Time Crisis was a better arcade game. House Of the Deadm I think, they thaught, would translate better to console players. And I think it did. No one played Time Crisis for the story, or characters, just the duck ability and gun recoil.
@@thezambianprince3893 I saw a video of Johnny Nero Action Hero on RUclips, looks like a clone of either this game, Time Crisis, The House of the Dead or Vampire Night.
Man, anytime I went to an arcade and saw these lightgun shooting games I'd get so excited. They made me feel like I was in the game. They were so loud and flashy.
@@iamarabicandiloveamericanp7137 I mean I was born in '92, so I'm not that much older. But maybe because I was in California there were just more arcades? Hell, every ice rink and Chuck E Cheese had an arcade. Now, the arcades in the mall are just so lack luster.
When I walked into an arcade as a kid I quickly scanned the room to see if they had Area 51 or Terminator 2 The Arcade Game. T2 in particular took a ton of my money because one day I happened to catch an older kid fighting the T-1000 and I tried my hardest to make it there but that game was quite tough.
Me too (well, my dad bought it for me, was still a little kid). I know nobody cares but I just have an overwhelming urge to let anyone who reads this know that I did, in fact, have a Saturn and Virtua Cop.
Such a great game, brought back a tonne of great memories. I also had a light gun, but mine had "cheats" on it. Had two 3-way switches, normal, unlimited/no reload and full auto, and a fire rate selector. That was abused many times.
@@SeanNoonan I was lucky enough to pick up a second light gun for cheap at some point and its a blast to play with 2 guns at the same time, I just wish I still had a good crt to use with them.
The glory days of '96 when you had Virtua Cop on the Saturn at home, and it was such a faithful port if you could beat it at home, you could also beat it at the arcade. I think Virtua Cop was the only arcade game I actually finished!
Dude. I had that, House of the Dead 1 and two enforcers for Saturn... Thought I was the man!! Finishing games at an arcade is no mean feat. I spent so much on Metal Slug, Mortal Kombat and Point Blank but never finished any of them until I got console versions
I had these on Saturn with a light gun. The gun had a full auto mode and an auto reload mode so you could just hold the trigger down and shoot non stop. Such great times.
Going on a philosophical statement as to how impressive gaming in the 90s used to be, and then another fart reverb. You never fail to make me laugh, Gman.
Man, your description of arcades back then was spot on. I sure miss walking into a new one and getting to survey the place to see what gems they have. And a quarter, which is chump change, can buy you a good time for a few minutes.
@@Desi-qw9fc I was about to say this exact thing .... 1 dollar or for some games 2 dollars was just plain fucking Robbery... you could spend 10 minutes in an arcade and come out 20 dollars poorer If you weren't careful
@@Desi-qw9fc here in the Midwest it was similar for most games. Maybe 50c for an older game etc, but for anything big/new that the arcade spent a lot on it was pricey for sure. Something something still your mom is cheap for a good time - SHWACKED
Fun Fact: The devs of Goldeneye 64 originally wanted it to be an on rails shooter in the style of Virtua Cop. They ended up changing it when they felt that moving around freely instead of being stuck on a single track made the gameplay much better
I’d somehow got a copy of the pc version for Virtua Cop 2 and young me quickly realized it was indeed the same game in the arcades. I was so stoked! It also led to the death of my old 3 button beige mouse when we figured out you could shoot infinite ammo by spamming LMB+RMB.
You know, I have VGAs and normal CRTs now, played on them back then, and honestly prefer lack of scanlines. They were made on computer monitors anyway most of the time, so idk, even back then in the 90s scanlines weren't my favorite thing, tho that's mostly because I had to play on super crappy Magnavox crap-boxes, but other than the movement (which to me is the bigger difference, unless you have an OLED or something with serious pixel response) even the stuff that is different I wouldn't say is always better, in fact usually the opposite imo. But most of the time it's... Comparable, outside of animation. Maybe I'm crazy, I do like VGA CRT monitors tho lol
@@DisgruntledDoomer Johnny Nero Action Hero fun light gun game with elements from this game and Time Crisis plus cutscenes with comic book art-style and Dreamcast-looking graphics, both guns work and new CRT monitor, in a very-good condition.
Virtua Cop, Confidential Mission, House of the Dead, Time Crisis, Ninja Assault, DIE HARD Trilogy, Point Blank, Ghoul Panic and many more Lightgun Games are one and definatly THE REASON why I still have a CRT in my room.
Man, you're not kidding when you did your nostalgia intro. I grew up in a town without an arcade, they didn't even really exist in my country, and I didn't have a console, but I still distinctly remember Virtua Cop. Reason being is my local library (yeah remember libraries) had copies of the only video game magazine published in my country, and the first edition I ever saw and borrowed was the 1994 edition featuring Virtua Cop. Literally my introduction to video games. It wasn't even actually playing the game, but a bloody magazine. Anyway thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Pardon me if it’s too personal a question but I’m so curious. Where are you from? I’m American, but figured most countries/regions had gaming magazines or a type of arcade. Though to be fair my knowledge is mainly USA, Japan, Western Europe and like Germany and Brazil.
@@duffeknol Ah ok thank you. And i apologize for asking. It’s fascinating to hear how gaming was in the early days outside of Japan and the US. Thank you.
@@JoshuaJacobs83 All good, no worries. Yeah a few of my friends had Nintendos and such, but arcades were a thing I legit only knew from movies. Maybe our capital city had a few of them, but a small town where I grew up, no chance.
