Tinertia is a precision platformer about a robot that crash lands on a hideously inhospitable planet. That’s not terribly remarkable in itself; what is just happens to be the gimmick. YOU CANNOT JUMP. Rather, you can rocket jump using your built-in missile launcher and propel yourself in a number of directions. You also get a piffly little dash jump, but it’s fairly situational.
You control the direction of your rockets using the right control stick. Yes, the game requires a controller pretty much by design; I can’t imagine playing this game any other way*. Your best results come from being right on top of an explosion, as it gives you the maximum propulsion. And you’ll need that, often. You can also wall jump by sliding on a wall and aiming diagonally down.
*Do note that there are users who feel mouse+keyboard is superior. I personally didn’t find that to be true as deep down I’m a console peasant weak in the ways of WASD.
This is where a few problems set in for me. While I’m no slouch, buttons would be faster than using a stick. Maybe it’s just me, but I never seem to aim quite right. Part of that is due to needing to push the stick to its limit to fire a missile. While the stick allows a large range of motion to aim, games like this are about quick reactions.
I’d say just being able to aim in eight directions quickly by using the face buttons is just a bit more useful than being able to aim in a range of diagonals. Maybe I’m just a fool, though; the trailers seem to show the players launching missiles rapidly and just where they need them to be. Maybe it’s practice, maybe a trick, I don’t know. All I know is that in the heat of the moment, it’s very easy to launch a rocket in the wrong direction, most likely screwing over your run. And constantly tilting the right control stick can get fairly tiring.
Before I move on to other things, I have to mention the air dash. It is both a blessing and a curse. Aiming it upward is an excellent means of killing your momentum if all you’re worried about is finishing a stage and you don’t want to overshoot a platform. It is a curse when it is super necessary, though. I’ve had it fling me over a ledge due to sheer momentum just a capably as the rockets.
That brings me to level design. As you go through the game, you will notice that levels are built for speed runs. Hell, the marketing for the game name-drops Sonic the Hedgehog among others, which should tell the old-school among you something about these levels. While everything other than boss levels can be beat with a little perseverance and timing, it’s clear that there are faster and more efficient ways through these levels. Much like the old-school Sonic games, greasy fast speed is your reward for knowing the levels. They even have target times and a par set for the proper number of missiles used to beat a given stage.
That being said, there are stages that will make you cry. Bosses in particular; they represent a constant danger in their stages, and you don’t so much defeat them as you do escape them. The first brings the constant onslaught of a wall of chainsaws moving in from the left. While you can momentarily stop the advance with a missile, other bosses aren’t as forgiving. They introduce a whole new level of stress while still playing to the game’s strengths.
The game features some fairly nice graphics, though I will admit I had to lower the resolution to make sure things didn’t lag. I don’t exactly have a gaming rig, after all. Not like you’ll notice them with all of the things you have to keep track of, though. And while I didn’t really pay much attention to the music, there’s at least one person on Steam asking about it. I personally didn’t find it grating in the least, which would be my major concern for a game like this.
Tinertia is a game of punishing timing and skill. I’d be lying if I said it was for everybody. But for those of you willing to go to the limit of going all “Hulk smash” on your surroundings, you will love it. Chump change personal issues aside, finally beating a particularly hard-fought level is an almost indescribable rush. Thanks to general difficulty, you will get your money’s worth out of this game. And if you’re worried about whether you’ll like it or not, the usual Steam wisdom still applies.
Title: Tinertia
Developer: Candescent Games, Inc; Section Studios
Publisher: Reverb Triple XP
Platform: PC
Price: $14.99
*A copy was provided for review*
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