In The Time it Takes to Load This….

Imagine going back in time (not everyone got the chance Marty), to change just one thing in order to change something at another point in time (a fools errand as some of us have learned). Do you remember all the moves to that dance from the the first time you performed it? Exactly, no one can and that is the erratic nature which leads to potential errors. In Time Loader, you’re a small robot tasked with a very big objective. No butterfly wings are necessary as you take control of the robot I like to call WHT-F all to create a stitch in time.

Time Loader

Publisher: META Publishing
Developers: META Publishing, Flazm
Available on: Nintendo Switch; Playstation 4/5,; X Box One, X Box Series X/S; Microsoft Windows
Release Date: Available NOW

In Time Loader you play as a robot who travels back in time to the 90s, what better time is there for a geek to revisit, in order to change your creator’s past. Unfortunately, nothing I did prevents part of his future, and this jives with the nature abhorring a vacuum thing. What must be must be, right? But just because you can’t change the lyrics doesn’t mean you can’t change the bass and tempo. Time Loader offers the opportunity to remix the rhythm of your maker’s life. Or just tamper with the timestream.

Time…Is on Your side?

There are few controls to master in this game, I know you all must think I can’t play any other type of game by now, but I feel that any more would be a distraction to what is on display here. Your basic navigation is done with the control stick for this side scrolling house tour. There are small platforming elements, for example you will jump from a desk to a bed. Sometimes jumping isn’t even necessary as the grip on this little guy’s tires would put The Claw to shame. You also have a claw/arm similar to the arcade game. You’ll use this to swing across areas or to grab/throw an item. At various points you’ll come across a tool (screwdriver, coil and a even a parallel port to gain access to computers), which you will use at specific prompts.

Don’t confuse the simplicity of the gameplay or controls with me telling you this is an easy game. Actually, it is quite complex, just not in the traditional sense we come to expect in games. There are some that may argue with me on that but they are overlooking a sneaky mental mechanicsm. One that is the reason experts suggest using a journal to remember dreams.

A mind with blank spots is also a void, or vacuum, which nature abhors remember (I mean you just read it like a paragraph ago, better start over). Our minds are going to fill in that empty space with logical information. This comes into play when you access memories. And remembering things is crucial if you want to change that one detail in the past, because you have to know what came before it. No wonder it took Cable all his body-slides and he still failed.

Diagnostics Check

As you roll through the house at different points in the timesteam you can’t help but notice the detail the team put into this environment. When you play games at let’s say, normal size, certain things don’t register. Shrunken down everything takes on a new reality. Items become tools or paths that were not available now open up. You can tell as well that the team took efforts to orchestrate an affect where even at a different point in time, the house feels familiar.

The developers did a fantastic job working to emphasize and bring attention to the small things when it comes to the art and sounds as well. With each moment you play and thing you experience, whether it’s piaissimo level volume at which the piano plays or the dim lighting of the room you enter, you will come to appreciate or at least acknowledge the world from a different perspective. Perhaps slower or quieter than what you experience in your usual days.

The graphics and interactivity with the environment are wonderful in this game. Items react to your movement and make realistic sounds. And as far as the physics go, items behave and react to interaction as closely to how their world real equivalents do.

In addition to your main mission there is another fun little “task” to challenge you, actually it’s two. See while your creator’s life may have the same destination no matter what you do, you can pick the route and radio. I don’t want to ruin it but for the first I will say that since your size is different, maybe start looking at things differently.

The second is a bit of a mystery, masquerading as an enigma, wrapped up as a puzzle. It’s somewhat difficult, a bit frustrating but so satisfying when you get it.

Which in my opinion sums up the real nature of this game, maybe even life. Figuring out what matters big or small and completing our mission with the time we have.

What are you waiting for, get to it?

Score: 8.3