Have You Played...

...any games in the TimeSplitters series?

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent was absolute crap. All the Nintendo 64 kids of the world were excited that they were finally getting a sequel to the great GoldenEye 64. Right? Well since it was made by some crappy division of EA... obviously not. A couple of years ago the developer Rare finally made a real sequel to the awesome N64 game Perfect Dark. Finally Rare's big comeback!

So why did Perfect Dark Zero suck? And yes, it did suck. It was made by Rare after all. Well maybe because the team behind Perfect Dark and GoldenEye left Rare years before. The team behind these two beloved Nintendo 64 hits left Rare in 1998 to form their own company. Called Free Radical, the new developer began work on a series that has since been the only true spiritual successor to those great N64 shooters.

The TimeSplitters (TS) series is a (f)irst (p)erson (s)hooter series just like GoldenEye and Perfect Dark. The series has been rewarded with similar critical success but has generally gone ignored in the console shooter market saturated with games like Halo, Rainbow Six, SOCOM, etc. I've played a ton of console FPS games and this series is still one of my favorites.

The story mode in the game is really a lot of fun, and in my opinion, a step above this teams previous N64 shooter offerings. The story is just very fun, and very funny. The time travel premise is basically an excuse to jump around to different locales ranging from the distant past to the distant future. It's always fun to mess around in the new setting and try out the weapons of that era. In one level you could be using a 6-shooter to blow away banditos, while in the next you could be using laser powered weapons blowing away space aliens. The third TS game really had a lot of fun with time travel. Back to the Future calibur zaniness in which yourself from minutes into the future would to come warn you about an ambush or even help you fight a boss are just a couple of examples of the craziness in this game. And you would actually have to play each of the parts. It's confusing, but it makes a lot more sense in the game. ...Sorta.

The Story mode is just a tip of the iceberg though. The game offers so much content it's unbelievable. Hundreds of single player challenges and bot modes, hundreds of awesome characters to unlock (gingerbread man is a personal fave), dozens and dozens of multi-player options and modes, a map editor, online play... the list goes on. The series is bursting with playability. This series is really the only shooter out there where you get the same multi-player feel you got from the old N64 hits. So spend the few dollars it takes to buy any of these games and invite some friends over.

I'd love to see what Free Radical can do with the future of the series. It's definitely a developer I'd keep an eye out for. They are also known for the cult hit Second Sight and the upcoming ambitious title Haze. If you like funny games or and want to try a more arcade style shooter, definitely try out any of the games in the TimeSplitters series. TimeSplitters 2 is still the best in my opinion though.

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