 When it came to licensed properties that got their own video games, it really seemed like a random hodgepodge of stuff back in the Super Nintendo days. Home Improvement? Sure, let's give that a game. But Freakazoid or Gummy Bears from the Disney Afternoon, eh, nobody wanted to do those for whatever reason. But hey, if you wanted a game based on King Arthur and the Knights of Justice of all things, you were in luck, even though the show might have been fine, the game was freaking terrible. We also got a game based on the TV show Time Tracks which was both odd at the time and odd in retrospect. It's a bit of a forgotten show that was part of a programming block that aired alongside Kung Fu the Legend Continues and Babylon 5, and really it wasn't that bad of a show at all. It did get 44 episodes over two seasons and it aired in a ton of different countries everywhere from Chile to Germany to Pakistan, so I guess you could say it was moderately successful to the point that it got its own Super Nintendo game and hey it's actually not that bad. You wouldn't know it though on the surface anyway since it was developed by Malibu Games who had a hand in such video game staples as Bassmasters Classic and Sports Illustrated Championship Football and Baseball. So it's kind of unexpected that this game is halfway decent. The premise here is actually kind of neat too, in the year 2193 a whole bunch of dangerous criminals are led by a nefarious evildoer to be sent back in time through a machine called Tracks, and to escape their previous criminal lives they travel back 200 years to the ancient time of 1993 to stop Jeremy Jordan from finding the right kind of love. Uh, I mean just to live without a criminal record while still being dangerous criminals and all that. You play as Captain Darien Lambert, a police officer slash super soldier who's also from the 22nd century, and he's sent back to try and stop all these criminals, in particular the evil guy that invented tracks, Dr. Mordecai Sambi. Why the Future Cops can only send one dude back? I don't know. Probably the same reason there's only two guys in Contra that can enter the slobbering mouth of hell to save Earth. But anyway, in case you missed any of this, the game has a ton of text in the intro, complete with some goofy pixel art like this guy here who evidently just got crop dusted. As you can see, this game is a side-scrolling action platformer where your character can take four hits for each of the three lives you get to make your way through seven levels that culminate in one final boss fight. No continues, no saves, and no passwords, and no problem really since this game is at least reasonably short. On the surface, this one looks painfully ordinary, but it actually controls pretty dang well. The hit detection is good, and everything is quick to respond. The only nitpick I have is that this is one of those games where you don't automatically latch onto stuff that's above you. Like to grab onto a pipe, you have to press jump a second time. That's kind of annoying, but at least you can kick the crap out of guys from here. Most of the trimmings you would come to expect from a game like this are here like collectible items that can upgrade your health, and both your laser and melee attacks, so you can really beat the hell out of this bellhop's shins. There's letters you can collect in each level. If you collect the letters that spell out Selma, no, not that Selma, it's actually the name of your computer assistant that talks to you between levels, you'll upgrade your health bar by two hits. If you collect the letters that spell out Extra, you can upgrade your health by four hits. The big thing that sets this game apart, however, is what the game calls a time stall. Press the X button, and you'll slow down time around you, complete with a touch-fuzzy-get-dizzy special effect. Yep, that's right, Time Tracks for Super Nintendo did bullet time before Max Payne did. Well, not really, but it's a thought that counts. Each use of this lasts a few seconds and will automatically replenish itself, and you'll be using it a lot in this playthrough because this is one of those games where enemies can shoot you from off-screen. Other enemies are frickin' tiny as hell, and there's even the occasional crosshair that follows you around that you can barely see, but if you stop moving for just a second, you'll take a hit. In other words, Time Tracks is one of those pick-up-and-die kind of games, you know, where you proceed through a game a little bit at a time, and when you die, and you will die a lot, you know what enemy placement and pattern to look for the next time you cross that section. Okay, some games pull this off better than others, like Super Ghouls and Ghosts for instance, and Time Tracks isn't gonna compare to that. This game can be frustrating for the wrong reasons, it's not even that this game is hard, it's just one of those playthroughs where you end up saying out loud, what the hell was that? I should mention quickly that Time Tracks does also have a Sega Genesis edition, but it was never officially released. The game was finished, but apparently not in time, since the publisher cancelled it. Still, you can easily find the ROM and play the game that way, if you'd like. It's nearly the exact same game, albeit with the usual differences you'd find between Genesis and SNES games, like the wider resolution and muted colors and all that sort of stuff, but there is one major caveat with the Genesis edition. Tim Fohlen did the music for this one, and it is awesome. So yeah, Time Tracks is solidly okay, I might even say it's just barely slightly better than okay. Despite animation is good, your character has more functionality than other average games like this, like Gun Force or Time Slip or Realm, and there's all sorts of other little touches here and there, like these giant vehicle battles where the enemy may not have a health bar, but you do see you're actually doing damage, I always appreciate that. And some of the backgrounds have some nice touches, like in this museum stage. Who is that, Vincent Van Torgho? But as you might expect, there's a reason this game gets slept on a bit, because it's got some issues like not being able to see certain enemies or projectiles, and man, oh man, the first level seemingly drags on and on. But as long as you're not expecting Contra 3 or Super Turrican levels of greatness, and you're willing to just play through a decently average game, then hey, Time Tracks is a decently average playthrough. Alright, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.