mac.iLounge

Stop and think for a second: just how many quarters have you dropped into Time Crisis arcade games over the years? If you’re anything like us, the figure is probably much higher than you’d like to admit. But right now, a single roll of those quarters is enough to let you play a new Time Crisis game as much as you want. After separate appearances on iOS devices, Namco Bandai Games has brought Time Crisis 2nd Strike ($10) to the Mac App Store—somewhat impressively, with a new GunCon control option.

Although it’s obviously just a port of the iPhone and iPad games, the Mac version of Time Crisis 2nd Strike definitely benefits from a larger display, coming closer to the family’s original big-screened arcade machines. As an on-rails shooter, the idea is to pop out from safe points, shoot some bad guys, and then duck back down to reload your weapon. Four weapons are offered, including a handgun with unlimited ammunition and three more powerful but ammo-limited alternatives. Also cool: Namco is offering a free iGunCon app for iPhone 4 and iPad 2, which leverages their gyroscopes to give Mac and some iOS device owners a motion-tracking gun and pedal controller alternative, albeit without the sort of aiming accuracy we’d have hoped for. Don’t worry, though, as the game’s default mouse and keyboard control system works very well, too.