TIME KILLERS:
Developed By: Incredible Technologies
Release Date: 1992 (Arcades), 1996 (Sega Genesis)
-And now we come to one of the most infamously terrible video games of all time-
Time Killers! Generally seen as a
Mortal Kombat rip-off, it had the unique gameplay aspect of being able to sever the arms of your opponents, which would affect their attacks (each button corresponded to one limb). So in bloody manner, you could chop off an arm, reducing their attack power (damage to the legs did not affect the fights). An armless foe could not block, nor use weapons. Stronger attacks could be accomplished by hitting both limb buttons together at once. Pressing all five buttons at once unleashed a "Death Move" which immediately decapitated the opponent, winning the round automatically if it wasn't blocked or dodged. A "Super Death Move" would cut off the head AND both arms simultaneously, but could only be done to a stunned opponent. Each round, severed limbs and heads are restored.
Time Killers was also one of the early weapon-based Fighting Games, pre-dating
Samurai Shodown by one year. In the game, you play one of eight warriors from various time periods (most of them in the future, in fact), ultimately battle Death himself as the Final Boss- the winner becomes immortal. Shockingly, four years after the game's release, a home port came out for the Sega Genesis. Like, that is a REALLY long gap, and well after it would have mattered (the Next Generation of consoles had struck around 1995). Apparently the game had been finished by THQ, but was cancelled amidst poor previews, and so they waited an extra two years before dropping it- probably since the console was dying anyways, they might as well gut some money out of it- I dunno.
The game, to be polite, looks like ass. Characters seem big enough and are relatively colorful, but aren't well-designed and their animations are ridiculously limited- most attacks are only one or two frames. Most designs are so unimaginative that you get stuff like "Big fat caveman with blonde hair" and "red-haired viking in plain brown shirt & pants" and that's all the design effort. The very graphical innovation that allows limbs to be hacked off (which, to be fair, is pretty advanced from 1992) also limits things terribly, as it probably crushed their CPU space. Stages are extremely static, featuring little in the way of moving bits- just flickering lights and multiple "layers" of cel graphics. The game looks noticeably muddier and choppier than any of its early-90s contemporaries- even stuff like
Fighter's History, much less what SNK & Capcom were doing.
The backstory of the game is shockingly good, however- each of the selectable characters are great heroes with incredible lives, to the point where I would read a comic book series or watch a movie about almost any one of them (provided they didn't look as dumb as they do here)! They're almost all set up as one in a million fighters who go on noble quests or fight horrendous armies. And then you read Death's bio and it turns out that the mysterious origin of nearly all of their enemies comes from HIM! So Thugg faces reptilian overlords who enslave humans, Matrix fought against robots that mysteriously went berserk one day, and Orion avenges his people- slaughtered by a dark energy. And it turns out that Death is responsible for all of it, and now puts every person who's opposed him ("Agents of Life") in a tournament where he hopes to kill the victor, taking control of everything! This is like... way bigger and better than even
Eternal Champions, which has a similar schtick (but is more about people who died unfairly getting one last chance).
Reviews for the Genesis port in particular were savage- 3.5/10 or 4/10- stuff like that. The game did not receive a sequel- however, there IS a Spiritual Successor or sorts- Incredible Technologies, who made this game, went on to do the near-identical
BloodStorm in 1994. However, this game came and went in a big hurry, and today is extremely obscure. Whereas
Time Killers is an infamously horrible game. Why is this more infamous than games that were equally bad or worse, such as
Kasumi Ninja or
Way of the Warrior? Well, those were on systems like the Jaguar & 3DO. NOBODY owned those systems!
Time Killers appeared in arcades (I've seen it myself- in the very small one that used to be near where my friend Jordan lived in Red Deer, Alberta)- people SAW and PLAYED this one!
The Characters:
Thugg- Caveman.
Leif- Viking.
Lord Wülf- Knight.
Musashi- Samurai.
Rancid- Punker (I hate punkers) from Chicago.
Orion- Space Hero.
Matrix- Female Bionic Soldier.
Mantazz- Alien mantis.
Death- Final Boss. Literally Death himself. Looks like an Oni in fight-mode.
Power Levels:
-Most of these characters hover in that PL 7-8 zone: I ultimately went with PL 8 on offense, PL 7 on defense. I don't normally make those so different, but in this case, just LOOK at the fights! Everyone bleeding, everyone being maimed with every shot- they have crap for defenses. Add in the high amounts of Improved Critical and offense-altering techniques everyone has, and you have a recipe for blood.