Well, I never had arcades too! (Only a very few big cities in India had them, and even then they had simple east asian knock offs rather than anything serious like Street Fighter) And no consoles either. They were simply too damn expensive. I did try Virtua Cop on PC though, along with other great 90s titles like Midtown Madness and Hydro Thunder. Honestly, these polygon filled colorful games make me feel so childish and happy. It's a part of gaming that I feel is sorely missed today. Back when limited game mechanics and hardware forced devs to make the experience 'enjoyable', rather than 'tedious'. I just recently tried out Splinter Cell (2002), and man, was it great to look at blocky character models but some solid gameplay.
The Saturn was massively underrated. Virtua Cop. Daytona. Guardian Heroes. Panzer Dragoon Saga. Dragonforce. Burning Rangers. Crimewave. Shiningforce. So many legendary games.
I always consider Operation: Wolf to be the 'original' rail shooter. I remember the arcade cabinet was awesome because it had basically a full-sized Uzi light gun.
@@SJReid82 The Master System version was a pretty good conversion for the time, it was really fun with the light gun. But the arcade was an experience all it's own.
Somewhat of a spiritual successor is Confidential Mission which came out on Dreamcast and Arcades. The gameplay is the same with the inclusion of minigames between scenes to interact and better boss fights. It also has that characteristic bad voice acting of the time which is a plus
Virtua Cop, point blank and time crisis 2 are 3 of my favorite arcade games ever. I also loved Area 51 because if you played good enough you could earn extra credits. When you grew up poor and your mom only gave you a dollar the free credits came in handy. Do you remember Cabal? It was roller ball madness. Lol
Great review, the final boss is more like Lex Luthor with the "no helmet power armor" design. I would love to see a review of Silent Scope, probably the most difficult game to port to console or pc, because of the rifle peripheral.
i've played the saturn version a lot as a kid and if i remember correctly there's a secret boss if you play all 3 levels in order. the special end boss is a attack helicopter
I have only ever played Virtua Cop 1 on my cousin's sega saturn in the mid to lated 90s. We spent lots of time playing it during a sleepover and always found stage2/medium ironically harder than expert. Some 10 years later, he dug out the old saturn and we played it, except this time the light gun's controller adapter was missing. Also at the time I couldnt help notice Rage and Smarty's very similar likenesses to Chris and Leon from Resident Evil
It's impressive how vibrant and impactful the graphics were on old Time Crisis and Virtua Cop games. They had like 100x less the polygons we do today but everything still made sense and looked really cool.
@@iamarabicandiloveamericanp7137 Johnny Nero Action Hero, plays like Virtua Cop and Time Crisis but had ability to dual-wield two light-guns and had comic book art-style on cutscenes and bosses similar to Virtua Cop's, very fun game.
I’m one of the thirteen people who actually had this on the Saturn. The only thing I remember being different from the PC version was the reloading seemed being slower. That and aiming an FPS with a D-Pad was not fun.
I still remember for my 12th birthday my mom got me this bootleg video game compilation CD with Virtua Cop 1 and 2, Fatal Fury 3, Commandos 1 and 2, Earthworm Jim and Virtua Fighter 2...I remember playing this game on my pentium 4 xD I wish they would re-release this on steam :D
The Saturn ports are excellent, there's also a curious barebones Dreamcast port of the second game. I like the remade graphics on the PS2, they remind me of Confidential Mission on Dreamcast, which itself is a very fun Virtua Cop-like.
These games vividly remind me of one the best points in my existence. I remember playing this with my uncle for hours on an old Windows 98 machine back in 1998. Good old days, thanks for reviewing these, i've been following your content for a while and taking your recommendations on games, but I never expected to see this here. Thanks a lot man
Awesome! I was obsessed with Virtua Cop and used to play it all the time with my dad on Saturn, ultimate father/son gaming. It actually got me into shooting guns because one day my dad was like "how would you like to shoot a real gun?".
I remember Virtua Cop 2 being the 1st game I ever owned with the SATURN light gun, that literally made me feel like I owned a 10-15 grand arcade unit in my lil bedroom as a teenager, even though I already had some great arcade ports like VF2 & Sega Rally Championship just to name a couple. The Saturn port was seriously that good, that even though it wasn’t arcade perfect, it showed exactly what the Saturn was capable of 3D wise, when in the hands of developers who knew how to get the best out of the technology. Lobotomy/ ID were another development team who knew exactly how to make amazing 3D polygon based games for the SATURN. My SEGA Saturn (which I had modded with a 50hz/60hz switch, in order to play Japanese imports at full speed & full screen) was along with the Dreamcast, the 2 consoles that I miss owning the most & I’ve owned most of the big 4 console hardware companies consoles at one point or another throughout the years, but owning a SATURN back then was like belonging too a small community, that knew that they had something that other gamers would love, if only they knew. I was the only one of my team as a young lad who owned a Saturn but when I took it around to my m8s pads to play, they would all be fighting over the controllers, especially for SEGA RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP, VF2, Virtual On Cybertroopers, Vampire Savour 2 & so on. Good times.
