Released in 2011 and Tom Brien and Alex Nichiporchik, No Time to Explain tells the tale of a dancing guy whose visited by his future selves. But, unfortunately his future self is captured by a giant enemy crab. Thinking quickly the protagonist grabs the gun left by the future protagonist and sets off to rescue himself.  However, Dancing Kid’s journey isn’t limited to the current time period as he travels across time and space. Developers tinyBuild originally released No Time To Explain on Newgrounds where it became very popular. Tom Brian was inspired by this success which led to the eventual creation of the full game. While the story sounds insane (and it is) it’s actually jam packed with great humor and never takes itself too seriously.

No Time to Explain is notorious for it’s dark sense of humor. As the protagonist journeys from time to dimension he is witnessing his future self being destroyed by whatever the monster of the week is attacking. The plot only fuels the humor by being almost as silly as a man being grabbed by a crab and screaming out “how is this possible?” (along with a multitude of other lines). This is coupled by the fact that the game mechanics fuel the humor. Your character is literally shooting a laser gun which has such insane recoil that it is capable of lifting him off the ground. You use this tactic to avoid spikes and pits along with other hazards (which are level specific). But, even death in this game is humorous and more than likely you’ll be laughing as your character dies. This is especially true when you play co-op.

Yet, humor is not the only aspect that No Time To Explain has in its favor. The mechanics are solid with most of the deaths being caused by the player. This is only partly true though as it does involve a lot of trial and error gameplay. But, this is helped by the fact that almost every level has infinite lives and checkpoints are anywhere your character can touch without dying (for the most part and bosses only give you 3 lives). You’ll be using up these lives as you learn the mechanics of each character. See No Time To Explain has a large cast of future selves. These alternate versions of your character all carry different weapons/mechanics. Learning them can have a steep curve, but again it’s always such a joy to play.

While NTtE is not on the same level as Super Meat Boy or The Binding of Isaac it’s in terms of content variety it’s still solid. The game is difficult and can have a few spikes, but overall doesn’t feel cheap or unfair. I would recommend this game to those who don’t have a lot of time since levels are rather short and fast paced. But, once you beat them they still leave players feeling satisfied with the results. A small note to mention is that it’s also good for those players who like hunting secrets. Almost every level has a hidden hat which can be used for cosmetic changes. This provides insentive for those players which like to explore. No Time to Explain has a little bit of everything in an economically sound budget game.

While there is no time to explain how good this game is without spoiling it, I definitely recommend it. Go out and buy No Time to Explain, I can’t explain why, but just do it!

Dash Bomber

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