written by David Steffen
You are the Chili Pepper Knight, and you have already vanquished your foe and rescued the princess. But, now, time is rolling backwards and you have to replay the game in reverse, in this comedy platformer from Megafuzz in 2013.
This is harder than you might think, because if you take any actions that contradict original events, then there’s a time paradox that resets the level and you have to redo it. If you see a dead enemy, you have to make sure you unkill the enemy to revive it. If you see a live enemy, you have to AVOID unkilling it, since it never died in the first place. If you see a collected coin you have to uncollect. If you see an uncollected coin, you have to avoid touching it. And so on. The Chili Pepper Knight is constantly running so you’ve got to figure out when to jump to match all of these rules, and different rules apply when the Chili Pepper Knight has a power up like the dragon suit where you have to catch your own fireballs as they come flying back at you.
The concept is simple, the gameplay is simple, and the game’s not particularly long, but it’s an interesting puzzle to wrap your hand around and to get the hang of.
Visuals
Simple, cartoony, but fun.
Audio
Simple, but fun.
Challenge
Not too terribly challenging once you get the hang of it, but it’s a fun distraction while it lasts.
Story
The story is pretty slight, and even more so when it’s told in reverse–the conversations with the boss characters are more than a bit silly (nothing wrong with that, mind you). And there’s not really any explanation for why it’s all rewinding, not that it has to.
Session Time
Each level takes at most a minute or two, and it saves which levels you’ve completed and how well, so it’s pretty easy to shut it off when you need to, making it easy to digest in short spurts.
Playability
Easy. The character is always running (backward) at a constant rate, so most of the time your only choice is to jump. When you have special powerup suits you will also have extra powers that will be one extra button, but still quite simple.
Replayability
There is some replayability in terms of trying to go back and beat each level on your first try, as well as other achievements, and a time trial which strings all the levels back to back nonstop so that to get a perfect score you would have to make it all the way through the game without making any mistakes. So if you’re into that kind of challenge it’s there for you. There is also a level editor where you can set up your own challenges.
Originality
I have certainly never played another game based around trying to avoid time paradoxes in a reverse chronological gameplay, so certainly original!
Playtime
I played through the whole game in about 50 minutes, without any particular effort at playing back through to beat each level on the first try or to beat the time trial. I would’ve liked if the game had been longer.
Overall
Amusing game concept with came with some weird and fun game dynamics. The game is not very long and didn’t wear out its concept in that time–I would’ve liked for it to be a bit longer, but it was pretty fun while it lasted, if not particularly challenging. $3 on Steam.