When I younger, at my movie theatre arcade we had virtual cop 3. My dad showed me the game and I thought it was awesome. Right next the the Virtual cop 3 machine was Time crisis 4, those were some good times. Unfortunately the machine has moved and my friend and I were a little sad =( good times
Here are some interesting facts that Gman left out: -The magnum handgun is basically easy mode compared to the high capacity automatic or the wide hitbox shotgun. The Magnum has penetration which allows you to hit enemies even when behind cover. There is a good reason why you get the magnum prior to facing off with King, because that will make it much easier for you to hit the perps who are half covered behind crates which might not sound like a big deal if you are playing it on console or PC, but back in the arcade, the lightgun almost never hit where you point, so the magnum really helps with your aim. If you somehow got the magnum in stage 3 (which I don't even know where you can find it), those computers can no longer save those perps as your shot will just go through the computer and take out the perp. And yes, this also applies to VC2. After I discovered the overpowered nature of the magnum, I basically ran the entire run of VC 2 with the magnum from beginning to end. -In VC1, when you go through the game in order of level 1 -> 2 -> 3, you will see a helicopter fly by when you start at 2 and 3 in that order. When you defeat the final boss by following that level order, you can fight the helicopter as the true final boss of the game, which despite being the true final boss, is as much of a pushover as the final boss in VC2 (which if I remember from some sources, is the same person).
According to the background material in the PC manual for Virtua Cop 2, the handgun had "high-impact concussive rounds" that were somehow non-lethal. So technically, Gman, you didn't commit any criminal genocide.
Ah yes Virtua Cop, the predecessor of Gal Gun 😂 I remember playing Virtua Cop games and Time Crisis as a child. You don't need to worry anything in the world, ah those were the days
While working car part delivery I discovered one of the small shops had a pristine and maintained Time Crisis 1 machine: had to strike up a convo with the owner and get em to let me take it for a round while they explained how hard it was to sus out the handgun feedback parts. Memorable 💜
Wow, this video brought back some memories. If I remember correctly, almost every hit Namco created in the early to mid 90s for the arcades, were a direct response (read: copy) of Sega's arcade games. Sega created Virtua Cop, Namco creates Time Crisis, Sega creates Virtua Fighter, Namco creates Tekken, Sega creates Virtua Racing, Namco creates Ridge Racer, Sega creates Fighting Vipers, Namco creates Soul Blade later renamed, Soul Caliber. It was shameless how much Namco was running after Sega in those days. Even G-Loc/Afterburner could be seen as an influence for Ace Combat. To be fair to Namco though, this practice was and still is, all the rage. SNK wouldn't be what it is today in the fighting scene if it wasn't for them and pretty much every major 3rd party trying to copy Capcom's Street Fighter 2. But if SNK didn't go that route, we wouldn't have King of Fighters, Samurai Showdown and Last Blade, some of the best fighting game series ever made. Anyways, I remember Lethal Enforcers, it sucked. Tried it a couple of times with my older brother. He liked it, I hated it. I never liked the digitized art assets and it reminded me of Pit Fighter, which I also hated. Great video!
omg this brings me back. when i was kindergarden, it was in the very first school i even went and we used computer alot for study and there were a time when we would get to have turn playing virtua cop. we were too small to get what was happening so teachers would hold out hand top of the mouse and help us aim. i remember when we all took turn to go to the end level and final boss was my turn and the teacher went out to take a call and i felt brave and messed up hours of progress. there were other games too like a puzzle one, a 3d snake game same as the nokia one but in 3d. but nothing compared to virtua cop we get so hyped when it was vitua cop day
This game alongside several other arcade games gave so many fun moments for me during vacations to the Canary Islands. Family may remember the ice cream, the scorching sun or the palmtrees welcoming you… but for me it was the arcades with light gun games whenever the opportunity arised.
Virtua Cop and Time Crisis made sooo much money of me in the 90´s! When all you had at home was a snes these games felt like another world. Also when discussing lightgun games, I feel like Confidential Mission and Silent Scope took a lot of inspiration from Virtua Cop.
I just want to say that watching your footage of VC2 immediately took me back. I used to play it as a child in Cuba in my neighbor's computer. It was one of the few games I had access to, which meant that I got really good at it just through sheer repetition. Awesome video! Gonna go find a download for it and relive my childhood.
Man this brings me back to my childhood, my dad and I played vitrua cop 1 a ton on the Sega Saturn, along with area 51. The thing that I loved is that you could use the big ass orange gun to shoot at the screen just like at an arcade. An amazing feature that blew my 7 year old mind
I remember back in the 90's.. they had a special booth at EPCOT in florida (can't remember if the building was still communicore, or innoventions at the time), it was Virtua Racing, but they had full scale mockups of indy cars, on a gimbal, to kinda simulate movement.. It was stupid fun... i remember wishing i could spend all day playing with that.
I only played Virtua Cop 2 as a kid on an old family computer. I have fond memories of it but I kinda forgot about it until I saw this video, so thank you for taking me on a nostalgia trip.
I was a bartender at a burger joint that had a VC cabinet. Used to plY it everyday on break, eventually I memorized it so I could beat it on one quarter. One day I found one of the cooks baggy of coke by it. That was a good break and rest of days work.
This game singlehandedly got me into shooters. I used to play both of these on my dad's computer religiously as a kid and watching this footage I still haven't forgotten where each badguy pops up, where the camera zooms in, and the hostages being in the line of fire. Big smile on my face watching this. 🥰
It's nice to see PC players that spam shoot-reload tactic by clicking both left & right mouse button at a same time which makes the game unintentionally gives some overpowering odds to you to play the game while sacrificing accuracy in Virtual Cop 2 like me
I believe Virtua Cop's level 2 on the construction site/quarry might be a direct reference to Arnold Schwarznegger's forgotten movie Raw Deal. Specially with the truck at 10:30
Man the sequel to me was peak rail shooter game. It's also funny that the medium stage "Save the mayor" was harder than the expert stage "Railline shootout" OH! And the nostalgia of clicking both mouse buttons at the same time practically giving you infinite ammo in VC2 where you can just reload with one click
Virtua Cop 2 is a big part of my childhood, I played through that game on PC so many times. The death sounds and "somebody help me" yells are imprinted on my memory.
