Time Chaos review

Nintendo’s legendary Game Boy may have been limited to displaying just four shades of grey but it has nevertheless gone down in video gaming history as a classic system – so much so that mobile developer Orange Pixel has created this tender love letter to the machine and its library of brilliant titles.

To put it simply, Time Chaos is a Game Boy game programmed almost twenty years too late.

The developer has intentionally stuck to those four famous shades of grey and has also included music which sounds as if it has been lifted directly from Nintendo’s famous handheld.

The project has actually evolved from one of those “make a game in 48 hours” challenges that indie developers are apparently so fond of - taking this into account it’s slightly easier to forgive Time Chaos’ incredible simplicity and lack of variety.

The action takes place on just one screen, with your character in the middle. By tiling the phone you can influence which direction he moves in and how fast he runs.

He brandishes a small handgun which is stuck on auto-fire, and the general aim is to kill the onrushing enemies which appear from the left and right-hand side of the screen.

These foes drop additional ammo and health packs which are vital to your survival.

They come in different forms - the basic grunts need to get in close before they can inflict any damage but other units are capable of firing back. Some are even packing rocket launchers and flame throwers.

It’s not just ground-based target which pose a challenge – you’ll also find that helicopters appear from time to time and drop bombs on your location.

During these particularly fraught moments you’ll need to master the tilt controls and your character’s jumping ability, which is triggered by tapping anywhere on the screen.

Aside from the ability to post your score to an online leaderboard, there’s little else in Time Chaos to speak of.

This is basically a high-screen challenge with basic controls and bags of addictive charm. There’s a surprising amount of skill involved with avoiding enemy fire and timing your shots to take out the stronger and more deadly foes.

The developer has already said that additional features – such as different levels, weapon power-ups and end-of-level boss encounters – are in the pipeline so Time Chaos is definitely worth supporting.

If you were feeling unkind you could point out that the brevity of the experience means that Orange Pixel’s retro-themed blaster isn’t going to oust other more established action titles on Android but that somewhat misses the point.

It’s being offered for free and in its current form offers a mildly diverting way to waste a few minutes.

With the proposed additions it could become a truly essential download, but for the time being you certainly have nothing to lose by checking this out – especially if you’re old enough to remember the irresistible allure of that monochrome Game Boy display.