Time Travel in Video Games
| Title | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time | 1991 | As the TMNT reach the Technodrome, Shredder sends the m through a time warp through the past (Age of Dinosaurs, a pirate ship in 1530 AD, a train in the American West in 1885 AD) and the future (New York City in 2020 AD and a Star Base in 2100 AD) before they can go back to their present in 1991. |
| Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle | 1993 | In order to prevent Purple Tentacle from growing a pair of arms and subsequently enslaving humanity, students Bernard, Laverne and Hoagie attempt to travel one day back in time in Dr. Edison's Chron-o-Johns, time machines housed in portable toilets. During the trip, the machines malfunction and strand Hoagie and Laverne 200 years into the past and future respectively. Players control each character in his/her own time zone (past, present, future), meeting historical figures and progenitors/descendants of some characters; the goal is to return Hoagie and Laverne to the present and prevent Purple Tentacle's world domination. |
| Chrono Trigger | 1995 | A group of heroes from different eras travel back and forth through time in an attempt to prevent the end of the world in the year 1999. |
| Crash Bandicoot: Warped | 1998 | Crash Bandicoot is sent to various points in time to retrieve relics. |
| Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense | 1999 | A car combat game and Sequil to Vigilante 8 Time Travel plays a big role in this games storyline. as well as one character "Agent Chase" using a weapon that momentarily freezes time for anything his weapon hits. the future vehicles and time travel systems used in the game appear to be very much inspired by Back to the Future. |
| TimeSplitters series | 2000–2005 | At the series' core is the struggle of human beings against the TimeSplitters, a race of aliens that attempt to exterminate humanity by altering its past. The first game in the series took the perspective of several characters fighting off the TimeSplitters in their own eras. The second game added two central protagonists, Sgt. Cortez and Corporal Hart, soldiers from 2401 who traveled to different eras to fight the TimeSplitters. Future Perfect placed a heavier emphasis on a linear story, cinematic cutscenes and character-based humor, and follows Cortez as he teams up with characters against the TimeSplitters and a new, human antagonist, mad scientist Jacob Crow. The ending of Future Perfect implies a definite conclusion to the plot, although a fourth game has been in development hell since 2007. |
| Shadow of Memories (US: Shadow of Destiny) | 2001 | The protagonist, Eike Kusch, is murdered at the start of the game by a knife stab on the back. He is saved from death by an unknown entity who gives him a time travel device, called a digipad, that can be used to send Eike back to a pre-determined point in time, allowing him to take actions in order to prevent his death. After being sent back 30 minutes, Eike succeeds in preventing his stabbing, only to find that he is killed in some different manner, starting the time-travel cycle again. During the course of the game, Eike travels to several time periods as far back as medieval times, gradually uncovering the connection behind the attempts on his life, the mysterious being who saves him and his own past. The game features several possible endings, depending on the player's actions and choices that alter the timeline. |
| Timeshift | 2007 | Scientists from the near future have begun work on creating a viable time machine. The project results in the creation of two devices, the Alpha Suit, a less advanced prototype jump suit, and the Beta Suit, a more advanced, so-called military grade model with features the Alpha Suit lacks such as combat-related timeshifting abilities and an integrated artificial intelligence to prevent the creation of temporal paradoxes.
The director of the project, Dr. Aiden Krone, takes the Alpha Suit and travels into the past. Once there he alters the timeline, placing himself as the ruler of the Krone Magistrate that controls a dystopic world. The protagonist, a fellow scientist whose name is never spoken (never mentioned in the game or manual), then takes the Beta Suit and follows Dr. Krone back to the year 1939 (in an alternate timestream) to a place called Alpha District. During the trip parts of the Beta suit are damaged, forcing the protagonist to assist the Occupant Rebellion against Dr. Krone in hopes of salvaging parts from the Alpha suit. |
| "World of Warcraft" | 2007–present | Beginning with the Burning Crusade expansion in 2007, The Caverns of Time hosted dungeons and raids in which players traveled back in time to prevent Azeroth's timeline from being negatively changed. The original 3 dungeons/raids from the Burning Crusade expansion include Escape from Durnholde Keep (level 66+ 5-player dungeon), Opening the Dark Portal (level 68+ 5-player dungeon), and Battle for Mount Hyjal (level 70+ 25-player raid). The Wrath of the Lich King expansion added The Culling of Stratholme (level 80 5-man dungeon). The Cataclysm expansion added End Time (level 85 5-man dungeon), Well of Eternity (level 85 5-man dungeon), Hour of Twilight (level 85 5-man dungeon), and Dragon Soul (level 85 10/25-player raid) as post-release content in its patch 4.3.
Prior to the release of the Burning Crusade expansion, players were able to enter The Caverns of Time through terrain exploits. The caverns at the time were incomplete, having no direct access to the instances which were to be added later on. Anonymous players have stated that their access to the game was temporarily suspended for entering the caverns via terrain exploits. Many quests are available to players which bring their character's mind and/or body back in time. |
| "Braid (video game)" | 2008 | Braid is a platformer art game where the player manipulates time in a variety of creative ways to solve puzzles. Braid's story also deals with the subject of time travel in a way similar to the relationship portrayed in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind |
| "Professor Layton and the Unwound Future" | JP: 2008, US: 2010 | The Third in the Professor Layton series, set between London Present and 10 years later. Layton receives a letter from Luke ten years in the future. and it is connected by a failed time Machine Demonstration and the missing Prime Minister of the UK |
| "Back to the Future: The Game" | 2010 | The game takes place six months after the events of the film Back to the Future Part III and sees Marty McFly, the protagonist of the series, trying to adjust to a life without his best friend, scientist Doctor Emmett "Doc" Brown, whose belongings are being sold off by the bank following his disappearance to an unknown time period. Out of nowhere, an intact duplicate of the destroyed DeLorean time machine appears in front of Marty, and hints and notes inside instruct him to come to Doc's rescue, who is stranded in the year 1931, during the time of Prohibition. The game's series follows the events of Marty and Doc trying to repair hellish timelines created by their past attempts. |
| "Achron" | 2010 | RTS tme travel game – if you lose a skirmish you can travel back to before it happened and avoid or fix it. But so can your opponents. http://www.achrongame.com/site/ |
| "Final Fantasy XIII-2" | 2012 (2011 in Japan) | The two characters, Noell Kress and Serah Farron, must travel across time through special gates, unlocked with ornate statues. Their goal is to fix the timeline, which has been disturbed by their antagonist Caius Ballad to instigate the end of time itself. |
Read more about this topic: List Of Time Travel Science Fiction
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