In Net Yaroze Month, we are playing every Net Yaroze game featured on the UK Official Playstation Magazine, and ranking them all in the order we liked them. You may have other opinions as to the ranking, which is awesome.
To learn more about Net Yaroze, read our introductory article here.
Time Slip is a platform game featuring a snail. A snail that can move quite fast and also jump. Oh, and shoot fireballs.
I’m not judging a jumping snail. Dizzy was an egg, and eggs can’t even walk in real life, let alone wear boxing gloves and drink whisky.
So back to Time Slip.
To complete the level, you need to collect a certain amount of coins, and reach the exit. Sounds like every other European platform game since Manic Miner. Booooooooorrrrrrrriiiiiiiinnnnnnnngg.
Well it would be, if it wasn’t for a bit of a twist.
Every minute in the game, a time slip occurs. When this happens, the game replays your actions from the previous minute, so while you’re there doing whatever you’re doing, your past self is in a loop, doing what you just did. Each minute that passes, another snail gets added to the mix, so you can end up with multiple snails, all recreating your actions a minute apart.
Not sure if that makes any sense but it’s the type of game you need to play to understand.
These timeslipped-snails come in handy though. Many of the puzzles involve opening a door by standing on a switch. But as soon as you leave the switch the door closes. So, simply hang around on the switch for a bit, and wait by the door until your past-self catches up and opens it for you.
However, as anyone who has watched any time travel movie will know, if you touch a previous version of yourself, you trigger a time paradox and the universe will be ripped to shreds. BAD SNAIL!
In playing Time Slip, you have to think several steps ahead to make sure you don’t get in the way of your future selves. This can be incredible frustrating, when you make a hash up of it, as you know it’s all your own fault, but also incredible rewarding when you manage to jump over your previous version heading your way.
According to Johnston, Time Slip was based on a game he’d made previously on the Acorn called “GroundHog”, (named after the film). He says “It was viewed from above, didn’t scroll and the main character was a groundhog with a gun. It let me get the idea off the ground mind you and it did contain a 2 player option.”
In playing all these Net Yaroze games, Time Slip is the one I have played the most so far. I am addicted to it in the same way I used to be with Lemmings, nearly thirty years ago (yes, Lemmings is that old). I lie awake at night, thinking about the level I’m stuck on, itching to play again to see if I can make my Groudhog-day-Gastropod get to the exit.
Time Slip would probably rank somewhere in my top twenty PSX games. It’s that good. Such a shame it was hidden away on a demo disc without a wider audience.
Game: Time Slip
By: David Johnston and Mike Goatley
Genre: Platform / Puzzle
Available on Euro Demos: 48, 106, 108
Legacy
Johnston went on to launch an updated version of Time Slip on Xbox Live Arcade in February 2011 and Windows in January 2012. You can download a Windows version of Time Slip from his website here. (Note: i’ve not played the Windows version yet, so can’t vouch whether I think it’s as amazing as this version)
Lucky there’s that barrier in between the snails, otherwise we could end the universe.
The clock at the top indicates how long you have before the next Time Slip occurs. Checking what time it says can be useful so you can remember where your past version is going to be at a certain point.
Awe crap! I’ve broken the universe AGAIN
Net Yaroze Month rankings:
WE HAVE A NEW NUMBER ONE!
[B]Time Slip[/B]- Blitter Boy
- Rocks n Gems
- Total Soccer Yaroze
- Terra Incognita
- Super Bub Contest
- Robot Ron
- Decaying Orbit
- Psychon
- INVS
- Haunted Maze
- Roller
- Gravitation
- Squeak
- Adventure Game
- Katapila
- Pssst!
- Game Involving Triangles
- Yarozians
- Tanx
- PingPing
- Opera of Destruction
- Video Poker Simulator
- Shroud
- Between the Eyes
- Bouncer 2
- Yaroze Rally
- Sphere
- Blockz
- Surf Game
Still to play:
- Sam the Boulderman
- Technical Demo
- Pushy IIb
- Pandora’s Box
- Down
- Snowball Fight
- Arena
- A Dog Tale
- Mah Jongg
- Samsaric Asymptotes
- Hover Car Racing
- Clone