Reviewed: December 24, 2001
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Digital Leisure
Developer
SEGA Enterprises
Released: November, 2001
Genre: Action
Players: 1
ESRB: Teen
4
7
8
4
4.0
Supported Features
With the 80's behind us game designers were looking for the next "big hook" for video games. In 1991, Rick Dyer, co-developer of Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, thought he had that "hook" when he released Time Traveler; the first (and still only) holographic video game. While his previous games were composed of amazing animated visuals, Time Traveler featured real actors that were reproduced with actual holograms. These characters actually existed "outside" the video game box, hovering above a black display.
The novelty of such a game always brought in the crowds who were more than willing to part with their money or tokens. At .75 cents per play (cheap by today's standards but unheard of in 1991) this game brought in over $18 million dollars when it debuted. People would gather around and try to touch the characters or offer advice to the person at the controls. Gameplay was much more difficult than previous laserdisc games and the games were notorious for breaking. By the second or third week after the game came out there was an "Out of Order" sign on the system in my arcade more often than not.
Now that DVD-ROM’s have become the unspoken standard on most gaming PC’s it's no surprise that Digital Leisure is trying to milk the laserdisc genre for everything they can get, but I was totally shocked to see this game come to a home platform.
I must mention that this game, along with the rest of the titles in the rapidly growing Digital Leisure library are not designed specifically for any gaming system. You may see stickers claiming they are compatible for the PlayStation 2 or the Xbox, but they are DVD video games, and as such will play on any DVD player whether it be a PS2, Xbox, PC, or a standalone component player in your home theater rig.
Even though the copy of Time Traveler I received clearly said "Xbox Compatible" on the front, the text on the back of the case was talking about playing on the PlayStation 2. Just a glaring example of Digital Leisure cross-marketing their products for maximum profit.
None of these games have been endorsed by Sony or Microsoft - they just simply happen to work on these systems because they support the DVD format. Do NOT be fooled into thinking these are special versions or that they make use of any of your system-specific features.
Time Traveler had some pretty weak gameplay. The only thing that made this game as successful as it ended up being was the hologram concept. When you remove the holograms from a hologram game you are left with simply a bad game.
You are in control of Marshal Gram, a time traveling cowbow trying to rescue Kyi-La, princess of the Galactic Federation - don't ask. The evil scientist, Vulcor has kidnapped the princess and plans to use her in his evil experiments to rip the fabric of time. You begin in 1873 and will travel through all sorts of unique time periods all the way into the future of 2552.
Just like the laserdisc games that spawned this title, you have limited control over your character. You can move in the basic four directions or shoot your weapon. Unlike those earlier games, you are required to make a lot more moves than you may be used to when completing these action sequences. Visual aids such as an arrow or gun icon indicate the appropriate action to take, and you are given a very short window of opportunity to perform this action. If you miss the timing or do the wrong move you will die, but you are usually given some helpful tip on what you did wrong.
You get to explore all sorts of wild and crazy time zones with unique characters in each. After you complete each area you go to the Time Map screen and pick your next location. The actors and the costumes are all pretty cool, but not nearly as cool as they were in the actual holographic version.
The graphics look as good as can be for NOT being a hologram. Digital Leisure has included a pair of those red/blue 3D glasses in a feeble attempt to give the game some depth. Ultimately, this only serves to remind you of how cool this game was in the arcades and now boring it is now. A holographic game without the holograms is about as much fun as a lightgun game without a gun.
If you overlook the fact that this game is reduced to 2D, the video is quite good and the characters and costumes for each time period are all perfect. There is an abundance of special effects in each scene and they are all amazing and add to the futuristic concept of this game.
There's not a lot of music in Time Traveler, but the sound effects are very good and the B-movie acting fits the B-movie theme of this game. Marshal has some great dialog including one liners that are worthy of Bruce or Arnold.
You only have five lives to finish the adventure and with no saves or continues you may be playing this game for a long time. You can collect "Time Reversal Cubes" and use them when you die to replay the last segment before you died. You start with one cube and can buy additional cubes from the Trader between time zones. When you reach Hellgate you can play the Devil's Slot Machine to win or lose more lives.
This is the first home version of Time Traveler to be released and it includes all of the scenes the original laserdisc offered. Despite the novelty graphics, good sound, and mildly amusing gameplay, this game fails simply because there isn't any hardware readily available to run it as fast as it needs to be run. The game halts every 10-15 seconds as it seeks the proper video to display based on your actions. It totally takes you out of the experience and ruins the game.
There is probably a good reason why there has never been another holographic game since Time Traveler. Whether releasing this game to the home market will rekindle an interest in holographic video games...only time will tell.