Cybarian: The Time Travelling Warrior

Review

Cybarian: The Time Travelling Warrior, is a retro-inspired 2D side-scrolling arcade action game brought to you from Ritual Games.

You play as Cybarian, The Time Travelling Warrior; you have run for a thousand miles across vast lands and traversed mountain ranges until you finally reach your goal and claim your prize, the mystical Sword of Ages, once spoken about in ancient scriptures. Upon pulling the sword from a stone on top of a mountain, lightning strikes the sword and you are transported into the future, a future far unlike the barbarian world you come from. Armed with the Sword of Ages, you set off to defeat anyone who stands in your way.

The game starts with you appearing in the slums of some future city. A couple of homeless people standing around a fire keeping warm can’t believe their eyes as you appear from nowhere. In your hands you hold the Sword of Ages, a barbaric weapon in these times but after having a few swings of the sword (you’ll be shown how to use the sword) you head off in search of a way home, woah and behold anyone who gets in your way.

You go from screen to screen making your way through different types of enemies - some with spears, some with guns - while safely trying to navigate your way past any obstacles and traps you come across. Some of the traps and obstacles you’ll have to overcome are moving and disappearing platforms, gushing towers of fire, lasers and spikes etc. At the end of each stage you’ll find a boss, who will try and stop you progressing any further. After defeating the boss on the first and second stages, you’ll unlock a couple of abilities to help you progress. Upon clearing the first stage you’ll unlock “Combat Roll” so you can roll out of the way of enemies, and the second stage will unlock “Sword Throw” so you can throw your sword towards enemies and it’ll return to your hands, which is handy when dealing with enemies out of reach.

This may all sound nice n easy but it’s not quite that easy and can become a little frustrating at times. When fighting or trying to pass obstacles, timing is key to dispense with enemies or to pass obstacles, and brute force and speed aren’t always the best solutions. You have five hearts of health to start with, but you’ll lose one if you’re hit, shot or land on spikes etc. Once all five hearts are gone, you’ll die.  You will then return to the start of the current stage you’re on. Although once you reach the boss at the end of the stage (should you die fighting them), you won’t restart at the beginning of the stage but respawn and continue to fight until you defeat the boss. This is the only type of checkpoint or save found in the game, so there’s no leaving the game and continuing where you last left off - it’s all in until you either finish the game or hit that quit button!

Collecting coins dropped from defeated enemies or from smashing crates will allow you to buy more health at certain points on each stage. One heart of health will cost you 40 coins and can be bought at vending machines, should you need to do so. At the end of a stage you’ll also have the chance to gain an extra heart of health on a slot machine; match three hearts and you’ll gain that extra bit of much needed health.

The graphics are nice, and the background music and sounds are great. The game overall is rather fun, with that retro feel and look, although one silly mistake or failed attack can make it slightly frustrating.

There isn’t a lot in the way of settings to configure, just background music and sound effects, along with controls (can’t re-map keys) which shows you what keys to use to play the game. The game is played in full screen, but you can ALT + Enter to play the game in a small window if you prefer.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!