Review: Super Time Force

Super Time Force is an indie game, brought to us by Capybara Games, that provides players with a unique story and equally unique gameplay.

As I played Super Time Force, I realized that this game is unlike anything I have ever played before. Super Time Force is a side-scrolling shooter that gives you the ability to control time–changing the past, or altering the future.

Led by Colonel Repeatski, the man with two eye patches, the Super Time Force journeys back in time to several different time periods. They go to the Jurassic Age to stop the meteor that kills the dinosaurs, to the lost city of Atlantis to save it before it sinks, and even to the future in order to get all the plug-ins so they can watch cat videos on the internet.

While Super Time Force is a side-scrolling shooter, there is a very big twist in the gameplay.

Super Time Force gives you the ability to control time. You get sixty seconds to beat the level; however, if you aren’t fast enough, you might have to go back in time to a previous point in the level and do something different. Sometimes going all the way back to the beginning of the level and changing up your strategy is the only way to win.

You also die in this game–a lot if you’re not very good. When you die, you are sent into rewind mode and can go back in time to a couple seconds before you die, or even further back. If you go back in time a couple seconds, you have the chance to save your previous self from dying, which gives you a shield.

One thing that was really interesting were the boss battles. I don’t believe its possible to beat a boss on your first try. You can approach boss battles a couple different ways until you find a strategy that works. One strategy is to fight the boss until you run out of time, then you go back in time to beginning of the fight, and continue to fight him. Your past self, as long as you hadn’t died, will continue to fight and do damage to the boss. Continue to do this until you kill the boss. This strategy worked for me, but it’s important for players to find a strategy that works best for them.

Often I would find myself needing to take a break from Super Time Force, because I felt the gameplay was repetitive. Dying, and going back to correct my mistakes, got old after an hour. I preferred to pace myself as I played; however, my friend played and beat the entire game in one sitting, so I suppose it really depends on whether or not you can take the endless repetition.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Super Time Force has a retro graphic style. On the Xbox One, its colors are quite beautiful and well-made–definitely one of the better looking indie games that are available on the Xbox platform.

Music and sound effects also take on the retro style, but the music usually has a great beat. Not once did I feel annoyed or frustrated by the sound or graphics.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Super Time Force is a game that I enjoyed very much. It offered fresh gameplay that involved the mechanics of time travel, in addition to the side-scrolling shooting. The ridiculous dialogue will have you laughing and constantly going, “Wait… What?” at some of Colonel Repeatski’s quips. Super Time Force is available now for Xbox 360 and Xbox One for the fantastic price of $15. This game is well worth that.