No Time To Explain is a game which doesn’t take itself seriously, with constant silliness and comical dialogue, the time-travelling platformer brings something a bit different to Xbox One.
I enjoy platformers, but after a while they start to feel a bit repetitive with the same mechanics and obstacles presented in front of you. Luckily, No Time To Explain tries to eliminate that with many levels often repeated, but with different obstacles offered before you. After all you’re a time traveller!
The whole idea of the game after all is that you’re travelling through time to save a version of yourself. Using your jetpack to jump is the essential mechanic to understand, as you use this to get around and over obstacles primarily. One short blast will send you into the air and the longer you hold it, the further you’ll propel upwards. However, use it conservatively, as eventually it will cut out and you’ll come hurtling to the floor. It’s probably one of the hardest mechanics to grasp in any platformer you played before and very often I died because of the jetpack.
If you do happen to make a mistake, the good news is that the checkpoints are packed closely together, so you don’t have to replay through much to get to where you were. It still doesn’t hide the fact that the controls feel very sluggish and hard to handle though. It doesn’t feel like a game you can enjoy, but rather grow frustrated with.
There’s a few other sections thrown in there which mixed it up a little – for example your character will be given a shogun at one stage, where you’ll have to fire and propel yourself in the opposite direction with it.
Stages are also concluded with boss battles, which often fill the screen with some over-the-top creature such as a robotic UFO loaded with an alien-like monster. It’s always nice to have the action broken up by boss fights and bonus sections, so some praise has to go to tiny Build Games for this.
The game suffers from a couple of bugs, some of which are game breaking and with the hard to grasp controls, it very often feels like the game is sliding down a hill out of control, as your anger builds. I think I only lasted about 45 minutes before I was too frustrated with it to play anymore.
No Time To Explain offers something different to a lot of platformers out there on Xbox One, but its plagued mechanics of using a temperamental jet pack create a huge amount of frustration for this game. The comical dialogue and eye-catching art style, only serve as a mere distraction to negatives.
Pros
- Comical dialogue
- Appealing art style
- Different to most platformers I’ve played
Cons
- Several bugs
- The mechanics of the jetpack are hard to grasp
- Very frustrating and tedious within the hour