Cybarian: The Time Traveling Warrior Review

There’s been a recent influx in retro titles and Cybarian: The Time Traveling Warrior is the next one to enter the arena. I’m sure you’ve seen it’s a Ratalaika Games title, so the Platinum trophy is certainly to be one of the easier ones to attain. In what could be classed as a Conan The Barbarian remake, it’ll be interesting to see how Cybarian: The Time Traveling Warrior pans out.

You play as a Conan lookalike, Cybarian, who comes across the Sword of Ages and is transported into the future. You appear almost Terminator-like in an alleyway in-front of two homeless dudes. A bit like Terminator, you beat them up using your newly realised combo manoeuvre which is simply pressing the striking button 3 times in a row. Cybarian: The Time Traveling Warrior is set out very similarly to Mega Man/Streets of Rage, you move across the stage beating enemies until you reach the stage boss.

Cybarian: The Time Traveling Warrior’s stages are set up as scenes. Once you’ve beaten an enemy you run to the side of the screen to get to the next scene. It’s very much retro scenery throughout Cybarian: The Time Traveling Warrior, so if you like that sort of layout then you’ll find enjoyment early on. As you progress through the stage, you will need to beat the stage boss who is usually much more difficult than the average foe. When these stage bosses have been beaten, then it unlocks further abilities for you to use, such as throwing the Sword of Ages. Something you don’t find in games, is that in Cybarian: The Time Traveling Warrior, if you choose the Hard difficulty, then these skills are available from the beginning, making the earlier stages a lot easier to traverse through.

There isn’t a great deal of variety in the enemies in Cybarian: The Time Traveling Warrior. The usual melee fighter is present, along with enemies who use projectile weaponry i.e. rockets. The bosses are quite imaginative in design, but follow the repeatable set of tactics where you basically just wait until they’re tired and go in for the kill. However, this is easier said than done as you will need to ensure you use your full repertoire to make progress. There’s the usual environmental factors like lava/fire shooting up in the air and hidden spikes dotted around. Combat is not that difficult, especially when you have the sword throwing skill at the start but, depending on your difficulty, you don’t have a lot of life to play around with. This is especially concerning for you because there are no checkpoints, if you die you have to go back to the start of the level. Coins are dropped by fallen enemies that can be used at vending machines to buy additional hearts to help you last longer.

Graphically, Cybarian: The Time Traveling Warrior is a throwback to a retro age, a pixelated perspective that works well with a game like Cybarian: The Time Traveling Warrior. Your barbarian is charming enough although the enemies are a little on the unimaginative side. The bosses are large and colourful whilst the environments follow the usual cyberpunk locale. Musically the Cybarian: The Time Traveling Warrior’s soundtrack fits in perfectly into the cyberpunk vibe. Unfortunately for Cybarian: The Time Traveling Warrior there are only 4 levels, so depending on your skill level you could complete Cybarian: The Time Traveling Warrior well within a couple of hours.

Cybarian: The Time Traveling Warrior is a short but fun game. If you like replaying games from your youth then Cybarian: The Time Traveling Warrior is something that has enough challenge to keep you going for an hour or so. A few more levels and more enemy types would have helped Cybarian: The Time Traveling Warrior become a much more involving game and longer title.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Playstation 4 code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.