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Super Time Force from Capy

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Super Time Force is the latest game from Capybara games. Super Time Force: Ultra came out on steam yesterday.

 

Cool Fact: Super Time Force is software rendered.

 

Initial Impressions: This game is pretty rad. Before it came out on steam, I was watching my friend blast through it on his xbox, and his strategy mostly sat on repeated use of Jean Rambois, the shooty gun dude. I found the game actual gave me really good incentive to try a mix of characters, and even though I was finishing levels with at least a dozen rewinds, it was challenging to get it done within the limited amount of time.

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The first time I saw this game was at PAX and that's only because the Capy booth was right next to the Double Fine booth that year.  I was initially not impressed, but I didn't even know about the time mechanic and thought it was just a platforming shooter.  After watching some videos, I'm actually really interested now and have been waiting for it to come to Steam.  The combination of the time mechanic and the variety of characters looks like there's a pretty wide possibility space that I'd like to play around with.  I'm a little strapped for cash at the moment but I plan to pick it up when I can.

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I got this last night pretty much on a whim and had a ball playing the first two levels. I suck hard at it though! The mechanic is really neat, and when you see a bunch of your guys lined up shooting a boss, it feels fantastic, like you've solved the game fully.

 

Funnily I found that the sniper, Aimy McKillin was the most useful for clearing the stages, especially when you get Rambois as a buff. Her sniper beam that passes through the stage lets you deal with things before they're a threat.

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I agree, Aimy McKillin is my favourite, followed by the grenade guy.

 

Also Super Time Force: Ultra's acronym is STFU. I don't know whether that's intentional or not, but it made me chuckle.

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I think I let a character die on the first level, not knowing he was there! Man I wanna play it now. I'm also disappointed nothing has been said about this for Vita. It'd be a perfect fit for Vita.

 

Fairly certain STFU was intentional! Seems fitting with the sheer stupidity of the game.

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I agree, Aimy McKillin is my favourite, followed by the grenade guy.

 

Jef Leppard (right?) is pretty great, but I don't much care for his charge attack. Zachasaurus was really useful in the jetpack park of 1,000,000 BC. I haven't really felt that there's all that much use for Sieldy Blockerson, but that's okay.

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Woo, didn't realize this was already out on Steam. First time in a while I've bought a game right after it came out. Capy seem to make cool games, I loved that Might and Magic thing on the DS.

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I liked Critter Crunch, and loved Clash of Heroes, so I've had high hopes for this.  Just bought it, probably going to have to crash before it finishes downloading, but now I've got something new to play tomorrow.

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Got it downloaded before calling it a night, played through the tutorial and the first mission.  I see what you all mean about the sniper, she's badass.  Lots of potential, can't wait to see more. 

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Has anyone spotted a way to restart? I don't want to continue knowing I'm down a guy! There's no obvious "select mission" or "new game" when you boot it up though.

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Once you complete the first mission and you're on the space ship, can you not reselect the mission from there?

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Am I right in thinking that the number of resets you use doesn't matter as long as you don't run out?

The rating at the end of each level only seems to take time left and the collectables you found into consideration (so far at least).

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Once you complete the first mission and you're on the space ship, can you not reselect the mission from there?

 

I guess I'm not that far!

 

Am I right in thinking that the number of resets you use doesn't matter as long as you don't run out?

The rating at the end of each level only seems to take time left and the collectables you found into consideration (so far at least).

 

There are certain missions that only allow a finite number of resets. 

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By the end of the intro levels they were finite, but you still got ~30.

The tutorial did a good job of breaking me out of being stingy with the rewinds. I'm actually pretty sure the ideal play through involves basically using as many resets as is necessary to allow your final incarnation to simply walk from the beginning of the level to the end.

Which is rad.

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Yeah, the game seems to be slanted towards the challenge of the count down timer and not the rewind count, which is good, because that encourages you to use the game mechanics more.

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I think I let a character die on the first level, not knowing he was there! Man I wanna play it now. I'm also disappointed nothing has been said about this for Vita. It'd be a perfect fit for Vita.

 

I got some hot scoops for you, STF is probably not coming to Vita. STF is software rendered and runs at 60 fps, and it needs to run at 60fps because the game logic is coded frame dependent and needs that constant frame rate. A vita port would require redoing the game logic or switching the rendering to the gpu, either case being a lot of work.

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I am pretty ignorant to the technical elements of game design, but does anyone know why some games are mechanically tied to framerate?  It's not something I've ever understood.  I assume there must be some advantage, otherwise you wouldn't do it.

 

As for STF, I'm not sure this is a game for me.  It's fun, it is brilliantly designed, and I imagine there are people out there who will think it's the best game released this year.  But I'm through two and a half areas, have unlocked some more characters, and it's just not clicking with me.  It's really easy, I'm actually enjoying the puzzle rooms more than the main game, as I have to think about them at least.  I'm just skipping the cutscenes and dialogue now.  It's too dumb to be enjoyable.  The Thumbs awhile back had the rant against reference humor, and I think this game is a perfect example of that. 

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Yeah I'm skipping dialogue too, and I feel like I don't have to use the time mechanic a lot - which I probably should. I ran through the most of one level as the sniper just taking out people before they even get to me. I still find it super fun though.

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I'm going to play more of it, I'm not to the point of quitting yet.  But I think the next time I play I might just not allow myself to use the Sniper (or use her very sparingly).  She's absolutely the most powerful and useful character, I might find it more challenging and enjoyable if I just set some rules for myself about character use, like maybe having to cycle through characters in order or something.  Because I can see how shield guy is useful for setting certain things up, but he's almost never necessary. 

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I am pretty ignorant to the technical elements of game design, but does anyone know why some games are mechanically tied to framerate?  It's not something I've ever understood.  I assume there must be some advantage, otherwise you wouldn't do it.

 

Yeah it's generally a bad practice. It makes coding the gameplay logic easier, so maybe it has its hooks in the game's time manipulation mechanic.

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Honestly I don't expect it to come to vita, but a man can dream.

I think I might have to do the same thing. She is incredibly over powered. I've tried using the shield dude, but in the time it takes to set stuff up, I could have put two sniper and just killed everything.

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Trying something different with my newest video. Thought I owed it to this amazingly creative game. 

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