Time Crisis/Gameplay

Controls

 * Lightgun: Use the lightgun to direct Miller's crosshair cursor around the screen, while you have your foot on the pedal; squeeze the trigger to make him fire bullets at the enemies. Once Miller has fired six bullets, you have to take your foot off the pedal to make him go back into hiding and reload.
 * Pedal: Step on the pedal to bring Miller out of hiding (for it is the only way he can fire bullets at the enemies); when you step off the pedal again, he will go back into hiding, and if he had fired six bullets, he will reload. While Miller is in hiding, he cannot be hit - however, he can still run out of time.

Richard Miller
This VSSE (which, as mentioned upon the main page, stands for "Vital Situation Swift Elimination") operative is the protagonist of this game; he has got sent to the old castle of the Serushia Republic to rescue Rachel Macpherson (the daughter of its President) who has been kidnapped by the "Wild Dog Organization", and must progress through three stages (each one comprised of four areas) by killing all the enemies in them before the timer runs out (or running out of lives in the "Story Game" mode). Miller's time will be extended when he kills one of the more powerful enemies or clears out the current part of the area - and if he shoots ten enemies in succession a life symbol shall start to appear on the right side of his remaining time. If he continues shooting the enemies in succession, the symbol shall grow larger with each hit, and once he has shot forty enemies without missing he will receive an extra life; however, he may easily lose it again from being shot by an enemy before having the chance to go back into hiding, and if he runs out of time, all his lives will be invalidated.

Enemies
There are nine types of regular enemies in this game: Ippanhei come in three different coloured suits (blue, red and yellow), and attack by firing shots at Miller; the yellow-suited ones will also extend his time when killed. Taicho also attack by firing shots at Miller, but only come in one coloured suit (brown) - and Gohei also only come in one coloured suit (dark blue), and can deflect Miller's shots with their shields. Shuryudan-hei and Kakuto-hei, which are identical in appearance to each other, also again only come in one coloured suit (orange/green) but Shuryudan-hei attack by throwing grenades at Miller while Kakuto-hei attack by bludgeoning him with lead pipes; Bazooka-hei also, once again, only come in one coloured suit (light brown/dark brown) and (as their naming suggests) attack by firing bazookas at Miller. Machine Gun-hei, yet again, also only come in one coloured suit (light green/dark green) and (again, as the name suggests) attack by firing machine guns at Miller - and Shin'eitai, who yet again only come in one coloured suit (white), are the bodyguards of Sherudo Garo (the second stage's boss). Lastly, Musasabi, who for a fifth and final time only come in one coloured suit (black/gray) are the bodyguards of MOZ (the first stage's boss); however, they appear to be missing of their right hands (MOZ has a brown claw, for his own right hand).

Note: These are not the official character sprites, but two-dimensional versions of them to aid players in identifying them by their various coloured outfits.