Super T.I.M.E. Force

[shmuppyLove]

I'm having mixed feelings about this.

http://supertimeforce.com/

It looks pretty awesome, except why are there so many player characters? Is it some kind of MMO run-n-gun? What is everybody shooting at, it's really hard to see the enemy units with so many players on screen (except for that one boss obviously).

Well not much to do but wait for more info I guess.

[shmuppyLove]

Ah ok, this explains why there are so many players on the screen:

http://penny-arcade.com/report/editoria ... 16-bit-joy

“Every time you die, you rewind back to the start of the level and play alongside the past versions of yourself,” Nathan Vella, the co-founder and President of Capy Games, said. “We’re trying to turn death into a component of game play instead of a penalty for failing at game play.”

That sounds pretty awesome!

[MommysBestGames]

I played the demo then bought the game. I like it a lot! But it's kind of a cluster-f, which is fine with me (as you can probably see from my own Shoot 1UP).
Get the demo if you like: Adventure Time-style humor, hipster pixel art, or sloppy Contra.
The humor is very silly, has some good effort in the presentation (lots of supporting art, and animation).

The gameplay is pretty good, and I enjoy the new perspective on run 'n' guns.
The core concept is you can 'time out' at any moment, and rewind, and add another character (same character, or different). So you can basically layer your attacks and strategies, as different characters have 2 different attacks. That works well in the main levels, and it's good fun. Some of the bosses can get a little tedious, but as long as you're aggressive about rewinding and adding more firepower, it works out pretty well. I've finished 2.5 areas, and it's still pretty fun. I think there's 6 main areas. Plays pretty long too for a run 'n' gun, but they've had a decent amount of art changes and enemies so it's holding strong so far (4 levels in each main area, with several bosses).

Niggles: I wish there was better camera forward-looking as it sometimes is hard to see what you're shooting. Characters have some momentum which may have killed me a few times (it's hard to tell in the chaos).

After I play I end up thinking I can stop time, and then layer attacks in other games too.