TIMEGAL HD-Remaster

Much as it pains me to say this - because I adore the main character, her voice acting and the 80's animation - this isn't worth full price. It's about an hour worth of amusement - of the [i]very[/i] shallow kind, at that - and there's no replayability either. It's also not a 'HD remaster' - it's just the original LaserDisc footage, as-is. They certainly didn't re-shoot the original animation cells (if those still exist) or anything. Sad that Taito neglected to do anything with Reiko. Put her in an RPG or a sidescrolling platformer or something, already.

Are you a nerd who loves 80's laserdisc arcade games, or are you a psychopath who enjoys quick-time events more than any normal person should!? Then this is the game for you!

君の反射神経が試される！時空を駆け抜けるワイルドな冒険、これぞTAITOが贈る80年代レーザーディスクアニメの真髄——タイムギャル、出動せよ！

OK, TIMEGAL. It's a fast-paced LaserDisc arcade game. If you're into quick-time events, this will be a fun time for you! Else, this game isn't up your alley. To compare to other LaserDisc games, it's leagues better than Dragon's Lair, rivaling with my second favorite, Cliff Hanger. Do yourself a favor and turn off the movement guide by setting LEVEL to 5. It will add more of a challenge, yes, but it adds a needed sense of trial-and-error to the game. I'd also recommend disabling continues, but that's just preference. Overall, it's a nice quick arcade game to pick up and beat. So if that's the good, here's the bad. One, this game is basically just a 1:1 port of the Switch version of the game. On Steam Deck it's great, on PC the controls are odd, but managable. However, this problem is nothing compared to the elephant in the room. The price is flat-out not worth it. I paid $21.98 for the TIMEGAL and NINJA HAYATE bundle, which I find steep but fair. But there is no world where I'd pay $39.98 for the bundle, and especially not $24.99 individually! The price is an INSANE ask, and I would NOT recommend it at that price. Overall, I give TIMEGAL a 9/10, just make sure you buy it on sale!

昔ゲームセンターにあったレーザーディスクゲームそのままで懐かしい。 難易度は高いが、パターンを記憶すれば何とかなる。 注意：コントローラー操作が前提になっている様子。 　　　ただし十字キーは使えない。

OK, Taito, hear me out: 'TimeGal Returns'. It's a side-scrolling run-and-gun, like Contra or Metal Slug, with hand-drawn retro anime graphics and full voice acting. Toss a few LaserDisc-style QTE sequences in there and you've got yourself a winner. Think it over and call me in the morning.

I should have reviewed this awhile ago, but I want to praise Taito for putting out a proper remaster here, with fresh LD scans rather than using some cheap and uncanny looking AI upscale. The game looks and sounds great! It's one I've always known about but never had the hardware to play, so I appreciate this remaster a lot. As for whether the game is worth it, this IS the interactive FMV game for old school anime fans. $25 may seem steep but I certainly didn't regret it. If anything I think Time Gal is definitely worth your, well, time, and Ninja Hayate is the one that may not be worth the asking price. So either get the bundle on sale, or just get Time Gal. Ninja Hayate has novelty, but its production values are low and progression infuriating. Time Gal has charm, and restarting and going down different routes takes awhile to get old.

A gorgeous release of an arcade classic from 1985. Note. Arcade. Classic. 1985. It is effectively an hour long QTE (If you play it on the difficulty god and taito intended) with cute enough losing scenes to dull the agony of getting beaten by that whip guy in 500AD AGAIN. Obviously if 'hour long QTE' made you recoil, go away, this isn't and never will be for you. That said, beats anything David Cage ever scraped out of his backside and slapped in front of audiences.

Fun & difficult. A cute little anime arcade game from golden ages of both. I feel I've experienced and kept alive a small slice of gaming and anime history after completion, which took roughly an hour

What a fun throwback. I first played this back on the Sega CD in the early 90s. Considering that game looked a bit grainy on a 320x200 TV while still only taking up about 2/3rds of the screen, this version looks fantastic. Visually it's a pretty amazing remaster. Audio wise, the game sounds good as well, though be aware the two audio options (original and a re-recorded one) are only in Japanese. Not a huge surprise since this is the based on the original arcade laser disc version, while the English audio track only ever made an appearance in the Sega CD release, as far as I know. Slight bummer since I have nostalgia for the English track, but it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the game either. In terms of gameplay, this is a classic laserdisc movie style action game, similar to Dragon's Lair. Only anime. A video plays, and occasionally something flashes on the screen. Press the joystick in one of four directions or a single joystick button, corresponding to a movement the character should make. Get the right one and the video continues. Press the wrong input or don't act fast enough and you get a death animation instead. If you were playing in the arcade you'd probably go through your tokens fast, but now in the comfort of your home it's pretty hilarious to see some of them. 🤣 As far as game length, yeah, it is a bit short. Once you have all the inputs memorized, you can get through the game in 15-18 minutes if you don't die. Unless you have really fast reflexes though, you'll probably die a fair amount on your first play through of each stage. The QuickTime reaction window is pretty short, but once you have the stage memorized you can spam the input until the input prompt flashes and it'll go though. It might feel cheap, but that's just how these style of games were. As an arcade game port, it does give you infinite continues by default, which makes beating it the first time fairly trivial. [b]IMO if you really want to get your money out of the game, turn Continues off in the options (or just don't use them).[/b] Learning the stages is part of the fun, and makes it more satisfying when you finally complete the game. Cost wise, I will admit it's a bit expensive at full price for the amount of time you'll probably end up playing it. For me personally, I don't regret the purchase at all. It's a great port of a very old school arcade game, and has a lot of classic anime charm to it. It took me just under 3 hours to get all of the achievements, and I had a blast. It'd cost me just as much to see a (possibly bad) movie at the local IMAX, so I still feel like I got my money's worth. Plus I still want to go back and see if I can get a perfect no-death run, as well as check out some of the death animations I may have missed (a lot of them are pretty funny).