Video Game / Time Commando

Fight your way through time. Or you're history.

Time Commando...

The future.

The military are training their soldiers with a program that can mimic any combat from any time period.

A man, a spy from a rival company, puts a predator virus into the system sabotaging it and creating a time vortex that threatens to consume the world.

Enter Stanley Opar, a S.A.V.E (Special Action for Virus Elimination) operative to get rid of the virus. But this virus might be more than he can handle...

Time Commando is a 1996 action-adventure game for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn and PC, developed by Adeline Software and published by Electronic Arts, Activision and Virgin Interactive during several years. It is available on GOG and FINALLY on Steam.

Notable for the MANY different enemies and a wide variety of weapons (at least 6 per level, including bare fists), with most having different ranges, speeds and/or strengths. Each age has its own distinct set of weapons with some having more focus on melee fighting while other ages putting more emphasis on ranged combat.

Speaking of combat, the game puts a lot of emphasis on timing your strikes and being careful not to leave yourself open to retaliation.

There are many types of enemies scattered throughout every level and some enemies can be resistant or downright immune to certain weapons which will force the player to adapt their combat style depending on what foe they're facing. Almost every level posses at least one big, tough enemy, or a group of them waiting for you at the end before you complete it, so it's important to always stay prepared for the tougher encounters.

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This game provides examples of:

• 1-Up: Odd triangle shaped items. Stanley starts with none but can carry up to three.
• 100% Completion: At the end of each level you'll get a tally of how many enemies you defeated, how many items you've picked and how many secrets you found. Getting 100% in all three for all levels is purely for braggining, though.
• Acrofatic: The sumo wrestler in Japanese Middle Ages level is very light on his feet.
• Action Survivor: The hero is basically a glorified IT support technician.
• After Boss Recovery: Averted. Even after a grueling boss fight you'll be left with the same amount of health for the next level.
• All Cavemen Were Neanderthals: Averted. The cavemen in the first level look Homo Sapiens.
• All Monks Know Kung-Fu: You fight a presumably karate monk in Japanese Middle Ages. European Middle Ages also has these, albeit in a much less refined fighting style.
• All There in the Manual: The intro doesn't explain what's going on in any detail. Even the name of the main character, Stanley Opar, is never stated in the European version of the intro that has no voice overs.
• A.I. Breaker: The boss of the Conquistadors level will not attack you until you move. If you simply hold still as soon as you enter the room and just shoot him with the pistol and blowgun, you can kill him without taking a scratch.
• Anachronism Stew: Modern Wars stands out with the first level giving what it looks like a single action rifle/revolver and the second level brings a fully automatic assault rifle.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Modern Wars levels gives you plenty of ammo to work with and you have to deliberately waste all of it to run out of bullets.
  • You have unlimited time in the final level which lets you take your time when fighting the bosses. given that the Final Boss can be a pretty long fight this is also a good thing.
• Annoying Arrows: Averted. The Crossbow in European Middle Ages is among the deadliest weapons Stanley can use. But played straight with Wild West enemies. While their arrows hurt, they're ridiculously slow and easy to dodge, however, do serve as a deadly distraction to much more dangerous gun wielding enemies.
• Arm Cannon: The Future has one. True to the trope, it can fire your entire ammunition without reloading.
• Armor Is Useless: Generally averted. Heavily armored enemies can be only harmed by strong weapons. For instance, trying to punch heavily armored knights in the European Medieval Ages will result in No-Sell. The armored space suit that Stanley finds in the Future level also causes him to take much less damage from enemy attacks.
• Artificial Stupidity: If Bottomless Pits are close to enemies you can expect them to gleefully run into it.
• Attack Animal: Near the end of the second Modern Wars level you are assaulted by an enemy unit with dogs.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The 6th slot weapons are (usually) the most destructive weapon in the era you're playing. However, they're also too slow for regular combat being best used to slay the boss of the second part of the level. If said weapons require ammo expect it to be very rare and scarce.
• Bad with the Bone: The first melee weapon of the game is a bone knife. Roman Empire's first enemy is a lady ready to shank you.
• Badass Bandolier: The some enemies from Wild West have these.
