cutscenes and you only got that one starting stage with time crisising gameplay since the cover mechanics didn't really appear in the next 2 stages, there was eventually a "mastermind version" released with the other half of the game and most cabs you find will be this version, but its still something to look out for, it's kind of sleazy and if you do find this unfinished version i imagine it'd feel like a waste of money to even have played it since you won't get an ending at all, and the games ending is one of its coolest moments!

the main gimmick here (other than the gimmick stages) that sets it apart is the changes it makes to the core mechanic, rather than just taking cover you now have 2 sets of cover to swap between with different vantage points, it's cool and it's fun to swap between them to take out enemies you can't see otherwise, sometimes you can even help your partner by taking out some of their enemies and things like shield guys make you have to swap between them, it's well handled, though i can see some people not liking how much more involved it makes things and having to keep an eye on the pedals was super annoying sometimes, doesn't help that they were hard to press (and the gun was way too heavy for me) there's some cool stages here and a lot of gimmicks, some stages have the normal crisis gameplay like the first one and the 4th one, though the 4th does throw in things like an outdoors area you need a flashlight to see in and a conveyer belt that covers up the enemies. some stages are big on the gimmicks but still have cover, like the 5th one which has some not-zombies that rush you and a cool boss at the end, and then some full gimmick levels like a helicopter turret segment that has you going from two sides of the helicopter to shoot and a very cool bike chase level. you have a few weapons like 3 as well, though ammo here is a lot more scares, i remember tons of the yellow guys that drop ammo in that game, but here they only showed up twice total, but at the very least your ammo is all replenished upon death, and you'll die a lot, i must have at least 20 times, but it's more fair than some games and i never ran out of the timer at least unlike some of those older games, though its by no means an easy game if you aren't playing on freeplay, which i was, on freeplay any difficulty issues kind of go out the window and i think thats where the game is at its best, a good hour or so of easy fun, and you can even replay it with a new experience since both characters get different POV's for the levels! which is very neat, though every time crisis game after 1 is like that.

the story is pretty weird though, it tries to bring back former protags (from 2) but it ends up going in some strange directions with those characters, making one a villain and then killing him off, but both of the main returning characters are super fun, with keith channeling raiden like nothing else and Robert going full cheese during his villain turn in the last level, both are a lot of fun and there's even a cool boss fight where you act as a third person during their boss fight, with you having to short Robert while keith fights him with a katana, the latter half of the game has a fun tone too, with actual zombies in a horror mission, a delinquent guy who has actual lightning attacks and the coolest end boss in maybe any light gun game where you have a standoff with the final boss and end up having to shoot his bullets out of the air to take him down, it's so rad. , the two new twinks are cool too, bland for sure but i love the designs for both, love the male gyaru and a host boy vibes.

music is solid but you probably won't hear much of it in a real arcade and it's not that memorable, especially compared to 2 and 3's osts which i do really like, it was done by Kazuhiro Nakamura, who has worked with namco for a long time on games like time crisis 2 and 2, alpine racer 3 which is one of the studios best OST's, meny a tekken game, katamari forever, death by degrees and even some tales games like hearts R and rays. same with the voice acting which is very funny as per rail shooter tradition, super ps2, it's so cheesy and i like it :) it makes it feel like a perfect ps2 era action game in tone, especially during those last segments when it gets to its peak dumb and gives you a lot more cutscenes.

the game was the last time crisis game, since then its had no ports, the only real ways to play it are the original cabinets and emulation and the series hasn't had much of a peep ever since that mastermind edition so it's probably a safe bet that its dead in the water, which is a shame, this might be the weakest entry but it deserved a good port at the very least, it's the only one not playable on console in some form, at the very least it seems to be a common enough cabinet at arcades, I've seen a good few in my time. the game was developed internally at Namco but i can't find a specific team, just listed as Namco, but the games director, Shogo Ito, did work on ace combat assault horiozon and it's 3ds ver, plus sega race TV, but not much else, the games producer, Norihiro Nishimura, did work on 3, razing storm and 4, plus some other games like death by degrees and ninja assault, so it did have some old blood in it at least. it's the least great of the TC games but i think even then, it's still time crisis and you can't go wrong there at all, they're all classics, give it a try if you can find the right version of it.