Mr. Toffee gets up early in the freaking morning today to have a nice poolside chat with Norihiro Nishimura, the director of the upcoming PS3 rail shooter Time Crisis: Razing Storm.

GameAxis: Tell us a bit about yourself and your history with Namco Bandai.

Norihiro Nishimura: After studying in university, I was hired by Namco Bandai way before the merge (just before 2000 hit). The first title he directed was Ninja Assault, which led to him directing Mazan: Flash Of The Blade as well. I was also the process manager for Time Crisis 3 and 4.

GAX: Who are your major influences in your work?

NN: Next to director Takashi Satsukawa, there’s also Shigeru Miyamoto.

GAX: What is your fascination with the rails shooter genre, given your background and projects? Why support the genre?

NN: I feel that the genre is the easiest to pick up on the fly; there’s no need for instruction manuals for rail shooters. I do check out the amusement centres (the term for arcades in Japan) with my girlfriend before the both of us watch a movie a while back.

GAX: Where do you see rail shooters among other “complex” FPS fares like Gears of War or Halo?

NN: The future of both these genres will be polarized and be split into two different directions. For the FPS genre, the target market craves for more additions and features which can lead to a degree of complexity. Whereas with a rail shooter like Time Crisis, the shooting and style is simplified and is more focused on fun.

GAX: Concerning rail shooters, will Namco Bandai still support the arcade scene in Japan? Or even for any other game in the future?

NN: Yes, we still will enhance this genre. Our R&D team back in Namco Bandai always made it a priority to be number one in the arcade field on Japan.

GAX: Do you still see the consoles overwhelming the arcade scene in Japan and Asia?

NN: Not really. Some genres in the arcade which make you use your body more can’t really be replicated on home consoles; you need to experience the arcade atmosphere. For fighting games like Tekken 6, you can play online, sure. But it wouldn’t be the same as having people watching behind you and gathering as spectators to your matches.

The sense of community is there; something that cannot be replicated on home consoles that are online 24/7. In addition, all of the top players of Tekken 6 usually hang out at the arcade more; you can’t find that level of challenge online.

GAX: Where do you see the series going with the introduction of the PS Move?

NN: I believe that with the Move, it’s easy for people to pick up and play whatever titles support it. I think that the device can appeal to a wide audience. If you make a gun peripheral, it’ll still be a gun in the end. But with the MOVE, you can make it be a gun and be other things at any time. It’s still up to the consumers to go deeper into the game experience; the Move just gives them one accessible path to that deep end.

To answer your question, we’ll have to see how Time Crisis: Razing Storm fares first before we decide what to do with the franchise.

GAX: Speaking of which, what features are there in this extravagant Time Crisis collection?

NN: Apart from Move compatibility, the game will feature four modes. There’s the standard Arcade Mode which is a straight port of the original game. Story Mode enables you to do free-roaming and let you change camera angles in-game.

There’s also Online Battle Mode which lets up to eight people fight each other to the death. This mode also has free-roaming. Sentry Mode lets you play against three other people to see who can stop the most prisoners from escaping a holding cell you’re fighting on. You can just take turns to use just one Move remote for this. There’s even a co-op “couple” mode where you and your significant other can co-operate and play a rail shooting scenario.

GAX: I assume that the free-roaming part means you have to use both the Move remote and Navigator together.

NN: We can’t talk about that yet; but we can confirm that the setup is used for Sentry Mode. However, you can use the PS3 Controller and the Move remote together in Story Mode.