• Bag of Spilling: Zig-zagged. Between levels Stanley will keep his levels, but once he jumps to another age he'll lose all of his weapons.
• Bare-Handed Blade Block: Averted. Trying this will result in Stanley taking damage.
• Battle Theme Music: The music will get more intense during combat in several parts of all levels.
• Bayonet Ya: You and enemies from Modern Wars can do this with the rifle weapon.
• Bears Are Bad News: Especially when the last boss of the second Prehistoric level is one. The damn thing is so huge it dwarfs Stanley when it's standing on its hind legs.
• Beam Spam: Downplayed. Still, the Future level Arm Cannon fires up to 5 energy beams in quick succession and two bursts are usually enough to vaporize all but the toughest enemies in these levels.
• Beat Them at Their Own Game: You'll fight several enemies with their own weapons or weapons of the same type.
• BFS: European Middle Ages has one of these used by enemies; you can get one for yourself too.
• BFG: The Gatling Laser Arm Cannon in the Future level which takes one of Stanley's entire arm to use.
• Big Fancy Castle: Both levels of European Middle Ages take place in a castle.
• Big Red Devil: The boss of the second European Middle Ages level.
• Blocking Stops All Damage: Played both straight and subverted. Trying to block weapon attacks without a weapon of similar size at best ends up with Stanley flinching and at worst taking full damage as if he hadn't blocked at all.
• Blow Gun: One of the weapons in the Conquistadors level.
• Boring, but Practical: The 3rd and 4th slot weapons are usually not powerful, but in most levels they're easy to get and, in case of ranged weapons, their ammo usually aren't too rare.
• Booby Trap: The first level of Prehistory has a giant swinging boulder trap. The first level of European Medieval Ages has spike traps laid on a corridor.
• Boss Rush: The final level features virus version of bosses from Prehistory, European Middle Ages and Future for you to fight.
• Bottomless Pits: Shows up every once in a while and due to how graphics are rendered it's not always easy to distinguish them. Or judge the distance required to jump between one and another.
• Boulder Bludgeon: Rocks are the ranged weapon of choice in Prehistoric level. The Roman Empire level has them used in slingers.
• Bullfight Boss: Against an actual bull no less.
• Canine Companion: The only entity that doesn't try to kill you on the spot is a friendly dog in the second level of Modern Wars.
• Carry a Big Stick: Two in the first level, a normal-sized and a gigantic one. The latter is so large that Stanley simply hides behind it when using it to block attacks.
• Character Select Forcing: Some enemies, usually the last boss of the second level of each age, can only be harmed by the strongest weapons you found, normally the 5th and 6th slot ones.
• Cheat Code: Time Commando has in-game cheats for things like get all weapons, infinite ammo and instant reload and more. You must type it in the PC version, or press a set of specific button inputs in the PS1 version.
• Clothes Make the Superman: The Space Suit you can get in the Future level. It makes Stanley very heavy and slow and his attacks look a lot more clumsy due to its weight, but it also makes it proportionally stronger and gives Stanley a hefty defensive bonus too. You must be wearing it before triggering the final event of the second level or else Stanley will be thrown into deep space with no protection and die instantly regardless of how many lives you have left.
• Combat Hand Fan: One of the few ranged weapons availabe in Japanese Middle Ages is a throwable fan.
• Combat Pragmatist: You can choose to fight honorably using the same weapon against your enemies... OR you can choose to fight by bringing the biggest weapon you can at the moment, like using swords against unarmed enemies or pulling a crossbow against flail and sword wielding enemies. You can be well damn sure your enemies won't give you any quarter and if they're armed with a ranged weapon they won't drop it to fight you honorably.
• Commonplace Rare: Pistol ammo in the first Modern Wars level is weirdly rare with the game instead handing you rifle ammo like candy.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: A lot of enemies tend to break out of your onslaught of attacks with some invincibility. You have no such luxury until you lose a precious 1-Up.
• Concealment Equals Cover: If its hidden you can't shoot/explode it.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: The first ninjas you fight in Japense Middle Ages are a fairly decent challenge. But the group of ninjas fought after defeating the dragon in the second Japense Middle Ages level usually will go down like chumps since by this point you'll have superior weapons and potentially a Kamehame Hadoken that will really mess them up.