I loved doing dual play on the arcade version. It's even easier in VC2. :) And VC and VC2 were among the best selling games on the Saturn, both domestic and overseas.
I've never launched a CRT monitor out of a trebuchet, but I DID drop one out of a 3rd-floor window into an empty dumpster once. It was really satisfying. It 'sploded real good.
I remember the BCC cinemas at Strathpine shopping centre in Brisbane QLD had Daytona US in the lobby for almost 20 years! It was there so long I played it as a teenager and then MY kids played on it!
Another virtual-named game from Sega from around that time is Virtual On - Cyber troopers. Super underrated fast-paced arena mech fighting game with unorthodox but intuitive controls. Soundtrack is amazing too.
I remember as a kid I’d used to go up to my grandparents house all the time to play games because they had a few consoles I didn’t own up there. One of them was a Sega Saturn and I remember playing Virtua Cop and Revolution X on the thing as far as light gun games go. Also loved playing Myst on it. Those were some good times back then.
Virtua Cop 2 was pretty much the first video game I ever played. I remember the coin-operated arcade machine and those light guns. I'm so fucking happy GmanLives is covering it.
I remember playing this as a kid on windows 95, I would always try and play it with the gamepad coz my my head that was more "gamey" I didn't expect it but honestly the thing that's giving me the most nostalgia here is the sound effects, that reload sound and the "HELP ME" not to mention old mate with the 4 barrel rocket launcher!
I don't think it was Time Crisis that killed this franchise, it's more likely that SEGA liked House Of The Dead a lot more
We're meeting G over there.
Time Crisis was a better arcade game. House Of the Deadm I think, they thaught, would translate better to console players. And I think it did. No one played Time Crisis for the story, or characters, just the duck ability and gun recoil.
Time Crisis 2 was my go to shooter arcade game with my older brother. Twas what we spent most of our quarters on. Not the greatest but fun moments.
@@thezambianprince3893 I saw a video of Johnny Nero Action Hero on RUclips, looks like a clone of either this game, Time Crisis, The House of the Dead or Vampire Night.
Exactly what I was thinking!
Man, anytime I went to an arcade and saw these lightgun shooting games I'd get so excited. They made me feel like I was in the game. They were so loud and flashy.
You guys are lucky to have grown up playing arcade and light gun I was born in 1996 and didn't play Virtua cop 2 until the start of 2001
Man I still feel exactly like this when I go to the local arcade, its just one of those things that never gets old for me..
@@iamarabicandiloveamericanp7137 I mean I was born in '92, so I'm not that much older. But maybe because I was in California there were just more arcades? Hell, every ice rink and Chuck E Cheese had an arcade. Now, the arcades in the mall are just so lack luster.
I use to love the house of the dead 3 because you actually had a shotgun
When I walked into an arcade as a kid I quickly scanned the room to see if they had Area 51 or Terminator 2 The Arcade Game. T2 in particular took a ton of my money because one day I happened to catch an older kid fighting the T-1000 and I tried my hardest to make it there but that game was quite tough.
RELOAD - RELOAD - SHOOT OUTSIDE THE SCREEN!
I was one of the 13 people who bought the Saturn version - damn fine game. I miss lightguns so much :(
Me too (well, my dad bought it for me, was still a little kid). I know nobody cares but I just have an overwhelming urge to let anyone who reads this know that I did, in fact, have a Saturn and Virtua Cop.
@@geraldchurchill5576 i still do!!!
I always wanted a second lightgun, but back then it was all too expensive. It was either new lightgun or new game - the game always won out.
Such a great game, brought back a tonne of great memories. I also had a light gun, but mine had "cheats" on it. Had two 3-way switches, normal, unlimited/no reload and full auto, and a fire rate selector. That was abused many times.
@@SeanNoonan I was lucky enough to pick up a second light gun for cheap at some point and its a blast to play with 2 guns at the same time, I just wish I still had a good crt to use with them.
The glory days of '96 when you had Virtua Cop on the Saturn at home, and it was such a faithful port if you could beat it at home, you could also beat it at the arcade. I think Virtua Cop was the only arcade game I actually finished!
wow, two worlds are clashing together for me, wh40k and listening to an aussie review FPS games, life is good. Glad to see you here Guy.
The House of The Dead 2 on Dreamcast made feel the same but 4 years later, the GOOD OLD "New Millennium" vibes
Dude. I had that, House of the Dead 1 and two enforcers for Saturn... Thought I was the man!! Finishing games at an arcade is no mean feat. I spent so much on Metal Slug, Mortal Kombat and Point Blank but never finished any of them until I got console versions
I had these on Saturn with a light gun. The gun had a full auto mode and an auto reload mode so you could just hold the trigger down and shoot non stop. Such great times.
this and metal slug and time Crisis 3 needed lots of quarters
Going on a philosophical statement as to how impressive gaming in the 90s used to be, and then another fart reverb. You never fail to make me laugh, Gman.
He makes the sounds himself, courtesy of a beef vindaloo, sonny Jim.
Don't mean to toot my own horn *fart*.
How is that philosophical statement you absolute smooth brain?
@@LDW12887 What kind of insult is smooth brain?
@@esssss8415 he's a cringey incel wannabe
Man, your description of arcades back then was spot on. I sure miss walking into a new one and getting to survey the place to see what gems they have. And a quarter, which is chump change, can buy you a good time for a few minutes.
