Super Time Force - Review

Super Time Force from Capybara games asks the question what would you do if you travel through time.

Dr Repeatski discovers how to travel through time and upon achieving this feat is visited by his future self Colonel Repeatski, who informs the good Dr that his discovery has resulted in a race of robots led by the oddly strange Dr Infinity from attempting to take over the world. 

The Colonel uses his time jumping abilities to the year 198X with a team to stop Dr Infinity. The team consists of Jean Rambois, Aimy McKillin and Shieldy Blockerson, with more characters joining the team as you play through the various levels. As you play through you will uncover a truly bizarre tale that is as light hearted as it is crazy.

Super Time Force plays like the old school side school shooters with a twist, while the game is crazy enough to attempt to to throw some strange enemies at you, your need to die will be something you need to do very often. In fact this is where Super Time Force changes up the norm to something new. In fact this is the key point of the game, you won't make it through a level without dying, in fact sometimes you will willing let yourself be killed in order to get passed some harder parts. 

When your character dies, you can rewind time in order to avoid the death. If you manage to save yourself before you die you can absorb your past self to give your current self more of a fighting chance. Its in this game play element that you can find some serious fun or pain, depending on how well can deal with the frustration that comes with the time elements. In fact while its the draw card of the game it may also keep you from playing through.

Each level you are tasked with 60 seconds to make it through, but with all the side elements you will find yourself running out of time fast. So you need to make the call to rewind, but the choice is in how you do it. Do you rewind from where you are starting over, or do you die first then rewind and save yourself. 

Super Time Force has a classic 8-bit style, but its more advanced than the old school games that we grew up with. While 8-bit in appearance its not 8-bit in style, taking a more modern approach the game allows itself to experiment with shapes and colours. This does allow it to have a really lovely look that compliments the zaniness of the game itself. 

The sound design is basic, again suiting the style of the game. The music again suits the style of the game, each level has a nice melody to accompany the action. It is a shame that the dialogue is all text it really takes the game back a peg. 

Capybara Games has taken the old school side scrolling shooter formula and added a twist to it that people will either love or hate. While my experience with it was good, the frustration that comes along with the time mechanics mean it wont be for everyone

The Score

7.0

Review code provided by Xbox

The Pros

+A fun and crazy shooting experience

+Time mechanics are wonderful to see in action

The Cons

-The time mechanics do take some getting used to

-There are some questionable design choices in the game