• Continuing is Painful: Losing a life also deduces one Heart Container from you. This alone can make the rest of the level much more difficult.
• Covers Always Lie: See all those weapons Stanley carries before the adventure starts? He never wears them, not even in the game's intro.
• Critical Annoyance: The Time Limit bar will start beeping loudly and constantly if it's too close to filling up.
• Critical Existence Failure: Stanley can survive with a sliver of health just fine. Anything beyond it drops him dead.
• Crosshair Aware: Ranged weapons always give you a useful crosshair to indicate an enemy is in aligned with your aim. The levels up to Conquistadors give a simple yellow circle crosshair, the Wild West and Modern Wars give a more elaborate one and the Future level has an appropriately futuristic red crosshair.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: If you bring a higher-tiered weapon against an enemy the fight easily turns into this.
• Cutscene: You are treated to a short cutscene for every level you beat. It usually foreshadows the next age you'll be in.
• Cycle of Hurting: One of the reasons why fighting more than one enemy is very dangerous. If you get cornered by any enemy breaking out can be tough, even more so with two, and if you're fighting enemies with ranged weapons you can get stunlocked until you die.
• Deadly Dodging: All enemy attacks are capable of damaging other enemies, so proper use of this trope can make otherwise tough fights much easier.
• Death Cry Echo: Most enemies and Stanley, in some cases, do this upon meeting their demise.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: Sometimes you'll have to slowly chip away a tough enemy's health with whatever you have at hand.
• Degraded Boss: Some of the tougher enemies are given a quick introduction establishing them as bigger threats. It doesn't stop the game from throwing more of them at you as early as the very next screen.
• Defend Command: Pressing Action + Down will trigger a temporary defensive stance. For guns it'll reload them.
• Damsel in Distress: In the final level.
• Dem Bones: The boss of the first European Middle Ages level is a skeleton knight clad in black armor with a two-handed axe. A very big two-handed axe.
• Devious Daggers: The first enemy of the Roman Empire is a woman concealing a knife behind her as she approaches Stanley. After being defeated Stanley can use the same knife.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: You can (literally) kick the living crap out of the Predator Virus, the thing causing a time consuming vortex, until it freaking dies.
• Do Not Drop Your Weapon: Averted. Only few armed enemies don't drop their weapons.
• Do Not Run with a Gun: You can't fire any ranged weapon while moving at all.
• Dual Wielding: The only weapon Stanley can do this is the Twin Pistols from the Wild West level. A few enemies also wield two weapons like the samurai from the Japanese Middle Ages level and another enemy in Wild West which gives you the aforementioned Twin Pistols.
• Duel Boss: Several bosses are fought in one-on-one fights.
• Dynamic Entry: Some of the enemies, like the ninjas in Japanese Middle Ages, will enter the screen ready to kick your ass. In the Wild West levels you get enemies popping up out of places to gun you down too.
• Early Game Hell: Some of the levels can be difficult until you get a hold of at least one weapon. Prehistory tends to be tough on higher difficulties since you have only one full health bar and no Heart Container.
• Easier Than Easy: The "Very Easy" difficulty which has weaker enemies and a more lenient time limit. Bottomless Pits are still dangerous here, though, so watch your footing.
• Elevator Action Sequence: In the Future, an elevator ride gets interrupted twice by enemies.
• Emergency Weapon: The 2nd and 3rd slot weapon usually falls into this. In the Wild West and Modern Wars if you're really desperate (i.e: out of ammo) your fists will be this.
• Empty Room Psych: Here and there, though most of times you'll have at least one Hidden Bonus in it.
• Enemy Roll Call: Part of the game credits has it showing most, if not every, enemy you've faced. And at the end Stanley Opar himself appears.
• Epic Flail: It'll be the first weapon you'll obtain in European Middle Ages.
• Everything Fades: Dead enemies will break up into fragments that fly up and offscreen. Getting a Game Over will show Stanley disappearing in similar fashion.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: 99.9% of what you meet is an enemy. Partly justified as it's the virus' doing and all enemies are anomalies that must be killed to clean the program. The sole exception is a friendly dog in the second level of Modern Wars.