A quarter for a few minutes? Damn hookers were cheap back then...
Here in Australia it was never a few cents, it was always $1 or $2. Arcades never took off here as a phenomenon because of the expense.
@@Desi-qw9fc I was about to say this exact thing
.... 1 dollar or for some games 2 dollars was just plain fucking Robbery... you could spend 10 minutes in an arcade and come out 20 dollars poorer If you weren't careful
@@Desi-qw9fc In the 90's it was that much?
@@Desi-qw9fc here in the Midwest it was similar for most games. Maybe 50c for an older game etc, but for anything big/new that the arcade spent a lot on it was pricey for sure.
Something something still your mom is cheap for a good time - SHWACKED
Fun Fact: The devs of Goldeneye 64 originally wanted it to be an on rails shooter in the style of Virtua Cop. They ended up changing it when they felt that moving around freely instead of being stuck on a single track made the gameplay much better
Thats why the game retained reloading.
The way the enemies react to being shot definitely felt like arcade lightgun animations
Funny enough, that's how we got Confidential Mission.
@@SolCresta3405 I love confidential mission and your username
@@gary9346 Thanks. It’s from one of the best shmups of all time.
Gman, mate stop making me feel like a mummy with these classics.
I’d somehow got a copy of the pc version for Virtua Cop 2 and young me quickly realized it was indeed the same game in the arcades. I was so stoked!
It also led to the death of my old 3 button beige mouse when we figured out you could shoot infinite ammo by spamming LMB+RMB.
Man Virtua Cop 2 was one of my fondest memories as a kid, thanks GMan!
Remembers the games didn’t actually look like this, they ran on CRT screens. They look really different on modern tech.
You know, I have VGAs and normal CRTs now, played on them back then, and honestly prefer lack of scanlines. They were made on computer monitors anyway most of the time, so idk, even back then in the 90s scanlines weren't my favorite thing, tho that's mostly because I had to play on super crappy Magnavox crap-boxes, but other than the movement (which to me is the bigger difference, unless you have an OLED or something with serious pixel response) even the stuff that is different I wouldn't say is always better, in fact usually the opposite imo. But most of the time it's... Comparable, outside of animation. Maybe I'm crazy, I do like VGA CRT monitors tho lol
Indeed. The screen flashing, when you shoot, was less annoying, and there was a kind of motion-blur like effect when the camera pans around.
@@DisgruntledDoomer Johnny Nero Action Hero fun light gun game with elements from this game and Time Crisis plus cutscenes with comic book art-style and Dreamcast-looking graphics, both guns work and new CRT monitor, in a very-good condition.
Virtua Cop is a special series to me. It was my first Saturn game!
It's a bummer that NA never got the PS2 compilation.
Virtua Cop, Confidential Mission, House of the Dead, Time Crisis, Ninja Assault, DIE HARD Trilogy, Point Blank, Ghoul Panic and many more Lightgun Games are one and definatly THE REASON why I still have a CRT in my room.
Man, you're not kidding when you did your nostalgia intro. I grew up in a town without an arcade, they didn't even really exist in my country, and I didn't have a console, but I still distinctly remember Virtua Cop. Reason being is my local library (yeah remember libraries) had copies of the only video game magazine published in my country, and the first edition I ever saw and borrowed was the 1994 edition featuring Virtua Cop. Literally my introduction to video games. It wasn't even actually playing the game, but a bloody magazine.
Anyway thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Pardon me if it’s too personal a question but I’m so curious. Where are you from? I’m American, but figured most countries/regions had gaming magazines or a type of arcade. Though to be fair my knowledge is mainly USA, Japan, Western Europe and like Germany and Brazil.
@@JoshuaJacobs83 I'm originally Dutch.
@@duffeknol Ah ok thank you. And i apologize for asking. It’s fascinating to hear how gaming was in the early days outside of Japan and the US. Thank you.
@@JoshuaJacobs83 All good, no worries. Yeah a few of my friends had Nintendos and such, but arcades were a thing I legit only knew from movies. Maybe our capital city had a few of them, but a small town where I grew up, no chance.
Well, I never had arcades too! (Only a very few big cities in India had them, and even then they had simple east asian knock offs rather than anything serious like Street Fighter) And no consoles either. They were simply too damn expensive.
I did try Virtua Cop on PC though, along with other great 90s titles like Midtown Madness and Hydro Thunder. Honestly, these polygon filled colorful games make me feel so childish and happy. It's a part of gaming that I feel is sorely missed today. Back when limited game mechanics and hardware forced devs to make the experience 'enjoyable', rather than 'tedious'.
I just recently tried out Splinter Cell (2002), and man, was it great to look at blocky character models but some solid gameplay.
The Saturn was massively underrated. Virtua Cop. Daytona. Guardian Heroes. Panzer Dragoon Saga. Dragonforce. Burning Rangers. Crimewave. Shiningforce. So many legendary games.
There’s more underrated games for the system also.
I always consider Operation: Wolf to be the 'original' rail shooter. I remember the arcade cabinet was awesome because it had basically a full-sized Uzi light gun.
Operation Wolf doesn't seem to get no love these days. It was amazing at the time, and for a good few years every arcade had one.
Had it on DoS
@@dexocube I swear, people only remember that horrible NES port of the game. The arcade original was awesome!
I remember that shit.
@@SJReid82 The Master System version was a pretty good conversion for the time, it was really fun with the light gun. But the arcade was an experience all it's own.
