Super Time Force Ultra Review Summary

A clever time-rewind hook, chaotic fun, and gorgeous pixel art can't fully save this from awkward controls, flat humor, and frustratingly high difficulty.

Time rewind mechanic praised: Multiple clusters highlight the time rewind feature as a standout element, making gameplay fun and strategic. It allows saving past selves, cooperation, and clever use of time manipulation.

Fun and chaotic gameplay: Gameplay is described as outrageous, fun, and chaotic, with pleasant and refreshing elements. It is overall a delightful experience.

Excellent pixel art graphics: The pixel art style is widely praised as amazing, beautiful, and well-crafted, with retro aesthetics that look great. Graphics are considered exceptional for pixel art.

Hilarious and silly humor: The game's story and humor are frequently described as hilarious, silly, and witty, adding charm and enjoyment. Humor is solid and appreciated without being vulgar.

Innovative and unique gameplay: The game is full of innovative gameplay mechanics, often described as unique, original, and refreshing. The concept is considered genius and extremely original.

Controls are awkward and imprecise: The control scheme is widely criticized for being stiff, unresponsive, and requiring the same stick for movement and aiming. This leads to imprecise shooting and frequent unintended deaths.

Humor and writing fall flat: The humor is often seen as heavy-handed, profane, and trying too hard, with weak writing and unengaging story. Many players find it off-putting and juvenile.

Difficulty too high and frustrating: The game is considered extremely difficult, with challenging platforming, boss battles, and one-life completion being nearly impossible. Many find it frustrating and inaccessible.

Combat system confusing and unbalanced: The combat is often described as confusing, with high enemy health, slow projectiles, and one-hit deaths for the player. Many find the difficulty unbalanced and frustrating.

Time-rewind mechanic disrupts flow: The time-rewind mechanic frequently interrupts gameplay, making it jerky and irritating. It also makes tracking characters difficult and often pauses the action.

Time Rewind Core Mechanic: Players can rewind time after dying or voluntarily to undo mistakes, a central gameplay feature. This mechanic is frequently highlighted as essential to the game's identity.

Many Unlockable Characters: The game features a large roster of unlockable characters, each with unique abilities and playstyles. This variety encourages replayability and strategic choices.

2D Run'n'Gun Platformer: The game is a 2D side-scrolling action platformer with run-and-gun shooter elements. Its fast-paced, arcade-style gameplay is frequently mentioned.

Fight Alongside Past Selves: Rewinding allows players to fight alongside previous versions of their characters, creating cooperative gameplay within a single player experience. This unique twist is often praised.

Hardcore Mode Permadeath: A hardcore mode exists where dead characters cannot be used again until rescued, adding a layer of permanent consequence. This mode is appreciated by players seeking greater challenge.

1080p resolution bug unplayable: On 1080p screens, the game may not appear and glitches out, making it unplayable. This is a critical issue for players with that resolution.

Smooth performance with many bullets: The game runs smoothly without stuttering even when there are many bullets and timeline resets. This indicates good optimization for high-action scenarios.

Frequent lag reported: Lag is not uncommon according to feedback, indicating that network or performance issues occur regularly. This can degrade the overall experience.

Occasional unexplained stutters: Players report that the game sometimes stutters for no apparent reason. This affects fluidity and can disrupt gameplay.

Appeals to Genre Fans: The game is strongly recommended for fans of specific genres such as 2D platformers, action games, and side-scrolling shooters. Clusters 5, 10, 11, 24, 27, 32, 34, 35, 36, 44, 48, 49, and 61 highlight this targeted appeal.

Wait for Sale: A recurring theme is that the game is worth buying only at a discount. Clusters 2, 4, 13, 16, 25, 26, 38, and 42 all advise waiting for a sale or avoiding the full price.

Fun and Unique Experience: Reviewers frequently mention the game's fun, unique, and creative aspects, often recommending it for those seeking something different. Clusters 29, 30, 39, 40, 53, 54, 55, 56, 58, and 62 capture this sentiment.

Strong Overall Recommendation: Many players recommend the game without hesitation, using phrases like 'recommended,' 'would recommend,' and 'can't recommend this enough.' Cluster 1, Cluster 3, and Cluster 6 all reflect a highly positive general sentiment.

Positive but Qualified: Several recommendations come with conditions, such as worth playing for the story or the idea, but not at full price. Clusters 7, 18, 23, 25, and 41 show mixed feelings about value.

Community fair range: $10.00 - $13.00.

Game completion: 5.0h.

Story completion: 5.0h.

Session length: 1.0h.

Endgame: 20.0h.

STFU has an early hurdle in its overwhelming time-rewind mechanic, but players who get past it often find a deep, addictive loop; others find the repetition and controls frustrating and never click.

Friction: Overwhelming time-rewind mechanic introduced early in the tutorial; Slight learning curve; Keyboard controls feel wonky and tedious compared with a controller; Repetitive gameplay and frustration for some players; Cheap deaths, lag, and a crowded screen.

Time-Loop Tactician: Adds specialized characters one at a time, deliberately rewinds to correct mistakes and stack 'ghost' versions of the previous run, treating the game as a solo co-op puzzle. Motivation: Orchestrating a self-made squad through rewinds, layering past runs on top of each other to solve levels like a choreographed puzzle. Stance: buy.

Hardcore Challenge Seeker: Replays the whole campaign on higher-tier modes, treating character deaths as solvable problems and replaying levels until the timeline is rescued perfectly. Motivation: Pushing the rewind mechanic to its limits in perma-death modes where every mistake can be rescued only by clever time manipulation. Stance: buy.

Completionist Grinder: Farms levels across difficulties, spams needed characters on easy, and grinds out medals and hard-mode clears for full completion. Motivation: Collecting every medal, achievement and 100% clear, treating the checklist as the real endgame. Stance: sale.

Valve characters included: The game features characters from Valve titles such as Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead. This includes unlockable guest characters like Pyro and Zoey.

Comparisons to Contra and Metal Slug: Reviewers frequently compare the run-and-gun platforming to classics like Contra and Metal Slug. The 2D side-scroller action is noted as similar but with a fresh twist.

No multiplayer or co-op: Several reviews point out the lack of multiplayer and local co-op support, which also means no multiplayer achievements. Some note it wouldn't work with the time-manipulation mechanics.

Campaign length around 6 hours: The campaign lasts about 6 hours, with full completion around 12 hours. One playthrough takes about 3-6 hours, and total playtime is 5-6 hours with high replayability.

Comparisons to Braid and time rewind: The rewind mechanic is compared to Braid, and the game is described as Contra mixed with Braid. It also shares similarities with Prince of Persia's time-rewind save-life mechanic.