• Everyone Is Armed: In the Wild West and Modern Wars levels nearly everyone is packing heat.
• Evil Sorcerer: The Wizard of European Middle Ages. Even more damning is the Big Red Devil fought soon after him which imples he was summoning it.
• Excuse Plot: The whole idea of the virtual reality training is basically an excuse to allow players to kill things from different eras of time.
• Explosive Stupidity: You can be a victim of this if you screw around dynamite, grenades or rockets— they will hurt you if you're too close to the explosion when they go off.
• Final Boss, New Dimension: The Predator Virus is fought in a core-looking arena with no gravity.
• Firing One-Handed: With one single exception, the Twin Pistols, Stanley always uses two hands when firing any type of gun.
• Fixed Camera: No level allows free camera change at all.
• Friendly Fireproof: Averted, and how. A skilled player can make enemies hit each other and in some cases enemies will brawl among themselves because of that. Sadly this goes both ways: the friendly dog entity in Modern Wars can be easily killed by your gunfire if you're careless.
• Fun with Acronyms: Stanley is member of the S.A.V.E (Special Action for Virus Elimination).
• Fur Bikini: The Nubile Savage actually wears a fur minidress.
• Gatling Good: The future Arm Cannon is one. One that Stanley mounts on his arm. Surprisingly enough he struggles realistically to aim, or even walk with it.
• "Get Back Here!" Boss: The tank, the last boss of Modern Wars level, will move back and forth while firing at you.
• Ghost Town: The setting for the first part of the Wild West level is Wayne Town, a rundown mining town with nothing but bloodthristy gunslingers and indians. The next level, Modern Warns, takes place in a war-torn city filled only with combatants and no civilians.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Most final bosses of a historical period are this. There's little to absolutely no foreshadowing of them. For instance: one of the final enemies in Japanese Middle Ages is a dragon.
• Gladiator Games: The final area of the Roman Empire level housing the last enemies you must face to go to the next age.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: Stanley always starts with nothing but his bare hands when he sets foot in a new age.
• Grenade Hot Potato: Must be done with dynamite in the Wild West level in order to break through a barn. Grab it, add to your inventory and return to the sender! The same thing can be done with the last enemy of the same level who chucks sticks of dynamite at you.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • One of the weapons you get in the Future level isn't actually a weapon, but a space suit. It does actually have a point, but you only find this out after failing to use it at the right moment gets you killed (aside from this, wearing it also greatly reduces the damage you take from enemy attacks).
  • Certain enemies can only be killed by one particular weapon. One particularly irritating mini-boss in the European Middle Ages level can only be killed by a weapon that can only be picked up by examining a piece of scenery in a corner of the previous room, with very little to distinguish it from the rest of the pre-rendered background.
  • Finding Hidden Bonuses isn't easy. You have a very vague sound cue^note Which doesn't play on Normal and Hard difficulties. that plays seconds later of coming near the spot and even then actually making Stanley get them can make you go on a 3D Pixel Hunting.
  • The first dog you find in Modern Wars level will be friendly towards you and will help you fight enemies and point secrets in the level. The dog will remain friendly unless you shoot it accidentally or otherwise, and considering every single thing tried to kill you in the game, it's not uncommon for people to be surprised you could keep the dog alive.
  • After killing the dragon in Japanese Middle Ages, you need to interact with the pot to properly end the level. If you're playing on Normal the game gives you no indication of this.
• Guns Akimbo: The Twin Revolvers weapon for the Wild West. Yeah, despite having a single revolver as a weapon, somehow dual-wielding the same gun counts as a different weapon.
• Guns Are Worthless: This game averts this trope. Any time a gun is available it'll be times stronger than any other weapon.
• Gun Twirling: In the Wild West level, this is the reloading animation for the Twin Revolvers weapon. It's the fastest reload of any available weapon, and therefore essential in the boss fight.
• Heroic Mime: Stanley doesn't have much to say during the game besides screaming a lot while fighting and an eventual "Oh yeah!" upon finding Hidden Bonuses.
