Images appear for Time Crisis: Razing Storm

The humble rail shooter may have been roundly eclipsed by its free-roaming successor, the FPS, but they’re still an enormous amount of fun in an accessible, pick-up-and-play sort of way.

The Time Crisis series is one of those games you inevitably find in airports and service stations, a quick fix of duck-and-shoot violence that soon empties the pockets of loose change.

Namco’s forthcoming series spin-off, Time Crisis: Razing Storm, looks to update the property’s gameplay for a broader audience, and features grittier, slightly more realistic graphics (though by no means as slavishly dedicated to simulating the horrors of war as, say, Modern Warfare 2) and competitive online play for up to eight players.

The plot has something to do with shooting terrorists in South America, but that hardly matters. What does matter is the action, which is as batty as ever, and features marauding terrorists with axes, destructible environments and giant mecha.

Set for release exclusively for PlayStation 3 on 5 November, Time Crisis: Razing Storm will be compatible with Sony’s new Move controllers, and Namco’s own Guncon 3.

As ever, click on the images on the left for a better look.