Pick Date: 7/10/12    Have you ever played Williams Narc made in 1988? I love that game and actually own it. You are part of an elite Narc unit who hunts down drug dealers and shoots them dead. Remember this was the 80's, it was all about busting the drugs. This is a 2D side scroller, and you have unlimited ammo for your sub machine gun. Unlimited ammo, means unlimited fun. Narc IS a fun game. Now imagine if you will, if you could take Narc and turn it into a 3D action game, complete with a live action hand held submachine gun to mow down the bad guys. YES. THIS IS CRISIS ZONE. This is Narc 2.0. This is a dream come true. The game was made in 1999, where our attention turned from drug dealers to terrorists. This time its terrorists, and its personal.

The Time Crisis series of games took a turn when they came out with their third installment. They changed it up and switched from pistols to sub machine guns. This is where they got it right. No more pop... pop... pop. This time, you feel the full recoil of the gun in your hands with a rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat. It's satisfying to shoot. Seriously. Instead of shooting at terrorists I could be shooting at a screen full of soda cans. It just feels good to pull the trigger on this thing. The super bass sound system in the game cabinet is quite satisfying also. The other neat part of this game is every single background object in your environment is shootable. That means, computers, paper magazines, glass, tv's, soccer balls, you name it... and you can shoot it. Cool. The other neat part about this series of games is that the gun uses a camera to track the gun. Thats some sweet technology there.

So now that I have established how cool this game is, I have to find one. I have been wanting to add this to the collection for awhile. I missed one on Craigslist a year back, and missed a few opportunites at auctions also. However, Craigslist doesn't disappoint. This game came up for sale, and I immediately scrambled to get the funds to purchase this game. I'm glad I jumped on this opportunity. I... truly... love... this... game.

The seller had this game at his workplace which was a carpet store. I walked past the showroom, into the back, and laid eyes on it for the first time. I must say, it looked better in person than it did from the Craigslist camera phone pictures. The monitor looked a little off, but I'm used to that and didn't let it kill the deal. Everything else worked. After I paid the man and loaded up I head for home. When I get home I backed the trailer up to the walkout basement door. When I go to unload, I realize it won't fit in the door. The game was 33.5 inches, and the doorway clearance was 33.5 inches. Easy solution, I take the door off the hinges to give me the extra 1 inch of clearance. Second problem, once I get it inside the height of the game was too tall to clear the entrance into the gameroom. This time I had to remove the marquee box to get it in, and then reinstall it back. I finally get everything into place and start to take the game apart to clean the monitor and mirror. When finished, I go to adjust the monitor but the back door was locked with no key. I had to drill out the lock, then spent some time dialing in the monitor color and brightness until it was just right.

Finally, all was good to go. This game is going to get some serious gameplay at my next large gathering. Crisis Zone, you are here to stay!

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