Somewhat of a spiritual successor is Confidential Mission which came out on Dreamcast and Arcades. The gameplay is the same with the inclusion of minigames between scenes to interact and better boss fights. It also has that characteristic bad voice acting of the time which is a plus
One of the best rail shooters
I still think Ghost Squad tops all
Yes omg yes
@@Largentina. Best ones besides GS and VC are House of the Dead 2 and Time Crisis II.
I feel sorry for the kids that will never know how awesome arcades were.
You should give the Sega Ghost Squad games a shot. Spiritual successors with that tactical flavor.
I've got this on my wii and it's so much fun. Especially multiplayer.
Virtua cop 2 is straight up amazing. The set pieces, camera work and the feel of this game was just out of this world.
Virtua Cop, point blank and time crisis 2 are 3 of my favorite arcade games ever. I also loved Area 51 because if you played good enough you could earn extra credits. When you grew up poor and your mom only gave you a dollar the free credits came in handy.
Do you remember Cabal? It was roller ball madness. Lol
And congrats on 500K glad I’m here along for the wild ride
Great review, the final boss is more like Lex Luthor with the "no helmet power armor" design.
I would love to see a review of Silent Scope, probably the most difficult game to port to console or pc, because of the rifle peripheral.
Damn, I remember how much I played Virtua Cop 2 in my PC when I was kid back in the 90s. Thanks for the memories!
And it's a shame that there was no remastering and no rerelease of these games on Steam.
i've played the saturn version a lot as a kid and if i remember correctly there's a secret boss if you play all 3 levels in order. the special end boss is a attack helicopter
Classic shooter, I always loved how the bad guys flew all over the place when you shot them
I have only ever played Virtua Cop 1 on my cousin's sega saturn in the mid to lated 90s. We spent lots of time playing it during a sleepover and always found stage2/medium ironically harder than expert. Some 10 years later, he dug out the old saturn and we played it, except this time the light gun's controller adapter was missing. Also at the time I couldnt help notice Rage and Smarty's very similar likenesses to Chris and Leon from Resident Evil
It's impressive how vibrant and impactful the graphics were on old Time Crisis and Virtua Cop games. They had like 100x less the polygons we do today but everything still made sense and looked really cool.
thank you for not using the blurry borders... and you put the ad at the end!
this is great
I just played Virtua Cop 2 yesterday and man, so many memories!
Me too l played it like 3 days ago
@@iamarabicandiloveamericanp7137 Johnny Nero Action Hero, plays like Virtua Cop and Time Crisis but had ability to dual-wield two light-guns and had comic book art-style on cutscenes and bosses similar to Virtua Cop's, very fun game.
I’m one of the thirteen people who actually had this on the Saturn. The only thing I remember being different from the PC version was the reloading seemed being slower.
That and aiming an FPS with a D-Pad was not fun.
I still remember for my 12th birthday my mom got me this bootleg video game compilation CD with Virtua Cop 1 and 2, Fatal Fury 3, Commandos 1 and 2, Earthworm Jim and Virtua Fighter 2...I remember playing this game on my pentium 4 xD I wish they would re-release this on steam :D
The Saturn ports are excellent, there's also a curious barebones Dreamcast port of the second game. I like the remade graphics on the PS2, they remind me of Confidential Mission on Dreamcast, which itself is a very fun Virtua Cop-like.
Bro I was born in 2001 and somehow have played this when I was a kid damn this bring so Many memories
These games vividly remind me of one the best points in my existence. I remember playing this with my uncle for hours on an old Windows 98 machine back in 1998. Good old days, thanks for reviewing these, i've been following your content for a while and taking your recommendations on games, but I never expected to see this here. Thanks a lot man
Awesome! I was obsessed with Virtua Cop and used to play it all the time with my dad on Saturn, ultimate father/son gaming.
It actually got me into shooting guns because one day my dad was like "how would you like to shoot a real gun?".
I remember Virtua Cop 2 being the 1st game I ever owned with the SATURN light gun, that literally made me feel like I owned a 10-15 grand arcade unit in my lil bedroom as a teenager, even though I already had some great arcade ports like VF2 & Sega Rally Championship just to name a couple. The Saturn port was seriously that good, that even though it wasn’t arcade perfect, it showed exactly what the Saturn was capable of 3D wise, when in the hands of developers who knew how to get the best out of the technology. Lobotomy/ ID were another development team who knew exactly how to make amazing 3D polygon based games for the SATURN. My SEGA Saturn (which I had modded with a 50hz/60hz switch, in order to play Japanese imports at full speed & full screen) was along with the Dreamcast, the 2 consoles that I miss owning the most & I’ve owned most of the big 4 console hardware companies consoles at one point or another throughout the years, but owning a SATURN back then was like belonging too a small community, that knew that they had something that other gamers would love, if only they knew. I was the only one of my team as a young lad who owned a Saturn but when I took it around to my m8s pads to play, they would all be fighting over the controllers, especially for SEGA RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP, VF2, Virtual On Cybertroopers, Vampire Savour 2 & so on. Good times.
I miss a lot of the old-school style arcades. I loved playing Silent Scope, with a friend as a spotter.
When I younger, at my movie theatre arcade we had virtual cop 3. My dad showed me the game and I thought it was awesome. Right next the the Virtual cop 3 machine was Time crisis 4, those were some good times. Unfortunately the machine has moved and my friend and I were a little sad =( good times
Here are some interesting facts that Gman left out:
-The magnum handgun is basically easy mode compared to the high capacity automatic or the wide hitbox shotgun. The Magnum has penetration which allows you to hit enemies even when behind cover. There is a good reason why you get the magnum prior to facing off with King, because that will make it much easier for you to hit the perps who are half covered behind crates which might not sound like a big deal if you are playing it on console or PC, but back in the arcade, the lightgun almost never hit where you point, so the magnum really helps with your aim.
