GAME CLEAR No. 139 -- Quick & Crash

Quick & Crash (1999, Arcade)

Developer: Namco
Publisher: Namco
Clear Date: 7/23/23

Nice mugshot

Last time on GAME CLEAR, I wrote a sappy, cloying post of appreciation for a friend for hanging out with me. That post was about Gunblade NY (ostensibly), but I mentioned playing Quick & Crash, and now it’s time to talk about that.

Quick & Crash is an arcade shooting gallery game that is arguably not a video game. It uses light gun technology, but otherwise you are “shooting” physical targets moving in physical space, not a screen. Regardless, it’s a ton of fun.

This video does a better job of showcasing the gameplay than I could describe it, and it’s all over in a matter of seconds. But if you really don’t feel like clicking through, the basic idea is you shoot some targets that appear through four stages. On the final stage, you must dispatch two moving targets, after which a mug appears in the background. Shoot the mug, and your total time to clear the game will be displayed, and you will be told where that ranks among the last 100 players.

You will not notice this the first time you play, though, because you will be dazzled by probably the most impressive illusion I’ve ever seen in an amusement game of this sort. When you shoot the mug, it appears to explode into countless shards of porcelain that then fall into a funnel, resetting the game state. When the next player gets to stage 4, though, there it is again, good as new. I wouldn’t want to spoil the movie magic and tell you how it’s done here, but the answer is easily found on Google.

What you won’t find on Google is the hilarity of trying to get slow-motion footage of the explosion and being thwarted by a player who sucks at the game and is pissed off about it. Then, when he finally sucks a little less and actually explodes the thing, another patron of the arcade walks past the camera at precisely the time of the explosion. Moments like this can only be experienced if you’re out there in the world taking it in. I recommend it.

If you have the chance to play this game at Barcade in Brooklyn or elsewhere, you owe it to yourself to take it. The quick-draw gunplay feels great and is super responsive, and you’ll want to play again and again to improve your time by whatever subsecond margins you can manage. You may not set any records, but you still get to see that fuckin’ mug explode. No other game offers that.