• Hidden Supplies: Most levels have secrets that will give you health or weapons/ammo.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: Not only they attack in a lush green area wearing pitch-black gi they also scream upon attacking you. The group of ninjas at the very end of the second Japanese Middle Ages level fares a bit better. Just a little a bit.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: Heavily encouraged as enemies can and will power through your attacks if you just swing your weapon mindlessly.
• HitScan: Wild West and Modern Wars guns will hit the target instantly when fired. Oddly enough the laser guns from the future have Painfully Slow Projectiles.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The invisible dynamite chucking enemy inside a barn in the Wild West can be only defeated by the same dynamite sticks he throws at you.
  • Story-wise this can happen to the one who implated the Predator Virus and caused the events of the game. Should you get a game over at the final boss the vortex will grow out of control and consume the city, which means he'll get caught in it as well.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Where does Stanley keep all his weapons? Don't think too hard about it.
• Idle Animation: Leave Stanley alone long enough and he'll start dancing. Some weapons also have unique idle animations.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Mostly averted. Enemies with firearms tend to have very good aim and if you don't kill them quickly or take cover they will almost always make short work of you.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: Both you and enemies being able to hit each other from very far using pistols, shotguns or rifles with the same precision? Very improbable. You being able to take down a freaking war biplane using just a WW1 rifle? Now that's some serious improbable aiming skills.
• Improbable Weapon User:
  • The Japanese Middle Ages has an enemy using throwing fans at you. You can use them too.
  • The Modern Wars stage has a mook who blows cigar smoke as an attack.
  • The Future has a Melee Weapon too, it is some sort of flail-like yo-yo that can destroy heavily armored robots and androids.
• Infinity -1 Sword: The 4th and 5th slot weapons are usually powerful and able to carry you through the rest of the level once you get your hands on one.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The 6th slot weapons are usually this being the strongest weapons in the level you're at. In some levels they're the only thing that can reliably deal with the level's end boss.
• Inside a Computer System: Quite literally in the first segment of Beyond Time.
• Instant Armor: Well, space suit actually.
• Instant Death Bullet: Not really, no. All types of bullet weapons always take more than one projectile to take enemies (or you) down.
• "Instant Death" Radius: You need to be careful when fighting tougher enemies since charging carelessly is a good way to get trounced.
• Invulnerable Horses: You can kill the enemy riding a horse in the second Roman Empire level, but the horse won't be harmed at all.
• It's a Wonderful Failure: There's a surprisingly number of different game overs: dying normally by taking damage, dying by time out, forgetting to wear the space suit before ending Future 2. If you lose to the final boss you'll be treated to a special cutscene where Stanley and the woman are destroyed and the vortex grows out of control engulfing the entire city.
• Kamehame Hadoken: The final weapon of Japanese Middle Ages is a fireball that ever so slightly resembles a good old Hadoken.
• Katanas Are Just Better: So much there's two types in the Japanese Middle Ages levels. No Dual Wielding, sadly.
• Killer Gorilla: The first boss of the Prehistoric level. More appear later with varied sizes.
• Killer Yoyo: One of the weapons in the Future level. It's powerful enough to destroy robots and androids.
• Knightly Sword and Shield: One of the European Middle Ages weapons is a shortsword and shield.
• Knockback: If Stanley or enemies get hit they'll be knocked back and flich also canceling whatever action they were performing at the time.
• Lag Cancel: You can cancel an attack animation into another attack, or into a defensive stance. You can also cancel reloading animation for guns if you notice an enemy is about to attack you.
• Lead the Target: You'll probably need to do this in the Future level when you have to deal with some annoying flying android enemies.
• Lighter and Softer: The second Modern Wars level is this compared to the first. The first one is pretty grim with soldiers fighting in a war-torn city. The second level? It has enemies that comically backflips when shot, one that uses a poisonous cigar as weapon and rollerblade grenade chucking enemies. It also features a friendly dog too.
• Life Meter: In the form of batteries.
• Limited-Use Magical Device: The magic spell from scrolls in European Middle Ages.
• Loading Screen: In the form of the 1-Up with clock hands.
• Magic Knight: Stanley can become one having Sword & Shield and Magic Scrolls in the European Middle Ages stage.
