Time Gal

For the Sega Saturn version, see Time Gal & Ninja Hayate.

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NTSC-U NTSC-J PAL Mega LD
Time Gal
System(s): Sega Mega-CD, Sega Mega LD
Publisher: Wolf Team (JP) Renovation Products (US) Sega (EU) Taito
Developer: Wolf Team HighTech Lab. Japan
Licensor: Taito
Original system(s): Arcade Boards
Developer(s) of original games: Taito
Genre: Action Game
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1992-11-13 ¥7,8007,800 T-32114 US 1993-05 $49.9949.99 T-6214 EU 1993-09 4417 DE 1993-08 DM 99.0099.00 4417 FR 1993-09 4417 UK 1993-09 £44.9944.99 4417 JP 1995-03-25 ¥98009800 PEASJ5039
Non-Sega versions Arcade Macintosh MSX Windows PC

Time Gal (タイムギャル) is a Sega Mega-CD full-motion video comedy adventure game developed by Wolf Team. First published in Japan by Wolf Team themselves in November 1992, the game is a port of the 1985 Taito arcade game Time Gal, an interactive movie produced by Japanese animation studio Toei Animation.

A Sega Mega LD port was later developed courtesy of HighTech Lab. Japan, published in Japan and the United States by Taito in 1995.

Story

The story is set in a fictional future where time travel is being perfected. Just before a televised unveiling of a new time machine, a criminal named Luda steals the time machine with intentions of altering the past to his desires. Reika (referred to as "Time Gal" in the Western manuals) must travel to the different time periods to track down Luda and thwart his plans.

Characters

Reika

The protagonist and titular "Time Gal." An energetic and cheerful time traveler who is pursuing the criminal Luda through time and space.

Luda

A time bandit who stole a time device and intends to use it to take over the world by changing history.

Gameplay

Time stop

Time warp

The gameplay is that of an on-rails FMV action game with quick-time events as established by games such as Dragon's Lair. As the FMV rolls, the player has to react and press a button in time with what is happening. Pressing the D-Pad in any direction moves Reika in that direction, while , , or make her shoot her gun or use whatever weapon she has.

The player has to press the correct button as indicated by the reaction jewels on the border and an audible tone. When all the jewels flash simultaneously, the player must use Reika's weapon. If the player makes a bad move or takes too long to react, a death sequence plays and a life is lost. The harder the difficulty, the less time the player has to press the correct button; on Hard difficulty, the jewels do not flash, so the player must pay attention and see what object flashes in the FMV to make the correct move. At specific points in gameplay, Reika activates a "Time Stop". When this happens, the player is given three choices to make and has seven seconds to make a choice. If the wrong choice is made, the player loses a life. To raise the challenge, the FMV may sometimes be mirrored, reversing the directional inputs.

Scoring is based on how well the player performs as well as the difficulty level. The player scores points for successfully completing reactions. If a level is completed without making a single mistake, the player is awarded a greater bonus. An extra life is awarded at 100,000 points, with additional lives awarded every 200,000 points when playing on the Hard difficulty. When the game is completed, an "All Clear" bonus is awarded, along with an additional 50,000 points for each life remaining. Scores are not saved to the Mega-CD's backup RAM and are lost when the system is turned off.

The game also offers Visual Mode, where players can watch any of the scenes in the game using the passwords awarded after successful completion of each time period, with the ability to watch either the entire level uninterrupted or every possible failure sequence.

Levels

There are 16 levels in the game, each of them taking place in different time periods. The order in which the time periods are played through is different each time, though Reika always starts a new game in a B.C. period, and must work her way through to early A.D. and present day, and then back to the future. As a result of the random progression, the levels are listed here in chronological order.

	B.C. 70,000,000
	Password: BMCFXWRL (US/EU) / DODZILLA (JP)
	B.C. 65,000,000
	Password: GJRPQVKS (US/EU) / DINOSAUR (JP)
	B.C. 30,000
	Password: THMZCYFB (US/EU) / STONEAGE (JP)
	B.C. 1600
	Password: RYFGSXDK (US/EU) / ELEPHANT (JP)
	B.C. 44
	Password: FTGBDQPW (US/EU) / OSIRIIYA (JP)
	A.D. 500
	Password: VSLCZKTJ (US/EU) / HARDWORK (JP)
	A.D. 999
	Password: CYVZPBMG (US/EU) / DEATHOUL (JP)
	This level is called A.D. 666 in the Japanese version.
	A.D. 1588
	Password: DRXHTLQJ (US/EU) / SOUTHERN (JP)
	A.D. 1941
	Password: WBMRJZVH (US/EU) / WORLDWAR (JP)
	A.D. 1991
	Password: SHKXGJWF (US/EU) / LANDMINE (JP)
	A.D. 2001
	Password: XPTMCSHD (US/EU) / RECKLESS (JP)
	A.D. 2010
	Password: ZVYFLGQJ (US/EU) / ASTEROID (JP)
	A.D. 3001
	Password: QWCDHRKT (US/EU) / MURDERER (JP)
	A.D. 3999
	Password: PLQTVMXY (US/EU) / BRANCHER (JP)
	A.D. 4000
	Password: LKDWBSYF (US/EU) / STARWARS (JP)
	A.D. 4001
	Password: KVGPRZCW (US/EU) / THANKYOU (JP)
	This time period is always last and concludes with Reika's showdown with Luda.

