Timewinder is a new puzzle platforming game for Steam with a unique time rewinding mechanic.
As I intimated in my review of Halver, every puzzle platforming game has to have a unique mechanic to make it stand out. In Timewinder, the developer JRB has gone with rewinding time as the mechanic. This has been done before, but Timewinder utilises this idea in an interesting way.
Instead of going back in time, or rewinding time, instead you sort of create phantom versions of yourself retracing your steps, whilst the world around you rolls back. The game factors this mechanic into it’s puzzles as so. There may be a red diamond you need to stand on in order for a door to open. You then stand on the diamond, walk up to the door, and rewind time so your phantom is standing on the diamond, allowing the door to open and you to progress.
Other cases might be that a platform has moved too far to the right, and you need it to be further to the left, so you can jump, hover above it and rewind it to be in the right position. The combination of these two things makes for some quite interesting set-ups I found. A particular puzzle may see you having to work out the right way of leaving phantoms in the right place, jumping to the right spot, moving platforms just so. It works together quite well I found and the developer has done well in that regard.
That is to say, there are some strings attached. You can’t touch one of your phantoms or you die. You also can’t let your phantom touch an object affected by moving time, such as a falling obstacle. This adds a level of difficulty which really makes you think about your approach to each puzzle. The platforming side is quite straight-forward, the character was easy to control and I didn’t have any issues moving about and getting to where I needed to be.
I did have a couple of little niggles with the game. The first is that in order to rewind time, you have a small recharging timer that shows how far you can go. When you die, it needs to recharge, meaning the first few seconds of every death are usually spent waiting around. The game also doesn’t have a settings screen, which results in problems with the like of vsync, which will need to be forced via your graphics driver.
The graphics too, might be an acquired taste. I for one find them quite charming and unobtrusive, but they won’t win any awards for art design. The music is quaint and fits the scene well. There’s no kind of obvious story or narrative to be found, it’s straight to the point with the gameplay.
Really, Timewinder is a fun little indie game. There’s only a few chapters which can be beaten in a few hours, but for an indie game at a low price, you can’t expect the world. If it looks like the kind of game you might enjoy, it might be worth a buy.
Timewinder will be available on Steam on the 12th April. For a different kind of puzzle platformer, why not check out Halver.
