Time Recoil review for PS Vita, PS4, Xbox One, Switch

At first I was ready to lump Time Recoil in with Jydge and Neon Chrome. All three, after all, are twin-stick shooters from 10tons. Sure, Time Recoil may focus a little more heavily on sci-fi than on cyberpunk, but, in the big scheme of things, it didn?t seem like a huge departure from those other two games.

The more I played it, however, the more I loved it — and the more I realized that this game is something else entirely. Whereas Neon Chrome and Jydge were more or less generic twin-stick shooters (with the latter being arguably slightly better), Time Recoil adds in puzzle elements, not to mention gameplay that slows down and speeds up depending on what you?re doing. It feels, to oversimplify things, kind of cool.

Or, to be a little more specific, it feels like a less grimy version of Hotline Miami. Much like that game, Time Recoil presents itself as a top-down shooter, only to reveal its puzzle mechanics when you look a little more closely. The levels aren?t just building floors you have to blast your way through, they?re also puzzles that require careful plotting. Go in the wrong direction, and you?re likely to find yourself shot.

On top of that, the game plays around with — as its name suggests — time. Shooting enemies slows things down, and allows you to zip around bullets and past heavily-armed enemies. Basically, imagine those bullet-time sequences that littered the post-Matrix cinematic world about twenty years ago, but translated into top-down shooters, and you have a good idea of what to expect here.

In other words, it?s an incredibly fun game. If Time Recoil truly represents 10tons? Vita swansong — and they?re currently saying it is — then they?ve picked one heck of a high note to go out on. As far as I?m concerned, Time Recoil is the very best twin-stick shooter the handheld has to offer, and it?s well-worth checking out.

10tons provided us with a Time Recoil PS Vita code for review purposes.