History

Legacy

The game was bundled with Ninja Hayate in the Sega Saturn release Time Gal & Ninja Hayate.

Versions

The original arcade version was a LaserDisc game similar to Dragon's Lair. All of the animation frames were redrawn for the Mega-CD release to accommodate its limited color palette. Though other ports of the game are higher-resolution and more faithful to the original, the Mega-CD version remains the only version to be released in Western territories. The Western releases removed some failure sequences where Reika loses articles of clothing.

Production credits

Mega-CD version

Japanese version

• Producers: J.Asanuma, M.Uno
• Director: K.Iijima
• Planner: H.Suzuki, H.Ogawa
• Main Programming: S.Hirachi
• Mega‑CD Programing: C.Tokuhiro
• Visual Directors: T.Okano, T.Konishi
• Design Supervised by: K.Nagata
• Graphics by: T.Okano, K.Tazima, M.Matsushima, T.Hamada, M.Yasumori, H.Nakajima, M.Kaneda, Y.Nishitani, M.Kimura, K.Fujita, K.Tajiri, D.Moriyama, K.Ishiguro, M.Andou, Y.Inagaki
• Opening Theme:
  • Music: S.Tamura
  • Words: T.Nakajima
  • Vocal: Y.Yamamoto
• Ending Music Composed by: M.Sakuraba
• Public Relations: K.Iijima, E.Kobayashi, T.Murakami, J.Basaki, A.Shiratori
• Thanks to: K.Gotou, M.Uchida, T.Kunimatsu, I.Kadowaki, S.Rokumoto, H.Nina, H.Hashimoto
• Special Thanks to: K.Fukushima
• Executive Producer: M.Akishino
• Licensed by: Taito Corp.
• All Produced by: Wolf Team

Source:

In-game credits (JP)

Overseas version

• Producers: J.Asanuma, M.Uno
• Director: K.Iijima
• Planner: H.Suzuki, H.Ogawa
• Main Programming: S.Hirachi
• Sega CD Programing: C.Tokuhiro
• Visual Directors: T.Okano, T.Konishi
• Design Supervised by: K.Nagata
• Graphics by: T.Okano, K.Tazima, M.Matsushima, T.Hamada, M.Yasumori, H.Nakajima, M.Kaneda, Y.Nishitani, M.Kimura, K.Fujita, K.Tajiri, D.Moriyama, K.Ishiguro, M.Andou, Y.Inagaki
• Opening Music Composed by: S.Tamura
• Ending Music Composed by: M.Sakuraba
• Public Relations: Karen Safran, Mitch Kampf, Kenji Goshima
• U.S. R&D: Kenji Goshima, Corey Tresidder
• Manual Text: Corey Tresidder
• Packaging: Modre Pricedesign
• Translator: Rie Yamada
• Thanks to: K.Gotou, M.Uchida, T.Kunimatsu, I.Kadowaki, S.Rokumoto, H.Nina, H.Hashimoto
• Special Thanks to: K.Fukushima

© 1993 Renovation Products

© Taito America Corp.

• Licensed by: Sega Enterprises, Ltd.

Source:

In-game credits (US)

Mega LD version

• Game Design by: Hidehiro Fujiwara
• Soft Program by: Takashi Kuriyama
• Gal Created by: Hiroaki Satoh, Toshiyuki Nishimura
• Sound Director: Yosio Imamura

Picture Staff

• Director: Tetsuo Imazawa
• Character Designer: Hiroshi Wagatsuma
• Sound Effect: Yukio Fukushima
• Film Produced by: Toei Video Co., Ltd.
• Presented by: Taito Corporation

Source:

In-game credits

File:Time Gal MLD credits.pdf

Magazine articles

Main article: Time Gal/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Summer CES 1993 flyer

Print advert in GamePro (US) #46: "May 1993" (1993-xx-xx)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1992-09: "September 1992" (1992-08-08)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1992-10: "October 1992" (1992-09-08)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1992-11: "November 1992" (1992-10-08)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1992-12: "December 1992" (1992-11-07)

Physical scans

Mega-CD version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 50 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 75 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 75 Mean Machines: The Essential Sega Guide (UK) 50 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 50 GameFan (US) 89 Game Power (IT) NTSC 80 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 90 Game Informer (US) NTSC-U 75 Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J 80 Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J 71 Mega (UK) NTSC-J 71 Mega Action (UK) PAL 70 Mega Force (FR) 78 Mega Fun (DE) PAL 68 MegaTech (UK) NTSC 59 Marukatsu Mega Drive (JP) NTSC-J 73 Mean Machines Sega (UK) NTSC 63 Power Up! (UK) 72 ProGames (BR) 75 Sega Magazin (DE) 82 Sega Power (UK) PAL 71 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-J 86 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-J 80 Sega Force (UK) NTSC 72 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 79 Sonic the Comic (UK) PAL 60 Supergame (BR) 83 Todo Sega (ES) 78 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 80 Video Games (DE) NTSC-U 51

	72
Based on 31 reviews

Time Gal

Mega-CD, JP
Cover
Disc Manual

Mega-CD, US
Cover
Disc Manual

Mega-CD, EU
Cover
Disc Manual

Mega LD version

Mega LD, JP
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Technical information

Main article: Time Gal/Technical information.