PixlBit

I really haven’t played a scrolling shooter in some time, the main reason being that it isn’t exactly an evolving genre. Pull almost any of the “new” games off the shelves and you have another Contra or 1942 waiting for you to dodge waves of bullets, collect power-ups, and obliterate massive bosses that take longer to beat than the actual stage you traversed to reach them. Zeit² tries to be one of the games that falls outside of the “almost any” pack previously mentioned. While it definitely has the same general rules as the genre dictates, it adds a twist with the introduction of time travel.

Starting the level at 150% you pilot your ship while the screen moves right, where enemy ships that look like animated tribal drawings spawn and fly at you. Unlike most games you cannot get away with just dodging them, as any time you let one of the enemies past you, they will zap you with a beam that drains your health. Running into them is much more painful, however. In addition to that, every time you fire your own ship weapons, it drains your shields, meaning you can’t just hold down the fire button and go to town. To balance things out, you regain health by destroying the enemy ships. Now the tricky part to this is you will reach a point where you will never be able to destroy all the enemy ships on screen in time to prevent them from hurting you.

This is where the time travel mechanic comes in. A timer in the bottom left corner of the screen slowly charges in .1 second increments and with a press of the left trigger you will be reversed as far back as you want within the limit of the timer. Whenever you release you will be back in control but see a shadow copy of your ship speeding off on your previously chosen path. This allows you to be in two, or more, places at once. You can also interact with your shadow copy, shooting it will release certain power-up life effects and your shadow copy will be needed to destroy certain ships out of phase.

While the concept of the time travel is simple to understand, mastering it is something truly difficult. The variety of enemies to fight steps up after the first couple of levels and the amount of things flying at you on the screen is almost too much to take in - at least for this reviewer.

At the end of each stage you will encounter a truly massive boss that can easily take a half hour to beat in some cases. These bosses easily fall into a bullet-hell mentality as you are often much more concerned with just trying to avoid a massive amount of bullets being fired at you and chipping away at the absurd amount of health your opponent has. While the time-travel mechanics still exist in some of these fights they are not at the forefront as much.

While I do have fond memories of games like 1942 and Contra, this genre really isn't my favorite one to play. I have never been a large fan of purely reflex driven games so it is admittedly hard for me to give any of them a favorable review. Zeit² however is something that will compel you to play purely to try and master the unique time travel aspect of it, if you can handle the stress and constant restarting.

If it sounds like trying to account for multiple paths you have taken and using them effectively will give you migraines - this game isn't for you. If the idea intrigues you and the thought of competing on leader boards is something you look forward to, then Zeit² is worth the asking price.