It's about to get hot in Twin Blades.
Hot, kinky and deadly lesbian nuns, anyone? It’s with the premise that
even the slightest sexual innuendo draws attention that Sanuk Games
released Twin Blades. But also adding the formula of zombie equals great
game, this game combines horror, sex, gore and more of these wonderful
themes you just can’t get enough of, you perverted individual. It mixes
this in a well-drawn anime world, full of color and most of all, blood.
As Sister Angelika starts her quest to cleanse the world from the
infestation, she leaves the monastery and sets out into the cute but
deadly surroundings of Jalombe. The handful of 2D areas she plows her
scythe through are all incredibly detailed, which is immensely pleasing
to gawk at. In addition, the downright impressive fluidity of animations
are almost cartoonlike, even in their scripted nature. It’s amazing to
see such prowess come forth from this title. The only imperfection is
the delayed jump animation, which is also hard to control.
Slash zombies with your Soul Redeemer in Twin Blades.
In addition, Twin Blades thrives on a simple pounding beat that mixes
slight hip-hop with a more traditional sound. Even though the sound
effects are ridiculous and monotone, the complete background setting of
music and inspiring visuals are a key selling point to this game. The
complete package gets topped off with blood literally splattering all
over your screen.
A picturesque marvel isn’t enough to warrant a good game though, but
Twin Blades tries its hardest to be a fun-size title of epic proportion.
Angelika comes to the scene with a huge scythe and packing heat that is
powered by the slashing of zombie faces. As she progresses and collect
undead hearts, she can return to the monastery where Father Ricardo can
trade the tainted goods for upgrades. Even though it isn’t really
logical to want to acquire literally thousands of zombie hearts, it’s
some original ‘currency’ nonetheless.
Twin Blades features a lot of blood and gore.
These upgrades can be purchased for either Angelika’s abilities or to
procure better or new weaponry. There are a total of 6 obtainable guns
with a range in force; such as a machine gun, flame thrower or the
almighty Holy beam that obliterates all. Additionally, each upgrade has 5
tiers, strengthening the desired skill. Only the jump attack is rather
useless, as even its most powerful tier is only good enough for a very
temporary breathing space. However, this creates quite some variation,
even though each weapon uses the same Soul energy to work. In particular
during set boss battles, the use of different weaponry will become
mandatory. Luckily, quickly switching with the shoulder buttons creates a
nice additional tactic, instead of a forced integration. Surprisingly,
Twin Blades offers an action RPG title of incredible quality for its
small scope.
However, this variation excellence is offset by a similar game
mechanic. Each level is simply based on scrolling through the scenery
hacking zombies and repeating that process until all enemies are
cleared. In addition, most levels will see the nun backtracking
needlessly to find stragglers that need killing, before being able to
move on. Luckily the monotonous hack and slash gameplay is no different
from slayers like God Of War, which people seem to be eating up for
years now.
Twin Blades' area selection screen with boss fights each third level.
When hit, Angelika has to push off the assailant before getting chewed
up, as she loses health rapidly, even with upgrades. She replenishes
health when her cadavers drop potions, which isn’t the best
implementation, but at least the zombies aren’t pocketing gold or such.
It’s not like she was going to eat their flesh or something. But the
fact remains that Twin Blades is surprisingly challenging, in particular
the devastating bosses. There are also levels of outbreaks that
strengthen when left alone to thrive. Therefore, dealing with an
infection forthwith is advisable. This all only adds to the level of
quality already well in place in this game.
Yet, the Story mode strangely seems to suffer from a superfluous
length, which is a peculiar feat for such a small game. Zombie outbreaks
get added constantly and Angelika will need to visit the same area over
and over and clear yet another batch of bad guys. Grinding is only a
necessity as the game presents such a tedious challenge, but it could’ve
benefited from being a shorter ride to clear some of the repetition. A
survival mode is also available, where the goal is just to survive 31
days of slaying. Unfortunately, the game pivots around high scores, but
as scores can’t be saved, it seems more logical to just enjoy Twin
Blades for the thrilling ride that it is. Otherwise, playthroughs need
to be chained into one session, which can be cumbersome come the length
of this title, at least for the portable version.
Angelika Smash! Enjoy a flamethrower to the face!