Developer: The Sales Curve Publisher: Vik Tokai Released: 1993 Genre: Action
Contra III is one of my favorite action games of all time. For an early SNES title it held up brilliantly throughout that generation and remains a classic to this day. I’ve always wondered why Konami never followed it up with a sequel. With no sequel in sight I turned to other action games for my fix. Unfortunately one of those happened to be Time Slip, a game with decent intentions that is let down by its lack of polish. It is doubly disappointing because its premise is so interesting. With some small tweaks it could have been a solid game.
The story is far more interesting than it has any right to be. In the year 2145 humanity discovers rifts that are portals in time. At the same time a race of aliens from the planet Tiamat discover the same rift as it connects their planet to Earth. Two years later the Tiamatians decide to invade Earth to conquer it by traveling to various points in history to stall our weapons development. Dr. Gilgamesh develops experimental time traveling technology to stop them. But after an attack he is the only one left to use it.
I cannot stress just how much Time Slip resembles Contra III. It goes beyond the simple fact that they are side scrolling action games. From its character sprites, animation, and even move set the resemblance is a little too close. If you told me the game were pitched as time traveling Contra I wouldn’t doubt it for a second.
Though similar there are differences. You have a life bar that protects you from six hits which is a welcome change in the genre. Your main gun never changes but instead increases in level, from a machine gun to a spread blast. There are a number of different bombs as well although they are mostly useless. There isn’t a timer per se but the TGS bar fills the same purpose. This bar constantly ticks down and must be replenished with crystals, almost like Adventure Island. It isn’t until close to the end of the game that it ever becomes a factor. The game at least has a solid set of mechanics.
Now if only the game were as good as its premise. While Time Slip looks like Konami’s classic it lacks its polish. The controls are sloppy and imprecise. The jumping physics are all over the place making it difficult to avoid certain enemies. You can’t lock your fire in one direction which is a huge oversight as the game needed it badly. There are far too many instances where you’ll need to wander back and forth just to hit a target and suffer in the process. Thankfully the game doesn’t really on precise platforming often otherwise it would be dreadful.
Although Time Slip comprises only five levels it is pretty long. Each stage is incredibly vast and covers multiple different environments. The Medieval era begins in a forest, travels through a cave and ends in an assault on a castle. The Cretaceous period starts with a hover bike sequence that is really out of place. This is followed by a brief trek up a volcano to fight a doofy looking dinosaur. I will give the game credit for its visual variety as it keeps it fresh. I just wish the levels weren’t so long. Sequences that should be exciting become tedious due to their length. Both vehicle segments are are full of repetitive enemy waves and drag on far too long. Had they split the longer stages into their own individual levels it would have done wonders for the game’s pacing.
The difficulty can be very uneven. Health power-ups are in ready supply in most levels and if you don’t die your weapons are too powerful. On the other hand there are several design decisions that are baffling. The most egregious is that you have no continues or password saves. The game gives you nine lives and that’s it. For the most part it’s enough but there are several areas that can sap lives quickly. Aside from overly long stages the boss battles are dreadful. Boss battles aren’t the slightest bit exciting as they take way too long. Nearly every boss is a massive bullet sponge. That doesn’t make the fights epic, it makes them tedious. God I could go on and on.
In Closing
Disappointing best describes Time Slip. You can see the kernels of what could be a decent game but it needed one last pass to smooth it out. I like certain elements of Time Slip but could never in good conscience recommend it.
