Toast Time

Developer: Force of Habit | Publisher: Force of Habit |Release Date: 2014 | Genre: Action / Indie / Arcade |Website: Official Website | Format: Digital Download

The last time we saw flying toasters was in the After Dark screensaver software many years ago, but Toaster Time from Force of Habit changed this. Playing as a toast-ejecting recoil & reload system, or TERRY for short, it is your mission to protect an alarm clock from evil interdimensional blobs that are hell-bent on destroying it.

TERRY, the toaster with a love for English breakfast, hats, and scheduling, is immune against the baddies, but if any of them so much as touch the alarm clock, it is game over. Being a shiny metal toaster somewhat limits your mobility, but the recoil from launching toast causes TERRY to bounce off in the opposite direction. This means that you have to be accurate, as launching toast everywhere will cause TERRY to bounce all over the place.

Each of the 54 missions on offer only requires you to protect the alarm clock for a matter of seconds. This is initially quite simple, but it becomes steadily more tricky thanks to the level layouts. The first few levels are wide open, giving you a clear shot at the baddies, but this doesn’t last long. The enemies keep coming until the time runs out, so if you manage to wedge TERRY behind an obstacle or land in a spot where you don’t have a clear shot at enemies, you are in trouble. Some levels give you limited ammo or feature fans, trampolines, or teleporters to further complicate matters. Even at its hardest, the game remains incredibly addictive, though, and the fact that each level lasts only a few seconds means you always feel like victory is just within your reach.

Your default weapon is plain white slices, but TERRY is no one-trick toaster. Supply crates that drop down from the top of the screen provide access to 16 bread-based weapons that can turn the tide in your favor. They might be called baguettes, bread pudding, croutons, crumpets, toasties, farmhouse slices, breadcrumbs, and more. Still, for all intents and purposes, they function like rapid-fire shotguns, bombs, scattershots, and other ammunition. Your shots with these special weapons are limited, so you have to make each one count. Apart from directly attacking enemies with toast, TERRY can also body slam the baddies into submission. Frantically clicking all over the place won’t get you far, though, as accuracy is rewarded, and racking up combos access “coffee time,” which is the Toast Time equivalent of bullet time.

Toast Time was initially released for Android, but the retro visual style works just as well on a big screen as on mobile devices. Because the game is played in portrait mode and not landscape mode, the action is confined to a small area in the center of the screen to preserve the aspect ratio of the mobile versions. While this didn’t impact our enjoyment of the game, it might be a deal-breaker for players who didn’t grow up playing single-screen arcade games like this. If you started gaming when visuals were more important than gameplay, the two-tone colors and all-white sprites might be a bit jarring. Each of the five worlds has its own themes and colors, but they have been purposefully kept minimal, so the focus is on the action and the addictive gameplay.

The audio is pretty great, though, and each level has its own song, which keeps things interesting. We really enjoyed the soundtrack and recommended checking out the Force of Habit Bandcamp page for the OST. The sound effects are also very appropriate for the game, and overall, the audio definitely adds to the experience. The controls couldn’t be any simpler, and you just have to click to launch a slice of toast in the direction of the cursor. Of course, TERRY goes flying off in the opposite direction, which means your next shot requires you to track your own position and that of your target, which might be bouncing, flying, or teleporting. Because all the sprites in the game are white, it is possible to lose track of your white cursor in all the carnage, but overall, the controls rarely gave us any hassles.

The sheer amount of levels for the low asking price already guarantees value for money, but Toast Time has plenty to keep you coming back for more. Hats, customizations, and new weapons are unlocked based on the number of supply crates you collect during the campaign and survival mode levels. These allow you to turn TERRY into everything from a monocle-wearing, top hat sporting, cane-wielding aristocrat to a pirate, Santa Claus, and many more. You can also aim for a three-star rating on each level or take a crack at the online Leaderboards to see how you stack up against the rest of the world. The Ironman Survival Mode, where you have one shot at completing all the levels in sequence, had us hooked until we reached the top of the Leaderboards. Unfortunately, this was a feat that was soon trumped by someone else!

Toast Time is a game that really embraces its own theme and offers an addictive experience, especially when played in short bursts. The retro-themed visuals might not appeal to everyone, but if you can overlook that, you will find a game that is bursting with fun, and ultimately that is what matters.