If you somehow got the magnum in stage 3 (which I don't even know where you can find it), those computers can no longer save those perps as your shot will just go through the computer and take out the perp. And yes, this also applies to VC2. After I discovered the overpowered nature of the magnum, I basically ran the entire run of VC 2 with the magnum from beginning to end.
-In VC1, when you go through the game in order of level 1 -> 2 -> 3, you will see a helicopter fly by when you start at 2 and 3 in that order. When you defeat the final boss by following that level order, you can fight the helicopter as the true final boss of the game, which despite being the true final boss, is as much of a pushover as the final boss in VC2 (which if I remember from some sources, is the same person).
Man, I'd love to see a new Virtua Cop with the same 80's/90's vibes, palm trees, oceanside car chases and shit.
That guy piloting the tank in Virtua Cop 2 looked like the Doom Slayer.
According to the background material in the PC manual for Virtua Cop 2, the handgun had "high-impact concussive rounds" that were somehow non-lethal. So technically, Gman, you didn't commit any criminal genocide.
So it's similar to rubber bullets.
There is still a risk on non-lethal bullets that can still kill by blunt trauma.
Mighty Goose with Shotgun in “Mighty Mode” is a close contender for Metal Slug shotty. Wears the inspiration on its sleeve. \m/>.
One of the 13 reporting in, I still remember bashing away at Virtua Cop and Panzer Dragoon Zwei on my Saturn as a kid.
"By running at you with an axe"
Weird looking axe, I don't think you can cut much with that
Ah yes Virtua Cop, the predecessor of Gal Gun 😂
I remember playing Virtua Cop games and Time Crisis as a child. You don't need to worry anything in the world, ah those were the days
love your work dude, always fun and worth my time.
Gman has such a great edit style
While working car part delivery I discovered one of the small shops had a pristine and maintained Time Crisis 1 machine: had to strike up a convo with the owner and get em to let me take it for a round while they explained how hard it was to sus out the handgun feedback parts. Memorable 💜
I love how at 16:40 there are people casually walking by the car chase shoot out.
I still own my copy of Virtua Cop from back in the day for my PS2, still got my G-con2 with it's box as well. Great review man 👍
Wow, this video brought back some memories. If I remember correctly, almost every hit Namco created in the early to mid 90s for the arcades, were a direct response (read: copy) of Sega's arcade games. Sega created Virtua Cop, Namco creates Time Crisis, Sega creates Virtua Fighter, Namco creates Tekken, Sega creates Virtua Racing, Namco creates Ridge Racer, Sega creates Fighting Vipers, Namco creates Soul Blade later renamed, Soul Caliber. It was shameless how much Namco was running after Sega in those days. Even G-Loc/Afterburner could be seen as an influence for Ace Combat.
To be fair to Namco though, this practice was and still is, all the rage. SNK wouldn't be what it is today in the fighting scene if it wasn't for them and pretty much every major 3rd party trying to copy Capcom's Street Fighter 2. But if SNK didn't go that route, we wouldn't have King of Fighters, Samurai Showdown and Last Blade, some of the best fighting game series ever made.
Anyways, I remember Lethal Enforcers, it sucked. Tried it a couple of times with my older brother. He liked it, I hated it. I never liked the digitized art assets and it reminded me of Pit Fighter, which I also hated. Great video!
omg this brings me back. when i was kindergarden, it was in the very first school i even went and we used computer alot for study and there were a time when we would get to have turn playing virtua cop. we were too small to get what was happening so teachers would hold out hand top of the mouse and help us aim. i remember when we all took turn to go to the end level and final boss was my turn and the teacher went out to take a call and i felt brave and messed up hours of progress. there were other games too like a puzzle one, a 3d snake game same as the nokia one but in 3d. but nothing compared to virtua cop we get so hyped when it was vitua cop day
I remember having Virtua Cop on the SEGA Saturn as a kid. My dad and I would play it like crazy. I miss those days......
This game alongside several other arcade games gave so many fun moments for me during vacations to the Canary Islands. Family may remember the ice cream, the scorching sun or the palmtrees welcoming you… but for me it was the arcades with light gun games whenever the opportunity arised.
Virtua Cop and Time Crisis made sooo much money of me in the 90´s! When all you had at home was a snes these games felt like another world.
Also when discussing lightgun games, I feel like Confidential Mission and Silent Scope took a lot of inspiration from Virtua Cop.
I just want to say that watching your footage of VC2 immediately took me back. I used to play it as a child in Cuba in my neighbor's computer. It was one of the few games I had access to, which meant that I got really good at it just through sheer repetition. Awesome video! Gonna go find a download for it and relive my childhood.
You forgot about the very controversial title: Virtua Fleslight, it only saw limited release outside of Japan.
Man this brings me back to my childhood, my dad and I played vitrua cop 1 a ton on the Sega Saturn, along with area 51. The thing that I loved is that you could use the big ass orange gun to shoot at the screen just like at an arcade. An amazing feature that blew my 7 year old mind
The cop cars at the end of virtua 1 look like R32 coupes, and the small black car looks like a Toyota Sera. Nice!