• Magic Must Defeat Magic: While the Wizard in the second level of European Middle Ages can be harmed by crossbow bolts, magic blasts of your own does a lot more damage to him.
• Magical Computer: And probably half the sub-tropes.
• Magnet Hands: All weapon holding enemies and Stanley himself.
• Mayincatec: With human sacrifices and mystic technology.
• The Many Deaths of You: Dying to melee weapons will knock Stanley down, dying to guns will have him clutching his chest before falling dead.
• Maximum HP Reduction: Losing one life automatically removes one Heart Container from you.
• Mercy Invincibility: Unfortunately it's only available if you lose a life.
• Mighty Glacier: Some weapons like the massive club from Prehistory and the axe from Roman Empire turns Stanley into this. He won't be fast, but damn, is he going to hurt if he lands the attack.
• Mirror Boss: Only available through the "COMMANDO" password. This will allow you to fight another Stanley using the fighting style of the final level.
• Mook Chivalry: Hahaha, nope. If you give the chance multiple enemies will attack without giving you a break.
• The Musketeer: Most levels allow you to have at least one ranged weapon with melee weapons at your disposal, but you can never use both at the same time. The Wild West is the sole exception since all weapons are of the ranged type. Even the Modern Wars have a bayonet rifle you can use if something get too close.
• Multi-Melee Master: Stanley can use a wide variety of melee weapons: from bone knives, to ox-killing axes, flails, broadswords and rapiers.
• Multi-Mook Melee: At several points you'll be assaulted by more than one or two enemies.
  • The first big fight in the second level of Roman Empire is a small group of four soldiers marching towards you in testudo formation.
  • After fighting the dragon in Japanese Middle Ages you still have to deal with a rather large group of ninjas that will assault you in an area you open up by interacting with a vase.
  • The boss of the Wild West level is a group of normal bandits. They're just like the other enemies you've fought in the level but the number of them, and the fact that they can all shoot at you while you need to focus fire on one of them, makes them dangerous. It's pretty much required to start the fight with the double-barreled shotgun, then switch to the twin revolvers.
  • One of the bigger fights in Modern Wars level has many soldiers and dogs attacking you from all sides in a very open area. Then a freaking tank shows up.
• Multi-Ranged Master: Stanley Opar who can master guns from Wild West, Modern Wars and Future. Noticing a pattern?
• Ninja: Many of them found in the Japanese Middle Ages.
• Never Bring a Gun to a Knife Fight: Although powerful, up until Wild West and Modern Wars levels, a lot ranged weapons tend to be rare and/or have only one shot before a lengthy reload animation, if you miss the shot you may be in trouble. But if an enemy wielding these weapons misses their shot then they're the ones in trouble.
• Never Bring A Knife To A Gunfight: As just mentioned, Wild West and Modern Wars guns are no joke and trying to mess around gun-totting enemies with melee is a very fast way to get killed.
• No "Arc" in "Archery": Not in the crossbow or the standard indian bows. Even worse, they are all affected by Painfully Slow Projectile effect too.
• No-Sell: Smaller weapons against bigger enemies will result in no damage dealt at all.
• No Scope: None of the firearms present in the game have any scopes. Doesn't stop them from being used at fairly long distances.
• No Sneak Attacks: Completely averted for the player, but played straight and subverted for enemies. Sometimes enemies will ambush you in numbers coming out of hidden rooms, but ironically enough the ninjas from Japanese Middle Ages will never do this against you.
• Nintendo Hard: The Normal difficulty is pretty tough. Hard makes enemies more numerous, stronger, tougher, faster and much more aggressive. On top of everything the Time Limit won't reset after completing levels nor is your health refilled. Even the game's official Steam page recommends you to start playing on Easy difficulty.
• Nonstandard Game Over: In the Future triggering the last event without wearing the space suit will kill Stanley instantly regardless of how many lives you still have.
• Nubile Savage: The woman in very first level.
• Painfully Slow Projectile: Any ranged weapon that doesn't fire bullets have this. Yes, this includes the laser guns from the Future levels. The Magic Scroll weapon from the European Middle Ages stands out by being irritatingly slow to cast and having a slow projectile. The good thing is that it works both ways, so you can have time to dodge incoming projectiles from certain enemies.
