Game Reviews

Toast Time

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| Toast Time
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Toast Time
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| Toast Time

Not many people know this, but I require two slices of toast every single morning. Otherwise, I go into some sort of toastless brain shock that lasts up until I am finally fed some sweet, sweet buttered goodness.

This is why the developer of Toast Time spoke to me on so many levels.

For one thing, it was exciting to witness the act of waking up and coming face-to-face with a variety of dough-based delicacies from the point of view of a toaster.

What do you put in a toaster?

There is a multitude of inter-dimensional time blobs who are trying to steal your alarm clock before it can go off. Guess what? Yep, you are the only toasting machinery fit for the job at hand.

By launching toast, crumpets, and other breakfast-y items at enemies, you move your toaster around the level, potentially slamming into other enemies or trapping yourself in awkward positions.

It's this balance between collecting powered-up baked goods, killing off enemies before they can reach the clock, and keeping yourself in the midst of the action that makes Toast Time exciting, hilarious, and downright tricky in equal measures.

The key to building the largest scores on each level is the combo. By killing enemies as quickly as possible, you will build up your combo meter. You may well even activate "Coffee Time", which is as psychedelic as it sounds.

There's a real skill involved in balancing all these elements and making sure your toaster is always in the right place at the right time. The recoil from firing can be enormous, so over time you'll have to learn to deal with that recoil, and maybe even use it to your advantage.

Toasted

At times, however, this intentional 'awkwardness' can be the game's undoing. Some levels are designed in such a way, you see, that you'll keep getting stuck behind specific barriers and find it difficult to reach enemies in time.

The difficulty curve is very steep once you really get into the game. And the going can get particularly tough later on, switching from hectic to just plain hateful.

It's the inherent fiddliness of Toast Time that saps some of the fun out of the game. On occasions, you'll feel like you're a god thanks to more open plan level design, but this still doesn't completely take the heat off the levels that made me want to throw entire loaves at my mobile screen.

Some players will be able to overlook many of Toast Time's issues, though, due to the game's incredible style. From its gorgeous pixellated backdrops, to the bouncy music and the funny one-liners, Toast Time is one of the more stylish games you can pick up for mobile.

Plus, there's plenty of content to wade through - tons of levels; oodles of new and silly weapons to try out; loads of crates to collect; and heaps of costumes to slap on your toaster.

Toast Time is fun, charming, and very hectic. Perhaps it's a little too hectic for its own good at times. Fans of fast-paced arcade blasters will want to pick this up, though.

Toast Time

Toast Time can be finicky to control at times, but the bizarre, fast-paced core concept is well executed
Score
Mike Rose
Mike Rose
An expert in the indie games scene, Mike comes to Pocket Gamer as our handheld gaming correspondent. He is the author of 250 Indie Games You Must Play.