Our videos of Super Time Force

Driftwood
Tuesday, May 13, 2014 | 6:10 PM
7 comments

First 10 minutes Xbox One Xbox 360

Although many players might be feeling increasingly weary towards pixel art indie games, Super Time Force is here with a delicious mix of Contra and Braid style gameplay alongside FEZ-like visual design to keep those feelings at bay. Cappy Games' latest title might seem a bit confusing without context so we've thrown together some videos highlighting the simple and addictive gameplay. Take a look at 10 excerpts taken from the early parts of the game below!

Impressions

While our (French only) review is still under way and set to hit later this week, we couldn’t just post a bunch of gameplay videos without giving some explanation. As a run & gun, Super Time Force could hardly claim to offer an emotionally powerful and serious experience. The game is loaded with humor and action presented in a visual style that will no doubt take many players back a good 25 years. Talking about going back in time, you should know that time travel actually plays a significant role here. In this Xbox exclusive release (both 360 and One) hitting tomorrow, players are given control of a special unit capable of unraveling the very fabric of the space-time continuum without destroying the entire universe, or so it seems. Before pushing forward, however, we’d recommend sampling the video just below for a taste of the first mission. If you still don’t understand what’s happening, don’t worry, this is normal.

Composed of three characters with special abilities (including the famous Jean Rambois), the Super Time Force will grow during the course of the game as you free additional allies. Even though it’s a single player experience, using your team correctly plays a significant role in game progression. So this is where all the features of the game come into play, which includes the possibility to use timeouts to go back in time before the death of a character, for example, but that’s not all. Indeed, with the possibility of jumping back to the start of the level or just a few seconds back, it provides an interesting way to avoid the game over screen and to make the most of your firepower. Each time you use it, however, your previous actions are not canceled, meaning you can combine the attacks of several characters (or just one) to increase firepower as well as time. Yes, aside from enemies and bosses, you’ll be fighting against the clock throughout. 60 seconds is all you have to complete each level though extra bonus seconds and shards which slow down time do help beat this limit. The strict time limit, then, requires as much dexterity from the player as it does tactical sense.

Twitchy, funny, and crazy all join together to make Super Time Force an addictive experience that held us spellbound for hours. Even its system of strict time limits, though sometimes frustrating in other titles, managed to hoist Cappy Games latest above many other entries in the genre as of late. Whether these positive impressions hold stable throughout will be revealed in our review, but for now, Super Time Force might just be the first indie game on Xbox One (and one worth playing on 360) that you won’t want to miss.