Today we are going to take a look at Timespinner. This classical metroidvania platformer that was kickstarted promises a large pixel art world, fun combat and to top it all of the ability to manipulate time. Whether it can deliver on these promises is the question we will try to answer today. Timespinner is available on Steam for 19 Euro and 99 cents.

With this review you have a choice of either reading it here in text form or listening to the video review. They both contain the same content.

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Video Review

Text Review

So I know my last review was also a metroidvania review but I don’t think you guys will mind another one. And for a fairly obvious reason, this one is not a mobile but a full-fledged PC metroidvania. Thus I will not be giving it any leeway.

Gameplay

So, let’s dive straight into it. Gameplay. More precisely let’s start by talking about the tools at your disposal. You start by getting the main attack, which is pretty much spam-able forever. Interestingly you get to choose several different types of your main attack as you attack is determined by what kind of an “orb” you are using. And on top of that, you get to personalize it even more by wearing necklaces that can give it an additional passive ability. But that’s still not enough. Well, it would be in my opinion, but the developers decided to give you an option to have three different sets of orb equipped and readily swap-able by pushing a single button. This is a feature I really appreciate as it makes swapping to a different set of orbs for fights where you’d want different ones super easy.

The second ability you get is a charged mana ability. Again, you have many different choices from which ones you want which range from a pure energy blast to a giant sword that smashes just like Hulk does. An interesting mechanic with these mana abilities is that you can pre-charge them and just keep it ready and then just kill or at least anything that comes in your way unexpectedly. Though, I will be also honest. As the game progressed I really stopped using these abilities for the most part. Not that in certain situations they weren’t useful but for the majority of the time I was more than okay using just the primary attack.

And then we have to talk about the time stopping ability. This is the “killer feature” of Timespinner. But sadly, I felt that this ability is very much underwhelming. At least for more casual players who aren’t immediately playing at higher difficulties. At normal difficulty, you will pretty much use it only when the game forces you to and occasionally during boss battles. But I guess I should explain how it works right? So, you have a limited amount of sand that gives you the ability to stop time until you run out of this sand. And to get it back you either have to kill enemies, gather these little drops of sand or use items.

So what’s the problem with the time stopping exactly. It just isn’t that useful. You cannot attack enemies while time is stopped and thus its use is pretty much limited to avoiding their attacks. But often you can just kill your enemies (at normal difficulty) before they even attack rendering the time stop essentially useless. Apart from boss battles, you will use it only when the game is designed to force you to use it to traverse to areas you couldn’t get to without using it. The ability is awesome in boss battles where it is often the key to even having a chance to defeat them but for such a large ability it just feels underused. On the other hand, I will be honest, I have no clue how to make this ability cooler without making is overpowered as well.

So that’s it for the abilities that in some way or another allow you to defeat your foes. But then we have the abilities that allow you to progress further. As it is the standard for metroidvania games these include things like a double jump, the ability to breath underwater or the ability to essentially dash infinitely in a forward direction giving a lot of momentum. And that’s it. There are only three progression abilities (four if you count the time stop) and I’ll tell you this. I’m quite glad that is the case. I know these kinds of abilities often increase the variability of gameplay as you’re constantly getting new abilities. But on the other hand – I think three (or four) is a good number. It means that you do get that variability but it also doesn’t feel like you’re just overwhelmed with stuff your character can now do and at times need to stop and think about which of the tools is relevant in this given situation.

That is it for what is at your disposal and let’s take a look at what the game will throw at you and sadly, this is probably the weakest part of Timespinner.

So… why is to so? Because the enemies just feel weak most of the time on normal difficulty. I just didn’t really feel the need to avoid their attacks and use the dodge. I could just go in, button smash my attack and soak the damage. The healing and saving points appear often enough and you can honestly just keep doing that especially the further into the game you get to.

This creates quite a problem for the game. Even though it has a lot of different enemies and they even do many different things. But often you don’t really get to see those cool things because they just die before they attack even charges ups. Like seriously, there were times when I didn’t attack an enemy just to see what attacks he has. Give the mobs more health and problem solved but for the moment this is just unacceptable.

At least the bosses are quite fun and challenging. Some can be defeated in a single try if you just pay close attention but most of them will require multiple tries even on normal difficulty. And the bosses are for the most part pretty creative and require you to use all the tools at your disposal to defeat them – including the time stop. The only thing I don’t like is when the bosses include some dialogue it forces you to go through in every single attempt. Just give me the ability to skip it completely if I already engaged the boss at least once, please.

So… how does the combination of these things feel when your playing? Is it actually fun? And the answer, for the most part, is, yes it is actually fun. The beginning does feel a bit sluggish as you really lack in abilities to use but on the other hand, it is the only part of the game when you feel actually worried about your health. Then when you get further into the game the game feels much more fluid and fast-paced but a bit too easy for my taste. And remember, I’m not that great and dodging stuff etc.

Thus, Timespinner is actually a good metroidvania that will provide you with many hours of for the most part fun gameplay but I would highly suggest if you are an experienced metroidvania player, just jump into the game immediately at a higher difficulty setting. That will fix a lot of the problems that game has for the fans of the genre. And the normal (and low) difficulty setting actually provide a good entry road into the genre for more casual gamers.

Graphics

So that’s the gameplay part of the review and let us move to the more superficial parts of Timespinner and we are going to start with the graphics.

And to anyone with a keen eye and you’re nostalgic in even the slightest you will truly appreciate the graphics. A wonderful old school feeling pixel-art style just oozes with atmosphere and at every single point of the game, you can see how much love and effort has been poured into it.

Though I will admit the game does feel a bit too dark at times. And I understand the game being dark while you are in caves or inside but there are times when you are outside and not making those a bit more colorful is something I’m saddened by.

Story

Secondly, let’s talk about the story for a moment. I was quite pleasantly surprised by it, to be honest. It’s a very well put together mix of both fantasy and sci-fi elements that do actually make sense. As you might have guessed from the title of the game and because you have the ability to stop time this is a game about time-travel. Using both technology and magic. And it works.

Combing fantasy and sci-fi can often lead into weird problems where people wonder why there even is technology if all the things could even previously be done using magic. But I feel that here it is tackled well and actually serves the story nicely.

Music

Last of the atmosphere building tools is the music and the sound effects. So let’s start this section with the music.

The music actually pretty great. It’s not something that I would add not my regular list of music I listen to but it fits the game and enhances its atmosphere very well no matter whether we are talking when you are just exploring the world – when it is calm and full of joy or whether you are in a boss battle where it switches to intense fast-paced music.

Secondly, we have the sound effects. And while good, they do not really stand out in any way. But they more than serve their purpose of informing you.

Performance

And last of all, we have to talk about how Timespinner performs. And I can happily say that the game works just fine. No bugs, no crashes and it runs as smoothly as you can wish for.

Conclusion

So… in conclusion: Timespinner is a pretty good metroidvania. It’s not the best but it certainly ranks among the better games in this genre. The only real problem it has are the enemies who just feel too weak but for people who feel like that, there is always the option to play at a higher difficulty setting. And for those who are yet to be initiated into metroidvania games, the lower difficulty may be a good thing. Thus I will give you guys a recommendation to buy Timespinner.

So, that’s it for today guys. Hope you like the review and if you did, please consider upvoting the review and following my blog. And comment, if you have something you would like to add. See you guys later with more gaming content.

Disclaimer: All the images have been taken directly from the Steam game page