Toast Time is a physics-based tower defense game for iOS and Android in which you play as a “Toast-ejecting recoil & reload system” or TERRY as he is more affectionately known. It’s your job to save Monday morning from an invasion of inter-dimensional blobs hell-bent on ruining breakfast, using the breaded arsenal you might expect a toaster to have at his disposal.
Controlling Terry is done by shooting your toasted ammunition, and by the magic of Newton’s third law of motion you will in-turn be catapulted in the opposite direction. This maneuverability will come in handy as the goal of each level is to stop an encroaching wave of blob monsters from reaching a clock placed somewhere within each level. Firing off slices of toast at the monsters will take them out, and the aim is to last long enough for the timer on the clock to run down to zero. At its very core, Toast Time is best described as bringing popular physics based precision puzzles to a tower defense setting.
As you progress through the levels, things become a little bit harder with the introduction of jump pads that boost the blobs over great distances or walls that obscure your aim, forcing you to be constantly aware of your positioning so you can still get a good shot off on the marching blobs. When you reach later levels, different enemy types are also introduced to shake things up a bit, ranging from a tougher ‘fat’ blob that takes multiple shots to finish off, to parachuting blobs that attack from the skies.
As you play through the levels, pickups will be introduced via crate drops which have to be shot down to be collected. These crates offer interesting – but limited – ammunition to help turn the tide of battle, with some granting explosive shatter shots or rapid fire toast slices when you need a little extra firepower. If you do especially well and score a x20 multiplier against the blobs there’s a chance for you to slip into ‘COFFEE TIME’, a berserk state that causes the screen to become stylized and ammunition to bounce off of walls for a limited time. My only gripe is that this isn’t as obvious as perhaps it should be as I had completed the game long before I knew what this bonus effect was actually doing.
With 46 levels to play through, there’s plenty to keep you occupied for a few days of casual playing (or perhaps half a day if you’re in to blitzing through content). Once you’re done with the main levels there’s a secondary mode called ‘Survival’ which has you trying to complete as many levels as possible with only one life. Much like the main portion of the game, Survival has you fighting waves until the clock runs down, but things become a lot tenser when you know that one mistake is going to cause you to lose everything.
Toast Time is a charming entry to the mobile market, slathered in the quintessential ‘Britishness’ of its creators. It’s endearing to see the minor touches like cosmetic customization of Terry, or the witty one-liners that appear on each game-over screen. There’s a decent amount of content for casual players to sink their teeth into, and an enjoyable few hours’ worth for those who like to burn through games as fast as possible. But above all else, the game is just good, clean fun that’s easy to pick up and play when you’ve got a few minutes to kill or a lust to shoot bread at things.
Overall Rating:
This game was reviewed using a copy provided by the developer for that purpose. It was tested on an iPhone 5 running iOS 7.0.4.
Toast Time is out now on IOS and Android for £1.99/$2.99
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