Retro Reflections: Sabrina the Teenage Witch: A Twitch in Time

Sabrina Twitch in Time

Like many men my age, I used to have a huge crush on Melissa Joan Hart because of a fantastic little show called Clarissa Explains it All, and because that was everything, I was more than happy to give Sabrina the Teenage Witch a chance as well. It was fine, quite funny at times, but overall didn’t bewitch me like it did others. However, there is a newer version now, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which I will have to give a shot after I’m finished with this review.

Preparing to play this game by watching clips from the old show was a fun trip down memory lane, and looking into the history of it I’m reminded that these were based off of a series of Archie comics I’ve always wanted to take a quick look at. What really surprised me was to see how many video games this show produced from the spawning pools. Most of them were PC only, which explains how I missed them growing up, but there is an original PlayStation title that I stumbled onto at a flea market a while back for cheap, so it’s going to be my fun Halloween game this year, since Zombies Ate My Neighbors wrecked me last time. This game can’t possibly be that hard or frustrating, right?

It might be hard to tell it from the in-game visuals, but A Twitch in Time is a 2001 title published by Knowledge Adventure, Inc. that could have certainly looked a little better. Considering the other games that had come out recently, Sabrina just didn’t quite match up in this regard. The character models aren’t horrible, but they could have been much smoother and many of the outfits and environments lack detail, even for that era. Levels look bland and although the game uses a lot of nice bright colors, nothing really pops out or seems like it was meant to go together well. This is sad because the CGI cutscenes look much better and seem like they were given some time and care.

Those scenes of course set the story, where Sabrina’s cat, Salem, has been up to mischief again and in the process broke the Cosmic Clock, putting time in jeopardy, and unleashing the evil entity known as Chaos, our villain for this game. This story further proves that cats are a ton of trouble to have around, and everyone always comments on why the Cosmic Clock couldn’t be put somewhere a little safer, like maybe the garage at least. I usually get a little upset at games that don’t have enough story, where the manuals have to fill in the vital information for what motivates the characters to care about these events, but this is one of those rare instances where the booklet decided to take up a ton of space to reiterate the opening cutscene word for word as its story without expanding on it at all or giving any extra information about the game whatsoever. That’s odd to me.

“There’s no time like the present.”
“Well, there used to be.”

The best part of this game for some is going to be that Melissa Joan Hart and Nick Bakay voice their characters from the show, and I love the bad guy’s voice. The banter is kind of nice in a couple of points. It’s too bad that the lines we hear during gameplay repeat so much. The sound effects themselves are quite fun, which is good, because the actual music does very little for me.

This is not a tough game, but it can be quite frustrating at times. Sabrina is off through time to recover the pieces of the clock, but on the way she’ll need to collect a ton of gems as well, which leaves many saying that this game is just a glorified scavenger hunt. Players will need those gems to buy Sabrina outfits from the Fashion Diva (yes, really), which allows her to enter certain portals. I liked this idea of the time appropriate outfits at first, but now that I have put more time in, they aren’t that great.

The actual gameplay quickly becomes annoying due to the movement—it isn’t good. The camera doesn’t help with this of course, but most of the corridors are so small that it’s easier to rely on special awareness. Using the analog sticks can feel sluggish as they are unresponsive. Sabrina also interacts with some of the environments oddly, missing items or clipping obstacles, showing a lackluster hitbox. Jumping might be the worst part though, constantly irritating with every other leap. The aiming can be disastrous at times also, making it just easier to run past enemies in earlier levels, even more so since some of them cannot be affected. Combat is almost a joke, and does not need to be taken seriously when the more powerful spells are so effective. The boss fights are just as bad, meaning that there’s no need for skill as much as simply noticing a pattern, and there is little reason to revisit this for the gameplay. The only threat here is making it to the zipper to save—I promise that makes sense if you play the game.

I don’t like to call developers lazy with knowing how much simply goes into making a working video game, but A Twitch in Time feels bland, simple, and everything from the mechanics to the visuals seem thrown together with minimal effort to make anything unique or enjoyable. I know this one is more for kids, but even they had just have become bored with this adventure quick. I can only see collectors and hardcore fans of the show picking this up, even for as cheap as I got it. Though, the oddest complaint I kept seeing about this title was that it didn’t tie in to the show more, which seems like an odd criticism for anyone who has actually played it. Maybe if this new show does well enough, we could be in for a new Sabrina adventure to play through.

Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site. We cover gaming news, movie reviews, wrestling and much more.