G’AIM’E Time Crisis+ review: a mostly brilliant shot of arcade nostalgia

My love of retro gaming is as much about the hardware design and culture around the games as it is about the games I enjoy playing. It’s a reason why G’AIM’E lightgun hardware has caught my eye for a while now, ever since the Kickstarter, because this retro game ‘console’ picks up on that need to handle the hardware and offers a unique way back to playing Namco’s lightgun games, particularly Time Crisis, one of the best games from the '90s, that have been left forgotten for far too long.

This need to appreciate the retro hardware has led to excitement for the upcoming NEOGEO AES+ reaching fever pitch, and G’AIM’E does something similar for GunCon, Time Crisis, and that period where, finally, we felt like arcade-perfect games, or indeed enhanced games, were in our living rooms. And opening the game G’AIM’E, holding this chunky plastic, slightly toy-like lightgun brings all of that back in seconds.

It’s that physicality G’AIM’E leans on, not just the games, not just the nostalgia, but the act of holding and doing, gun in hand, foot on the pedal, that simple two-part interaction that instantly drags you back into something you didn’t realise you missed quite this much, even though, yes, you can play Time Crisis elsewhere now, on PlayStation 5, or similar shooters like House of the Dead on Nintendo Switch, with workarounds and motion controls and all the usual compromises, but none of it quite lands the same way because original hardware design is missing from the room.

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These gun-games couldn’t be played properly up until this moment, G’AIM’E is solving a problem that basically killed this genre on modern TVs, since CRT lightguns relied on how those old displays refreshed the image, which modern screens just don’t do, so instead, you’ve got a camera in the gun reading the screen, combined with motion sensing and software tracking that maps your aim against the display in real time.

In practice, that means there are no Time Crisis 4 sensor bars or a tracking camera, and it works as the original GunCon was designed – just plug it in, calibrate, aim, and off you go. It’s refreshingly straightforward compared to most enthusiast setups, and when it’s locked in, the response is solid enough that you stop thinking about it almost immediately. It’s not perfect, and in play, I noticed accuracy drift and need to regularly recalibrate, as well as fix some accuracy issues by checking the TV is in Game mode and setting to 4:3 ratio, but as with many retro gaming releases, the feel of using the G’AIM’E lightgun massages away some of the niggles.

Playing the games

Once you plug in and play Time Crisis, any accuracy issues fade quickly, because the game itself still holds up well and its unique balance of action, timing and skill remains a draw. Built around that unique cover system where you physically step off the pedal to duck and reload, then step back in to shoot, creates a rhythm that modern shooters rarely match. It’s not just reaction speed either; it’s memory and timing, learning enemy patterns, understanding that sometimes hiding for the right moment, even when the timer is ticking down, is a necessary risk and reward. That loop still feels great, still feels deliberate in a way most shooters don’t bother with anymore.

The second game I test is Point Blank, which arguably exposes the flaws of the G’AIM’E system most clearly. It’s still a fantastic game, a rapid-fire collection of shooting challenges and mini-games that works brilliantly in short bursts or pass-and-play sessions, but it’s also far more demanding when it comes to precision. This is where G’AIM’E shows its limitations, as while Time Crisis can absorb a bit of inaccuracy because it’s designed around movement and larger targets, Point Blank is exact shooting, hitting tiny objects, single-shot accuracy – one game demands you knock an apple of the head of a cartoon jungle explorer, with one bullet, and it feels impossibe – and when the tracking isn’t perfect, you feel it immediately.

As mentioned, it’s possible to improve things with setup tweaks, such as making sure the TY is in Game Mode and definitely using a 4:3 aspect ratio, but it never quite reaches that ‘forget the tech’ level. Still, Point Blank itself remains brilliant, especially as a social score-chasing experience, and the mix and depth of challenges never gets boring. A note too, this and all the games on G’AIM’E are the arcade versions, so Point Blank lacks the Quest mode and Arrange stages, and PS1 arguably has slightly better visuals.

Steel Gunner and its sequel are actually… great. I write that in kind of shock because both games are precursors to Time Crisis and feature more basic, over-the-top, coin-sucking arcade action with little nuance, and are designed to shock and awe (the sprite scaling was impressive back in 1990). As such, both games feel looser, and the constant stream of bots shooting from all directions, in and out of the screen, means any accuracy issues are thrown aside. In this context, G’AIM’E actually performs better because the slight inconsistencies matter less when the game is asking you to keep firing rather than land surgical shots, and they work well as quick, loud bursts of arcade energy.

And the hardware

Physically, the system is very well judged. The gun has weight without being cumbersome, the trigger feels deliberate and not mushy, it has that satisfying microswitch click when pulled, and the recoil feedback adds just enough punch to make each shot feel like it has presence too, and certainly adds to the classic arcade GunCon feel (PS1 never quite felt the same).

The pedal is arguably the most important part of the whole thing, the tech that feels unique to playing an arcade-perfect Time Crisis, and thankfully, it’s done well. The pedal is sturdy, responsive, and absolutely central to making Time Crisis feel like Time Crisis, though you won't need it for the other included games.

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Where G’AIM’E falls short is consistency and scope, as the four Namco games represent a tight selection, arguably too tight once the novelty wears off, and there’s no sense yet of a wider ecosystem or expansion, though regular firmware updates are available. What G’AIM’E is, is a curated snapshot of early lightgun design rather than a complete expandable platform, which will be either a strength or a limitation depending on what you want from it. I could perfectly imagine future releases being hardware-specific collectable designs, complete with other game series, such as those from Sega, Konami, and Atari, and I’d be there, eagerly playing too.

Which sums up G’AIM’E perfectly, as the system isn’t flawless, you will recalibrate more than you’d like, you will notice tracking quirks in certain games, and you will wish the library went further, but you will love pushing it and playing these classic games on it. When G’AIM’E clicks, it does something very few modern retro games manage: it makes the past feel physically present again, gun in hand, foot on pedal, that familiar rhythm of ducking, shooting, waiting, then jumping back in at exactly the right moment. And that feeling carries a lot of weight – roughly 260g of bright blue plastic – that pushes past any shortcomings.