I remember back in the 90's.. they had a special booth at EPCOT in florida (can't remember if the building was still communicore, or innoventions at the time), it was Virtua Racing, but they had full scale mockups of indy cars, on a gimbal, to kinda simulate movement.. It was stupid fun... i remember wishing i could spend all day playing with that.
20:50 I was expecting it to end with "to protect the life cycle"
I only played Virtua Cop 2 as a kid on an old family computer. I have fond memories of it but I kinda forgot about it until I saw this video, so thank you for taking me on a nostalgia trip.
7:11 Love the audio focus on the Wilhelm scream.
I was a bartender at a burger joint that had a VC cabinet. Used to plY it everyday on break, eventually I memorized it so I could beat it on one quarter.
One day I found one of the cooks baggy of coke by it. That was a good break and rest of days work.
An interesting thing about Virtua Cop 3: it's the only light gun game where you can have one extra bullet in the chamber if you do a mid-reload
This game singlehandedly got me into shooters. I used to play both of these on my dad's computer religiously as a kid and watching this footage I still haven't forgotten where each badguy pops up, where the camera zooms in, and the hostages being in the line of fire. Big smile on my face watching this. 🥰
Virtua Cop 2 and Mortal Kombat 4 came preloaded with the first PC my parents bought back in 2008
damn, those were some old ass games for a PC you bought in 2008 :D
"somebody help me" is permanently chiseled into my brain forever.
Along with "Hey!" from enemies which is just distraction from another enemies that want to shoot you
Also the weird sounding "Don't shoot me!" said by the female bystanders from the first game.
It's nice to see PC players that spam shoot-reload tactic by clicking both left & right mouse button at a same time which makes the game unintentionally gives some overpowering odds to you to play the game while sacrificing accuracy in Virtual Cop 2 like me
"Goes down like left over spaghetti bolognese-" Why you calling me out like that, Gman?
I believe Virtua Cop's level 2 on the construction site/quarry might be a direct reference to Arnold Schwarznegger's forgotten movie Raw Deal. Specially with the truck at 10:30
Man the sequel to me was peak rail shooter game. It's also funny that the medium stage "Save the mayor" was harder than the expert stage "Railline shootout"
OH! And the nostalgia of clicking both mouse buttons at the same time practically giving you infinite ammo in VC2 where you can just reload with one click
Man, me and my brother loved to play this game on the PC back when I was a kid, thanks for making this Gman.
Thats no truck... that's a moon!!!
yoooo caught it at ten minutes, 972 views. always really cool to see videos about these older games, lol of them really deserve more attention!
Virtua Cop 2 is a big part of my childhood, I played through that game on PC so many times. The death sounds and "somebody help me" yells are imprinted on my memory.
Virtua Cop2 and that Dreamcast lightgun game with the sniper rifle were the favourite games of a guy I knew as a kid. Spent so much time on them.
I loved doing dual play on the arcade version. It's even easier in VC2. :)
And VC and VC2 were among the best selling games on the Saturn, both domestic and overseas.
I played a lot of virtua cop 2 as a kid, the sound bite of the civilian saying "SOMEBODY HELP ME!" lives rent free in my head to this day.
I've never launched a CRT monitor out of a trebuchet, but I DID drop one out of a 3rd-floor window into an empty dumpster once. It was really satisfying. It 'sploded real good.
I have Virtua Cop on Saturn. Still fun to this day. I need to find 2 some day.
I remember the BCC cinemas at Strathpine shopping centre in Brisbane QLD had Daytona US in the lobby for almost 20 years!
It was there so long I played it as a teenager and then MY kids played on it!
Ohh man, the first game I played when I was 4. Virtua cop was my favourite game 😢 I miss it, I hope we get the 4th installment
Another virtual-named game from Sega from around that time is Virtual On - Cyber troopers. Super underrated fast-paced arena mech fighting game with unorthodox but intuitive controls. Soundtrack is amazing too.
Owned this on Saturn with the light gun. Some of the best times
I remember as a kid I’d used to go up to my grandparents house all the time to play games because they had a few consoles I didn’t own up there. One of them was a Sega Saturn and I remember playing Virtua Cop and Revolution X on the thing as far as light gun games go. Also loved playing Myst on it. Those were some good times back then.
Virtua Cop 3 was in my mall arcade. I played the everlasting shit out of it. I even made the high score until the machine was finally put to an end
Virtua Cop 2 was pretty much the first video game I ever played. I remember the coin-operated arcade machine and those light guns.
I'm so fucking happy GmanLives is covering it.
Oh damn, I'm making a cup of tea to watch this one! Still got my saturn and light gun.. But no "TV". Sad times..
18:28 You shot Duke Nukem...
I played Virtuo Cop 2 at the PC cafe and it’s really fun as a kid and seeing this brought my memories back
LOL at that one spec ops dude who brought a hatchet to a gun fight.
I had Virtual Copy 1&2 on the Sega Saturn, along with the Predator light gun. Flippin' loved playing them! Good times.
I remember playing this as a kid on windows 95, I would always try and play it with the gamepad coz my my head that was more "gamey"
I didn't expect it but honestly the thing that's giving me the most nostalgia here is the sound effects, that reload sound and the "HELP ME"
not to mention old mate with the 4 barrel rocket launcher!
Daytona USA oh my god. Anyone remember Sega Rally Championship??
I had these on the Saturn with the light gun and LOVED em. was great to see this video. u rock bro
This was the first PC game i ever saw in my life.
It was my school computer.
I'm really digging your recent arcade light gun retrospectives. House of the Dead? Area 51? Silent Scope? CarnEvil? 🤞