Retail Radar: Time Crisis gunning down PS3s

Light-gun shooters have their fair share of both supporters and detractors, as the point-and-shoot action is coupled with generally brief campaigns and bloated prices thanks to the vital peripheral.

However, it appears that at least one publisher may still be willing to bring the genre to home consoles. Both GameStop and GameStop-owned EB Games are listing product pages for "Time Crisis 4 with Guncon" for the PlayStation 3 from Namco Bandai Games America (Guncon is the name of the light-gun peripheral in the Time Crisis series).

The listing states that the game ships November 13, and will carry the gun-toting price tag of $89.99. No other information was available on the Web. When asked about the listing, a representative from Namco Bandai would only say, "Namco Bandai Games America does not comment on rumors or speculation."

The last Time Crisis game to blast into US homes was Time Crisis: Crisis Zone for the PlayStation 2. Time Crisis 4 was released in arcades in mid-2006. Time Crisis 3 for the PS2 was released about a year after its arcade counterpart, putting a PS3 release of Time Crisis 4 along the same development timetable.

In the arcade version of Time Crisis 4, players navigate larger levels by pointing their guns at the arrows on the side of the screen--a first for the series. The game can also support richer graphics and put more enemies on the screen at one time.

Please note, while retailer listings frequently jump the gun on publishers' product announcements, they should not be taken as final confirmation of a game's existence; nor should the absence of a listing be considered as proof that a game isn't coming to a given platform.