Super Time Force

Presented with a sophisticated 8-bit aesthetic, I'm reminded of how Disney approached mashing its many characters into one style for 'Disney Infinity.' Capybara found a style that weaves all these moments in time together, and then exaggerated that style as much as possible. Every level takes you through some absurd scenario based on whatever era it's supposed to take place in, the pixelated enemies and environments strung together with the subtlety of stand-up comedian at a poetry recital. Which means that flying atop a massive pterodactyl while being chased down by an asteroid isn't the most preposterous thing you're going to see.

Tonally, 'Super Time Force' does no less than embrace the maniacal nature of its leading mechanic, tossing out any semblance of seriousness for scattershot, often satirical humor and utter ridiculousness. That sentence applies just as equally to the writing as is does the visuals, and embracing the nonsensical for both was the perfect choice. How else could you mash a skateboarding dinosaur with Merlin?

The chiptunes match the pixelated stuff as well as any game built on the backbone of the industry's earliest matching styles, but you won't be hearing any music tied to an era in a way that a time-traveling game might take advantage. The music is light, energetic and, of course, a little crazy, but no far stretch from what we've heard before. It almost feels a bit like EDM seeping its way into a NES game, which may be a bit of a redundant statement, but there seems to be a pounding rhythm in any of the game's tracks. At the least, it keeps you trekking along at a frantic pace.

As ‘Super Time Force’ slowly crawled towards its eventually release, I remember seeing a couple of different mechanical iterations during public showings. At one point, saving a team member was more integral to success, and at another you could only rewind a certain amount of time.  For many developers, indie or otherwise, one solid idea seems enough as the foundation for an entire game, but that game eventually suffers for the lack of follow through. Capybara Games made no such mistake, toiling over the finer details, delaying as they needed, to ensure ‘Super Time Force’ fulfilled tenets of surprising depth and ludicrous fun in a small but dense package.

Like a good book, not a detail in 'Super Time Force' is extraneous. Every member of the team has a purpose, every level designed and executed with clear intent, every moment bursting with the insanity of stupidly concurrent time travel. There's a great confidence in the execution of a simple but clearly fruitful idea here, a confidence matched in its many successes.