LogFAQs > #975603086

Currently Playing: Crankin's Time Travel Adventure

What Is It? A game. An honest, complete game. What a time to be alive.

Thoughts/Playthrough:
-Crankin's Time Travel Adventures opens up with a lullaby playing and its already better music than anything that ever came out of Boogie Loops.
-We have a tin man sleeping on a bench here. Not sure whats going on but its cute already.
-I gotta crank to start which is also a fun touch. It pulls up an enveloper from someone named Crankette and it says 1st date Meet at 3:00 PM. Got it. Tin man has a hot date.
-Uh oh. Keep cranking and it says the time is 3:05 PM and tin man finally wakes up! Way to ruin your date, dude.
-Hm ok the time keeps going whether or not Im cranking or not. Thats good to know.
-Well, Im late anyway so might as well play around with the mechanics here some.
-Oh, ok, this makes sense. So I crank for a while, get to an empty spot and tin man begins openly weeping. Times Suprak has made a robot cry on Playdate: 1.
-HOWEVER. Now it sets me back at the house and I crank like Ive never cranked before. Tin man sprints outside and Crankette is still waiting for him at 3:07. Hooray Im a hero! Or a robot matchmaker, at least. Which is almost beter than a hero.
-So slow cranks make him move slow, fast make him move fast, and I can both move him forwards and backwards. Im curious what sort of puzzles come out of this.
-It moves forward to the second date. I crank as fast as I can and get there at 3:04 (four minutes late). I get kicked in my robo-nuts. What the hell, Crankette? Thats assault!
-Hm. Third date is basically the same thing, other than instant lose butterflies coming into play. If I run into them, I get sent back to the beginning. These are the worst butterflies EVER.
-What I have to do is time when I bend over the sniff the flowers, and let them flutter over me. It makes me twenty minutes late and I get kicked in the robo-testicles again. Think shed accept that Im later because of dangerous butterflies?
-Also, my dude needs to set an alarm for like 2:50, or ask if he can push the date back to 3:15 if 3 is his nap time.
-Day 4, more of the same, but now I have to avoid birds by jumping up on stuff and uh separating my body? It does it automatically, and I just need to crank until I get to the safe zone and then wait.
-Boy, I hope theres more to the game than this.
-Wow. Im so late she suplexes me this this time. Next time shes gonna DROP THAT STONE COLD STUNNER AND WIN THE BELT AT WRESTLEMANIA.
-Ok, you know what? This isnt that bad once they start adding more stuff to it. Theres a lot of timing you have to get right here, moving tin man back and forth, making sure you get your movement right. Its a fun little concept.
-Less fun is the number of times Crankette has destroyed my testicles. This 9th date isnt worth it, man!
-Most fun level so far is timing going over hurdles with these butterflies that move up and down at this weird parabola pattern. The timing is satisfying to get right.
-One of these just has me cranking as fast as I can to outrun pigs and I make it to Crankette at 3:03 and she STILL punches me in the face. I feel like 3:03 is well within the margin of error, lady.
-15 dates in and it is an interesting game. A lot of going back and forth to avoid obstacles with the crank. You move him forward or backwards, and he progresses through whatever motions he did or will do. So, see a table and hell sit at it and drink something. Go past it and you can rewind to it again and he will repeat the same animations again. He has specific movements during each of these animation which let him avoid obstacles. So, at the table he will pick up his tea and then bow his head a bit to take a drink. You need to time this bob to let a bird fly over head. You can just pause him at the right moment for as long as you need, but you need to figure out which animation lets him avoid the obstacles and where to hold it as the danger passes. It is a simple concept but I think it works well on the Playdate and it isnt something Ive seen before.
-Ok 23 levels in now. Still enjoying it. There are some here that are actually fairly challenging, which is nice. I checked and the game has 50 levels total so almost halfway done!
-What this game does really well is show off how the crank is necessary. This is the first game I really dont think could be played on another system. You really need that crank for very fine movements and the sort of speed/precision you get out of the crank doesnt have a close duplication for me. Like youll need to crank really fast to get past something, and then youre immediately thrown into a table where you take a sip of tea and need to bob your head a fraction of a centimeter to avoid the incoming bird. That sort of back and forth feels like it genuinely benefits from the crank.
-One minor complaint is a feel like a lot of these levels are sort of guess and test. Theres multiple levels here where you start climbing stairs and pigs are shot out of a cannon a million miles per hour and theres no way to avoid them unless you know theyre coming and are already cranking as fast as you can. The levels are short enough I dont necessarily mind it, though.

Time Played: Probably 1.5 to 2 hours, if I had to guess
Beaten? Nah, still halfway to go.
Grade: You know? This might be a 7. Maybe an 8 if they can really perfect the formula here on the back end and its not more of the same. But it is fun and interesting and I'm into it.
Favorite Part So Far: Crankette gave me the ol' kamehameha for being late which has been my favorite way to die on the Playdate thus far.