• Panthera Awesome: There is a smilodon in the Prehistoric level.
• Parrying Bullets: Yeah, no. Attempting this is a very good way to get yourself killed in this game.
• Perma-Stubble: Mr. Opar sports one.
• Place Beyond Time: The final level, Beyond Time.
• Playing Possum: In the Future, there are space zombies that will try to do this. Remember, it ain't dead if it don't fade!
• Press X to Not Die: In the first Modern Wars level you have to use the "search" button to avoid a mortar strike. Fail and you'll take a huge amount of damage.
• Password Save: The game has this even though it also has save slots for every checkpoint you reach. Helpful if you want to skip immediately to a certain level.
• Pistol-Whipping: You can't do this, but enemies with firearms will hit you with the butt of their gun if you're too close.
• Puzzle Boss: In the second level of European Middle Ages you come across an animated knight armor with a woman who heals it. You must get around the knight and hit the woman so she runs away.
• Respawn on the Spot: Stanley revives instantly gaining some Mercy Invincibility upon dying from enemy attacks. If he falls into a Bottomless Pit, he revives nearby, though.
• Rollerblade Good: Some of the last enemies in the second level of Modern Wars assault you on rollerblades while throwing grenades at you.
• Primitive Clubs: In the Prehistoric level, a regular sized one and another bigger than Stanley. Another type appears in the Conquistadors level.
• Projectile Spell: The fireball from Japanese Middle Ages and magic blast from European Middle Ages.
• Ray Gun: Featured in the Future levels. You can get a standard pistol-like blaster and an automatic Arm Cannon.
• Real-Time Weapon Change: One of the main features of the game. You can swap between your fists and other 5 weapons you can obtain throughout the levels.
• Revolver Cylinder Spin: Happens with the Modern Wars pistol weapon, but not with the Wild West one.
• Rolling Attack: The sumo wrestler from the Japanese Middle Age will do this.
• Royal Rapier: An early weapon in the Conquistadors level is a rapier.
• Rule of Cool: The whole game runs on this trope; gets ramped up towards the end.
• Save Point: An odd case where it also counts a Checkpoint. They'll also restore some of the time limit if you have chips for it.
• Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: Sometimes you can get enemies to infight after they hit each other.
• Screaming Warrior: Stanley does like to scream and grunt when attacking with melee weapons. He doesn't when using guns, though.
• She-Fu: Stanley Opar is an extremely rare male example. However, he only does his acrobatic fight style (cartwheel, backflips included) in the final level.
• Showdown at High Noon: The second enemy at the Wild West first level will attempt to invoke this. Of course you're free just shoot him before he even has a chance of drawing.
• Short-Range Shotgun: Averted. Shotguns can hit far away targets with the same deadly precision other guns can. Unfortunately this work both ways, so enemies can make mincemeat of you if you're not quick enough to kill them.
• Sidetrack Bonus: Moving from the most obvious path often rewards the player with Hidden Bonuses (although they still have to be manually uncovered) or Hidden Rooms.
• Silk Hiding Steel: In the Wild West level you come across a lady dressed in a very refined way complete with an elegant parasol... But if you haven't learned yet that everything is out for your blood you'll find that she's packing heat and will blast you away with a hidden pistol.
• The Smurfette Principle: There's usually only one woman per level (Japanese Middle Ages level has two).
• Sniper Pistol: The pistol gun in Wild West and Modern Wars have potentially the same accuracy of long barrel rifles.
• Stance System: Before using melee attacks Stanley must prepare himself standing in a combat-ready stance to launch an attack. Forward attacks usually has the most damage and range, but also has the largest amount of recovery time, while side attacks are faster, but usually cover less area or deals a bit less damage.
• Stock Ninja Weaponry: For the Japanese Middle Ages they carry Katanas and Shurikens.
• Strong Flesh, Weak Steel: Mostly averted for the most part, but there are some human enemies that are far more durable than they look.
• Stout Strength: The fat monks in European Middle Ages who throw barrels at you and fight with belly bumps and slaps.
