I'm really grateful I stumbled across the Krazyman50 parody video for this, because this would have been some level I beat for stars years ago and completely forgot about today. Makes me wonder what hidden gems I overlooked or forgotten over the years.

Made in update 1.3 (literally November/December 2013), Time Road is a level meant to represent a journey through time, past, present and future. This brings up the question: why does this level not use Time Machine as its song? It's a blatantly obvious choice that it feels deliberately avoided. Asides that, it takes a visual approach to its theming, which is surprisingly executed very well for its time and could stand to get more recognition if it wasn't an auto.

Beginning with an interpretation of the future (2050, 2160) I do wonder what differentiates this from the current modern era as we already have these things, even in 2013 such futuristic beliefs are there in major cities, like helicopter/plane rides and skyscrapers that illuminate the night sky. Perhaps there's something I'm missing, but I don't really get how such an interpretation is any evolved from then. That aside, the details crammed into this section is amazing. While slightly ambiguous, the buildings are neatly designed, accessorised by colourful pads and orbs which gives the whole scene so much personality. The rather messy air decoration helps to cram as much detail as possible, which I draw association to a cyberpunk themed city and its overdetailed neon everything. Also at 17%, the player goes through a tunnel made of yellow pads, and I thought of it as the player wrapping through space and time, while it progressively getting brighter and brighter until emerging to the other side. I thought it was a funny little detail that deserves more appreciation.

The next part had to be updated because it featured a controversial event, which is the Nazis rising to power in 1940, replaced by World War I in 1914. I initially had a lot to talk about that, but remembered that I'm writing a review on one level on a game priced equivalently to a McDonalds meal and it's not worth it. Nonetheless, the theming and imagery still shines, featuring the tank which was the revolutionary vehicle of WW1, the Opium wars, and prevalence of ships in the 18th century (why 1760 in particular? I genuinely don't get it. Hopefully I can be enlightened). This time the decoration is comparatively less detailed, which gets the message across well and accurately reflects how simple times were back then. I didn't like that OPIUM had to be spelled out to reference the naval events of 1840, because its telling and not showing. I'd much prefer a better historical event to portray here, like the invention of the light bulb or the telephone, both of which are easy to create and understand, and contrast heavily to the technological development of modern day (and the aforementioned interpreted future) and ties the level better.

47-72% doesn't show any year/time period, so we've to guess what the creator is trying to convey. Are those structures at the start supposed to be buildings emitting smoke signifying the Industrial Revolution? Is that a cube praying at 53%? Is that a dinosaur at 63%? It's all very unclear. Then it hit me that very early history is generally unclear and full of speculation. The actual events never change, but our interpretations always do and they're rewritten with new information we get. Who knows how much we get wrong from our inferences? Even after sometime I still have no idea what the hell is going on here, other than that it seems to go further into the past (?), and wrecking my head to pick up bits and clues for the context of one part of this obscure 1.3 level isn't worth the effort, again. I'm open to hear what others think.

It seems somewhere along the way, the TIME ROAD progresses into the future again, with the first modern international Olympic Games in 1896 and first FIFA World Cup in 1930 (real ones know the original) until the level's present year in 2013. A very good year to close off as Geometry Dash was released. What an amazing journey this level takes us through, and its from such an early update having to work with the limited resources it had. In a way it's one of the first movie autos in the game, if not the first. I hope this level gets more attention because it is an incredible work of art. Tunar98 is a truly underappreciated creator.

Woke ideology has officially gone too far.