PSX 2015 Preview: Tinertia (PS4)

Tinertia is a tough as nails precision platformer with one huge caveat; there is no “jump” button. In Tinertia you play as Weldon, a little robot with a rocket launcher for an arm, who happens to be explosion proof. Weldon is stranded on a planet that’s filled with horrible mazes that are lousy with spikes and lasers, and the only way to get through it all is to master the art of rocket jumping.

Developed by Candescent Games and Section Games, Tinertia was built to be played on live-streams. Its hyper difficult platforming is rage and laughter inducing. Watching people play Tinertia is entertaining whether they’re good at the game or not. I got to play through a handful of levels and it took me a few tries before I could figure out how to properly propel myself through while not killing myself in the process. Once I had the rocket jumping down, however, the game went from a challenging platform to a speed runner’s playground. The longer you keep Weldon in the air, the easier it is to build your, wait for it, inertia. It becomes apparent rather quickly that speed is definitely an aspect you’d have to develop, otherwise you might not ever get past some of the later levels.

Tinertia boasts upwards of 70 levels spanning across 7 different environments with bosses waiting at the end of each environment. Despite the normal game mode, Tinertia will also have various modes that will challenge gamers to get their names onto the leaderboards. A speed running mode is obviously going to make an appearance, however, there will also be a Rocket challenge mode that limits how many rockets you can use to complete the levels. In addition to those, there are ghost run modes that let you play against “ghosts” of either yourself, a friend, or someone from the leaderboards. These ghost runs are a great way to figure out what you did wrong and to learn from those better than yourself. But even if you brave all of these challenges there’s still the #YOLO mode. For the uninitiated, “YOLO” stands for “you only live once”. In terms of Tinertia, this means if you die once, then that’s it, game over.

Playing Tinertia was  loads of fun, especially since after a few minutes I had Weldon hurtling through the increasingly difficult levels with little trouble. It wasn’t long before I had beaten the first boss and started on the second level before I realized my scheduled appointment had run over time. I was disappointed to have to set Tinertia aside but I cannot recommend this game enough, especially if you’re a fan of “hardcore” platformers.