Timespinner is a story-driven, retro-styled action-platformer built around the familiar pleasures of a Metroidvania: connected areas to explore, hidden routes to find, new abilities to unlock, and bosses to overcome. Its best distinguishing idea is time manipulation, which lets Lunais freeze enemies, use them as platforms, and solve traversal puzzles. The key question is whether that mechanic meaningfully deepens the exploration and combat—or whether the game’s strong genre foundations do most of the work.
What is Timespinner?
Developed by Lunar Ray Games and published by Chucklefish, Timespinner follows Lunais after her family is killed and her Timespinner device is destroyed, sending her to an unfamiliar world. She seeks revenge against the Lachiem Empire, but the story unfolds across two timelines and complicates that straightforward motive. The game launched on PC on September 25, 2018, according to its Steam listing.
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![Timespinner - Nintendo Switch [Digital Code]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41tVfhROWeL._SL160_.jpg)
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Timespinner - Nintendo Switch [Digital Code] | $19.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Minecraft - Nintendo Switch | $29.82 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Puyo Puyo Tetris - Nintendo Switch | $18.98 | Buy on Amazon |
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Minecraft - Nintendo Switch 2 | $29.99 | Buy on Amazon |
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Yoshi's Crafted World - Nintendo Switch | $52.90 | Buy on Amazon |
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That setup gives the adventure two linked identities: a revenge story and a journey through past and present versions of Lachiem. The premise is most distinctive when the timelines affect what Lunais can explore and how she understands the world, rather than serving only as story decoration.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesHow well does the time mechanic work?
Time control is Timespinner’s defining feature. The official game site describes using it to evade foes, freeze enemies and turn them into temporary platforms, and solve puzzles. Those uses connect combat and traversal: an enemy can be a threat one moment and part of the route forward the next.
#1 Best Overall
- Travel back in time to change fate itself!
- Travel back in time to change fate itself, in this beautifully crafted story-driven adventure, inspired by classic 90s action-platformers.
- Timespinner 2018 Lunar Ray Games, Published by Chucklefish.
The mechanic is a compelling hook, but its importance depends on how consistently the game asks players to use it. When a puzzle or encounter makes pausing time the solution, it gives familiar platforming a fresh decision. If the mechanic is used only occasionally, the connected map, combat upgrades, and exploration carry more of the experience. The most useful way to judge its role is not simply to count time-control moments, but to ask whether they change how a room is approached.
Exploration, combat, and progression
Connected areas and hidden routes
Exploration follows the Metroidvania pattern of returning to connected areas with new capabilities and looking for concealed paths. The two versions of Lachiem offer a chance to make that structure more than a sequence of locked doors: the past and present can give familiar places different context. Hidden areas and the desire to see what lies beyond the next blocked route are central to the game’s appeal.
Rank #2
- Minecraft is a game about placing blocks and going on adventures
- Explore randomly generated worlds and build amazing things from the simplest of homes to the grandest of castles
- Play in creative mode with unlimited resources or mine deep into the world in survival mode, crafting weapons and armor to fend off the dangerous mobs
- Play on the go in handheld or tabletop modes
- Includes Super Mario Mash-Up, Natural Texture Pack, Biome Settlers Skin Pack, Battle & Beasts Skin Pack, Campfire Tales Skin Pack; Compatible with Nintendo Switch only
Magic Orbs and familiars
Lunais fights with Magic Orbs that grow with use, alongside familiars. That progression can add variety as the player experiments with different combat tools and companions. The official feature list confirms both systems, but their presence alone does not establish how balanced or transformative each option feels in play.
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Boss fights
Boss battles provide larger tests of movement, timing, and combat progression. They are a natural place for the time mechanic to distinguish Timespinner from a conventional action-platformer; the game’s premise makes that a useful lens for judging whether its signature ability affects encounters as well as puzzles.
Rank #3
- Ferocious Competition - At the heart of Puyo Puyo Tetris is the fighting spirit of players competing against each other to be most clever, cunning, and quick-witted one to set up devastating attacks on opponents. It's the classic easy-to-learn puzzles mashed up into a multiplayer battle like no other!
- Adventure Mode - The game also has a single player mode with ten unique acts, eatch with ten stages. They feature different characters from the Puyo Puyo or Tetris universes and have unique challenges to learn and master game mechanics that players must overcome!
- Arcade Modes - Online play has Puzzle League, which tracks players' ratings, players can save replays to upload and share, and more.
- There's also an in-game shop players can use their points to unlock different Puyo and Tetrimino skins, background music, stages, and more.
Does the presentation hold together?
The game uses pixel art and an intentionally retro visual and audio style. Its official site describes the soundtrack as gothic and PS1-inspired, credits Jeff Ball for the music, and credits Power Up Audio for retro sound effects. The approach suits a game built on classic action-platforming conventions, while giving the world a darker tone than a purely nostalgic throwback.
A Wireframe issue 01 search-result excerpt characterized the game’s look and feel as a trip to the late 1990s. That is a useful description of its retro ambitions, not proof that every part of the presentation will appeal equally. Players seeking contemporary visual effects may find the deliberate throwback less enticing; players who enjoy pixel-art worlds and old-school audiovisual cues are more likely to appreciate its cohesion.
Rank #4
- Build whatever you can imagine in your own infinite world that’s unique in every playthrough.
Is Timespinner worth playing?
Timespinner is a good fit for players who want a story-led, retro Metroidvania with a clear mechanical hook, an interconnected world, orb-based combat, familiars, and boss fights. Its time-control idea has the most potential when it changes how players solve a traversal problem or approach an enemy, while the two-timeline setting gives the exploration an additional narrative dimension.
It is a less certain choice for someone looking primarily for a radical reinvention of the genre. The underlying structure is intentionally familiar, and the official feature list cannot settle how consistently the time mechanic or combat options create new decisions across a full playthrough. Consider the game’s retro style and conventional exploration loop as much as its headline time-travel premise.
Best Value
- Explore each stage and then find even more secrets by making your way through the stage backwards on the flip side
- Overcome varied enemies and obstacles, like Zombie Guys, Skelesaurus, Ukiki, and Monty Mole as you seek out hidden collectables; ESRB Content: Mild Cartoon Violence; Genre: Action, Platformer
- Pass a Joy Con controller to a friend for 2 player cooperative exploration
- Clad Yoshi in collectable, protective, handicraft costumes as he makes his way through each stage
Platforms, co-op, and reception
The Steam listing identifies the PC release and includes single-player, shared/split-screen co-op, Remote Play Together, achievements, and family sharing. The official site lists full gamepad support on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It also describes local co-op in which a second player controls Lunais’ familiar, an unusual way to include another player without changing the central role of Lunais.
A secondary reference records releases for Windows, macOS, Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One. It gives September 25, 2018 for the first group and June 4, 2019 for Switch and Xbox One, and records a Limited Run Games physical edition. These are historical release details, not confirmation of current store availability or physical stock.
Reception depends on the platform and source. Steam showed 84% positive from 1,673 English-language user reviews when retrieved on October 8, 2026; that is a mutable storefront snapshot, not a permanent score. The same Steam listing displayed a 73 Metacritic score on that date, but the platform scope of that figure is not established here, so it should not be read as a verified cross-platform aggregate.
Quick Recap
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