Play Time Trax (unreleased) Online

Time Trax was a game I only ever saw in magazines; it was supposed to come out for the Sega Genesis, but it never actually made it to store shelves. It was being developed by Malibu Interactive, the same team that did some other licensed titles, and it was based on that sci-fi TV show about a cop from the future. For a Genesis game from that era, it looked like it was aiming for a pretty ambitious visual style, with a lot of parallax scrolling and big sprites, but we never got to see it finished.

You play as a law enforcement officer sent back from the 22nd century, and your main goal is to track down and capture fugitives who have escaped into the past. The core mechanic is using a device called the DSA to zap these criminals and send them back to your own time. The most interesting feature is the time warp ability; you can shift between the past and future versions of a level on the fly, which changes the platforms, enemies, and environmental hazards you have to deal with. It creates a constant puzzle element, forcing you to think about which time period offers the safest or most advantageous path forward. The difficulty seems like it would have been pretty unforgiving, demanding precise jumps and quick timing with the warps. Playing it from the few clips that exist, it feels like a tense race against both the level design and your own reflexes.