Super Time Force Review: Once again with feeling

By Nick on

About Nick

Founder and co-host of Cast of Thrones. Say hello on twitter. @rbristow

 

group It hard to describe the insanity of a game like Super Time Force with words alone. The pure complexity and madness that comes from combining bombastic side scrolling-action with time travel reproduction is mind bending bliss. On the surface, you would look at this game and assume it is a finger bending precision action game, but in reality its an incredibly satisfying puzzle game…where the puzzles are solved with bullets. The basic gameplay loop consists of you choosing a character, each with a different weapon, and making your way through a 2d level blowing away bad guys. And ‘loop’ really is an accurate description, because when you die, you loop back as far as you’d like and start over again with a new character of your choice. But now, you fight along side your previous play through. You can even get out in front and kill your previous lives killer, or block it with a shield, and gain their charge attack. STF_Screenshot_2 There are a lot of characters to find in the game, and I won’t spoil them here, but each has a unique weapon and is good in different situations. Each weapon has a charge attack which is used by holding down the fire button. The ability to combine these charged attacks allows for some unique strategies. I found my self letting my shield guy die on purpose, so I could have a shield and a gun for example. You are given 30 replays in each level and with a little planning I don’t think most players will find the games six worlds that difficult. The real fun is trying to figure out how to get through each level as efficiently and quickly as possible. This is where the puzzle aspect comes into play. Finding a bosses pattern and setting up your replays is crucial. If done correctly, you won’t need lightning fast reflexes and it becomes a lot more satisfying. Setting up a bunch of shield guys around a boss and then blowing them away with rocket launchers is particularly enjoyable. 2599057-5054926104-STF_a The games story is mainly there to provide jokes and parody pop culture. The games humor is very much on the nose and is also somewhat hit or miss. Obviously aimed at the internet generation (my generation), but sometimes I need a little more than adding ‘lol’ at the end of a sentence. So your milage will vary. I did find the games humor got better the farther I got into it. Overall, I found this game to be an absolute joy. I really love the crazy art style and all the different characters you collect along the way. The gameplay is truly transcendent for side-scrolling shooters, I can’t say enough good about it, and I encourage you to go and check it out.

5 Stars

*Game code provided by the publisher

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