In what will likely be one of my favorite games of the year, Time Fcuk takes a convoluted premise, turns up the creepy, and makes a free, online game that’s long on fun. What’s more, the game has a option for the user to create levels and post them for other people to play. Rest assured, Time Fcuk, lives up to its misspelled name and thoroughly messes with your head.
This game first caught my attention when a preview trailer was released that blew my mind. The best thing I can say about the game is that there is nothing in the trailer that isn’t in the game itself.
Time Fcuk comes from the warped and brilliant mind of Edmund McMillen who made a name for himself with the equally free and addictive Meat Boy (that saw sound still haunts me). Blah, blah, blah, the guy makes cool games. With the help of William Good and static-ridden accordion music from Justin Karpel Time Fcuk combines the gameplay of Shift with the plot of one of my favorite movies of all time, Primer.
You’re an average schmoe who comes across a box with a future version of yourself inside telling you that fun and excitement await you inside the box. Once inside, the future you gives you hints but more often than not just says cryptic and generally loony things. As “future you” descends into madness you find yourself switching dimensions and just trying to escape (and dying repeatedly in the process). The game allows you to skip two levels (I used them both). The user-created levels range from brilliant to obscenely difficult. You need to sign up to create a level of your own, but that might take up too much time to get away with at work.
Click here to play Time Fcuk. You’ll regret it.
Enjoy.
This article appears in September 18 • 2009.