• Suffer the Slings: The Roman Empire's sole ranged weapon is a slinger.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Stanley will visibly struggle to use, or even move, when carrying really, really big weapons. Also try blocking a spear with your barehands, or a sword attack with a knife, or a large broadsword with a small shield, or bullets and see how well that ends for you.
• Tank Controls: How Stanley is controlled. You can also hop sideways and backwards for a quick dodge.
• Tank Goodness: Unfortunately the tank is not on your side. It's the last boss in the second Modern Wars level.
• Temporary Platform: The first part of Beyond Time has the floor behind you crumbling.
• Tempting Fate: The opening narration states that it's another slow day on Stanley's job with not a single drill in his agenda... Yeah, let's say things stops being slow very soon.
• Threatening Shark: The Predator Virus looks like a shark.
• Throw a Barrel at It: The monks in European Middle Ages will do this agaist you.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: Wild West, Modern Wars and Future all have throwable explosive weapons.
• Time Crash: What happens if you lose the fight against the Predator Virus.
• Timed Mission: All of them. There's a bar filling up that will cause Stanley to lose one life if it does so. Fortunately there are places where you can feed "chips" to temporarily reduce the bar's progress. Unfortunately death by time limit will not reset it completely.
• Trial-and-Error Gameplay: Some of the enemy ambushes can end up causing this. If you don't know about them beforehand you'll take a ton of damage or even lose one life (or more).
  • Unless you're paranoid to a fault, there's no way you can guess when the space suit in the Future level will be actually vital.
• Unblockable Attack: Projectiles attack cannot be blocked at all.
• Unbreakable Weapons: Durability isn't an issue in this game, which is good, considering you might end up attacking enemies like a madman.
• The Unfought: You never fight directly the one responsible for the events of the game. You do fight the Predator virus, though.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change:
  • Wild West and Modern Wars levels are much more oriented towards gun fighting rather than the melee combat from every other past level.
  • The final level makes Stanley much more agile with his movement and dodges than before. The Final Boss has Stanley and his partner flying around while fighting the Virus. Stanley also has to protect her as the Virus will hurt him if she is harmed.
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: It's quite possible to get to an enemy without the one weapon you must use to kill it, or run out of ammo of the weapon that can hurt it.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Stanley. In most cases he uses weapons with a clear lack of finesse compared to the enemies that holds them.
• Unstable Equilibrium: If you do well you'll have plenty of health, chips to keep the time limit at bay and, on later levels, ammo to deal with tougher enemies. Do poorly and a level (possibly the game) can become borderline Unwinnable, especially on Hard difficulty.
• Universal Ammunition: Every Revolver will have the same type of ammo, and so does the Rifles, Shotguns, Automatic Rifles, etc...
• Unusable Enemy Equipment: Sometimes you might expect the enemy to drop their weapon upon being defeated only to be disappointed.
• Unwanted Rescue: In the second Conquistadors you can unwittingly interrupt a sacrifice and after that the would-be sacrifice will attack you. Apparently they really wanted to be sacrificed.
• Variable Mix: Parts of the music in every level you're at will play periodically and will get more intense when you're fighting certain opponents.
• Victor Gains Loser's Powers: Defeating certain enemies makes them drop their weapons which you can use.
• Victory Pose: Sometimes Stanley will strike a triumphant pose at the end of a level, others he'll simply take a deep, relieved, breath.
• Voice Grunting: The Game. On a serious note the game has no spoken dialogue outside it's initial cutscenes, and even then only in some versions of the game, and you'll be hearing a lot of grunting from Stanely Opar, the main character, and about every other humanoid enemy in the game.
• Walking Armory: By the time you finish an age you'll be holding a truly impressive quantity of weapons.
• World War III: The second part of the Modern Wars's level supposedly takes place during this one (The first part takes place in World War I). Double Subverted when it seems that this third war is a non-nuclear one. Cue a cutscene showing a mushroom cloud as you leave. Also interestingly the Future level is supposed to be Stanley's own era which is stated to be 2020. So in this reality World War III happened anywhere between the end of The '90s and the end of The New '10s.
• Wutai: Japanese Middle Ages, natch.

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