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You assume the role of Blinx, an employee of the Time Factory. The Time Factory manufactures time and distributes it to many worlds. Blinx's job is to use his time sweeper (vacuum cleaner) to sweep up time crystals that represent problems with the fabric of time. If the problem is really severe, the time crystals can form into time monsters which Blinx can deal with by sweeping up other items and then shooting them out of his sweeper.

The game takes place in world B1Q64, where the evil Tom Tom gang has been stealing crystals to sell on the black market. Their meddling has created a major influx of Time monsters on B1Q64, destabilizing time and threatening to destroy the world. They also have kidnapped a princess. Blinx alone is left to set things right when he remains after the call goes out to evacuate B1Q64.

The game does have a few problems. Blinx's movement rate seems frustratingly slow at times. You get used to it, and later on it seems natural, but initially, his pokey movement speed leaves a bad impression. The automatic aiming system of the sweeper automatically shoots for the nearest object. Many times you will pull the trigger to shoot a not to far away time monster, and have Blinx literally turn 180 degrees to shoot at a nearer time crystal behind him! Like the speed, once you get used to how it operates, you don't have many problems. Then there is the camera. The game tries to give you the most beneficial camera angle, but tends to want to put itself behind Blinx pointing at an enemy. Since the environment is much more deadly than the monsters once you are past the initial learning phase, this is another cause for frustration. I found the best way to play was to emulate playing Halo, left analog controlling movement,right analog controlling camera at all times. Like the other issues, once you have trained yourself, you only have rare problems with bad camera angles.

Scattered about each of the levels are time crystals. You collect these by either running over them or by using the sweeper to suck them up. If you collect the right combination of crystals, you get either an additional life (retry), or a time control. Retries are very valuable. When a monster touches you, or shoots a piece of trash that hits you, you die. If you have a retry available, time will stop, then rewind 10 or more seconds back to before the event that caused your demise and hopefully you can avoid the death this time. If you have no more retries, the game ends.

The other time controls allow Blinx to alter time, hopefully for his benefit. There are time controls for Pause, Slow, Fast Forward, Rewind, and Record.

Pause freezes time for everyone but leaves Blinx free to act. This is useful to sweep up items in hectic situations, navigate tricky areas, or deal with a room full of time monsters. Generally, you want the majority of your available time controls to be pauses.

Slow causes time to slow to a trickle, while Blinx remains unaffected. Like pause, this is useful for navigating tricky areas, or for dealing with time monsters.

Fast Forward speeds up everything including Blinx, Monsters, and environment. Normally, this would seem to be more of a hindrance, butthere is one beneficial aspect. While in Fast Forward, Blinx is invulnerable. If Blinx is hit while in fast-forward, time resumes as normal.

Rewind moves time backwards but leaves Blinx free. Rewind is most used in the game to reverse time to restore environment changes (a bridge collapses, use a rewind to restore the bridge). Rewind is also useful in many of the boss fights. As the boss moves backwards in time, you can usually manuever to get a hit in on him.

Record is the most interesting. When you use a record time control, the game will record your actions for a period of time, then rewind to when you first used the control. You are then free to perform other actions while your recording is doing the things you recorded. This can be used to operate switches simultaneously, turn seesaws into catapults, or make a monster chase around a decoy leaving you free get a shot in.

Along with crystals, there is gold and trash to be collected on each level. When you complete a level, the items still in your sweeper are exchanged for gold. There are shops scattered about in each of the rounds where you can purchase items to make your time sweeping job easier. You can purchase retries, additional retry slots, additional time slots, additional sweeper capacity, better or specialty sweepers, special sweeper ammunition, and different costumes for Blinx to wear. Gold is tough to come by initially, but since you are free to replay any cleared level, you can build up a good supply to use for the high cost upgrades.

There are 9 rounds of levels, each round is comprised of 3 stages and a boss stage. 8 of the rounds are themed graphically and musically with each stage within the round following the theme. There are canals, caves, ice worlds, lost temples, abandoned mines, and industrial complexes. Initially, time controls were a bonus, you could make it through any level without using them. They soon become essential to surviving in the later stages.

The 9th round is the final boss fight, which is extremely tough; you have to re-fight the last four boss monsters in a row, without re-supplying, before you even get to the final boss. Even with a full supply of time controls and retries, each boss individually was tough to deal with, so you have quite a task ahead of you.

The graphics are good enough that you tend to take the look of things for granted. If you stop and take the time to examine some levels closely, the detail and beauty are stunningly good. The character animation almost seems like toy models filmed with a real camera at times. Only once or twice throughout the entire game in the most hectic of situations with many monsters shooting trash at you does the system start to labor to a point where you notice it.

The controls are good (aside from the quirks that take some getting used to). Strangely, you find that performing a complex series of jumps/shooting is often easier just going for it as fast as you can instead of stopping and trying to make each jump or shot perfect. There is a definite 'flow' that you get into when you play this game.

Replayability of the game is a strong point. About halfway through, the game gets tough. Really tough. Almost frustratingly tough. Each stage you enter, you have 10 minutes to defeat all the monsters and make your way to the exit. When you exit, your clearing time is given a grade (A+ through D+), and you get to see a replay of the entire level. There are many secrets to be collected, different sweepers to be used, and faster clear times to shoot for.

Each stage may have 3 or four secret cat medals to be collected. Often times collecting every medal, defeating all the monsters, and making it to the goal before your allotted ten minutes is near impossible. Once you have collected a certain number of cat medals, you turn them in for a bizarre series of prizes (short film clips that you can view when looking at your collection), in a way the prizes are fitting, but many players may wonder what the point is. To a true platformer the answer is simply, because its there.

I enjoyed (and am still enjoying - I am still working on the final boss fight, and there are many secrets left for me to collect) this game a lot. Once you get past the initial stages, and learn how the mechanics of the game work, there is tough and surprisingly fun game to be found. I tend to wonder though how many people will be put off and give up before getting to that point. If you want a tough game with a lot of replayability, and are willing to spend more than a few hours getting used to, this game is for you.