Posts Tagged Donkey Kong

I think the first time I saw time-rewinding in a videogame was in one of EA’s NHL titles back in the 16-bit era. Granted it wasn’t a vital part of the game — just a way to view replays — but it’s worth mentioning. No one really thought of tying it deeper into gameplay until Prince of Persia: Sands of Time rolled around. SoT not only presented the concept in an attractive wrapping, but also made it a crucial part of its gameplay and storytelling.

Then, of course, there was Braid.

I was a bit sceptical about Braid at first. It was getting lots of attention from the indie community after only a short demo that showcased a rewinding mechanic very similar to that of SoT. In the end, though, Braid turned out to be so much more. It tied numerous time-manipulation concepts into one of the most interesting and unique games to be released in the last couple of years.

As a result, it’s not too surprising that smaller-scale games have begun to pop up and try to experiment with similar concepts. Which brings us to Time4Cat.

Time4Cat and his magical time-controlling collar.

It’s a relatively simple, single-screen game where the player’s mouse cursor is a cat. Moving the cat around sets random pedestrians in motion, while holding the mouse still stops them in their tracks. The main point of the game is to gather up leftovers that spawn on the playing field but don’t follow the cat-moving time mechanic; wait too long, and the leftovers disappear. Power-ups also sporadically show up and can aid you in not touching any of the pedestrians (which results in a game over screen).

It’s a casual experience reminiscent of Braid’s fourth world, but it’s not nearly as well executed. The reason for this is that it’s simply not tied into much of a game.

In Braid, the Time and Place world was a theme in a larger story, and its time mechanic was central to solving its puzzles. In addition, really good audio and visual effects accompanied the time manipulation (a particularly nice touch was the music playing normally when walking right, rewinding when walking left, and nothing playing while the player stood still). Being part of a larger game also meant that it had a role in its pacing and could be used to reference other parts of a larger experience, i.e., reusing the by-then familiar Donkey Kong level with an all new toolset.

Now Time4Cat and similar titles don’t have to shoot for the scope of Braid, but they’d benefit from being more complete games. After all, proof-of-concept tech demos tend to be forgettable (Tower of Goo), but well executed games are not (World of Goo).