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Game Review - originally written by Sliver X
Time Zone is one of those seemingly hallucinogenically inspired japanese platform games that never saw the light of day in western markets. You take on the role of some little kid who’s girlfriend is kidnapped by the evil Professor Time (Oooooh!), for reasons not quite mentioned. Is he a perverted kidnapper? A lonely old man looking for a surrogate granddaughter? Perhaps the world will never know, but his ass needs kicked regardless. Unfortunatly, Dr. Time has a habit of dropping large rocks on your head and jumping into different time periods, which of course you end up going to as well. To help you defeat the legions of walking traffic signs, dinosaurs, and depictions of Native Americans that would make even Archie Bunker say “Damn!”, you’re armed with your lucky red hat. Yes, a hat, but not your every day, run of the mill hat, by god! This one has the magical ability to come back to you like a boomerang, with physics that remind me heavily of the Windmill Shuriken from Ninja Gaiden. Also dispersed throughout the game are little trivia levels, which from what I see amount to counting crap that flies by on the screen. But wait, there’s more! If you collect enough little bells and make the smiley alarm clock on the status screen hit midnight, you’ll turn into an invincible skateboarder, which I guess is because skate boarding is “totally radical, dude!”, or something. Overall, this is a pretty fun little platformer, with pretty solid controls, decent music, and whacky ass enemies to kill.
Time Zone is one of those seemingly hallucinogenically inspired japanese platform games that never saw the light of day in western markets. You take on the role of some little kid who’s girlfriend is kidnapped by the evil Professor Time (Oooooh!), for reasons not quite mentioned. Is he a perverted kidnapper? A lonely old man looking for a surrogate granddaughter? Perhaps the world will never know, but his ass needs kicked regardless. Unfortunatly, Dr. Time has a habit of dropping large rocks on your head and jumping into different time periods, which of course you end up going to as well. To help you defeat the legions of walking traffic signs, dinosaurs, and depictions of Native Americans that would make even Archie Bunker say “Damn!”, you’re armed with your lucky red hat. Yes, a hat, but not your every day, run of the mill hat, by god! This one has the magical ability to come back to you like a boomerang, with physics that remind me heavily of the Windmill Shuriken from Ninja Gaiden. Also dispersed throughout the game are little trivia levels, which from what I see amount to counting crap that flies by on the screen. But wait, there’s more! If you collect enough little bells and make the smiley alarm clock on the status screen hit midnight, you’ll turn into an invincible skateboarder, which I guess is because skate boarding is “totally radical, dude!”, or something. Overall, this is a pretty fun little platformer, with pretty solid controls, decent music, and whacky ass enemies to kill.
Time Zone is a game where you venture through different time periods and solve your problems by throwing your hat at things, including unassuming walls, cacti wearing sombreros and ninja. I like how it bounces and boomerangs back to you, and how you can jump to keep it spinning. I also like how the cave and old west-style levels wouldn't look that out of place in Super Mario World.
I was half expecting the last world to be the one set in the future until I found out some weird dimension filled with cake, weird bumper things and freaky mask men was my final destination instead.
Time Zone is also a game where you die in one hit, no matter what. You'd think this means you'd be given snappy physics like those of a Belmont's or something, but you actually have momentum and somewhat floaty jumps. Takes some time getting used to it, and making sure you don't run into things before you realize they're there.
Bosses take some effort, too, less because they're hard per se and more because if you screw up, you'll have to go through the level they're fought in again, no checkpoints or anything. It's weird. I lost a lot more lives than I'm willing to admit to that green ninja because of that.
Also? Prof. Time, who I'm convinced is Dr. Wily's seperated-at-birth brother, is an asshole. He really didn't have to throw stuff like boulders or the aformentioned ninja at you when he's already made off with your girl to time periods nobody would want to go through nowadays, but he did anyway!
I dunno. When it comes to NES, there's other games that more immediately get my attention. But I find myself thinking about Time Zone more than most people do. It's inoffensive, really.
I was half expecting the last world to be the one set in the future until I found out some weird dimension filled with cake, weird bumper things and freaky mask men was my final destination instead.
Time Zone is also a game where you die in one hit, no matter what. You'd think this means you'd be given snappy physics like those of a Belmont's or something, but you actually have momentum and somewhat floaty jumps. Takes some time getting used to it, and making sure you don't run into things before you realize they're there.
Bosses take some effort, too, less because they're hard per se and more because if you screw up, you'll have to go through the level they're fought in again, no checkpoints or anything. It's weird. I lost a lot more lives than I'm willing to admit to that green ninja because of that.
Also? Prof. Time, who I'm convinced is Dr. Wily's seperated-at-birth brother, is an asshole. He really didn't have to throw stuff like boulders or the aformentioned ninja at you when he's already made off with your girl to time periods nobody would want to go through nowadays, but he did anyway!
I dunno. When it comes to NES, there's other games that more immediately get my attention. But I find myself thinking about Time Zone more than most people do. It's inoffensive, really.