Take one lesbian nun, a scythe, six upgradeable weapons, hordes of undead, and some of the smoothest visuals I have ever seen on the iPhone, and you’ve got yourself a solid $2.99 action title in the form of Twin Blades.
If you ‘re into mindless zombie destruction coupled with incredibly stylish action (and don’t mind a bit, well, a lot of repetition), then Twin Blades will deliver in spades.
Story Mode
There isn’t really a story mode. The story was introduced in the 1.1 update to Twin Blades, but almost no effort was spent actually writing anything interesting. Twin Blades’ story tries to give you a decent reason for wanting to fight the zombies, but once you start swinging your scythe around all, of that other stuff becomes irrelevant (yes, even that brief mention of the fact that this nun is a lesbian). This game is all about killing, upgrading your gun, and then killing some more.
Controls
I think the controls in Twin Blades are alright, but the jump key could use some serious work. I really, really wish that developer Press Start had placed the jump key on the right side, as a separate button, instead of melding it into the functionality of the d-pad. I can ‘t count the number of times I ‘ve accidentally jumped into a horde of zombies when all I meant to do was walk to the right.
The other controls to switch weapons, swing your scythe, and fire your gun all work just fine in comparison, but the game would immediately be 10,000 times better if you were allowed you to adjust the ridiculously low placement of the buttons.
Combat
There are nine levels in Twin Blades, but you ‘d better not mind replaying each and every one of them…multiple times over. You also shouldn ‘t mind fighting very, very similar enemies for the rest of the game, because the only difference between the various enemies and levels is how they look.
This is forgivable because Twin Blades is really a survival game with a story mode laid over it. Each level will require you to kill a set number of zombies ” and this can cause some awkward lulls in the action when you ‘ve literally out-paced the zombies by killing them faster than newer batches can spawn. Normal levels can also get a little dull when you’re required to kill 140 or more zombies that really only ever limp at you from either side of the screen.
Your expertise with your gun and scythe will really be put to the test in the later stages of the game, especially when you encounter (and re-encounter) the bosses. Boss battles in Twin Blades are good, old-fashioned 2D bosses. They ‘re all rendered in amazing detail, and they all have some sort of pattern you have to see through and take advantage of. If there is to be another update to Twin Blades, I ‘d love for it to add more boss battles and lessen the kill limits to pass all the normal stages in between.
Animation
The best thing about Twin Blades is how beautifully all of the action plays out. You may be fighting the same zombies all damn game long, but they ‘ll all die in spectacular fashion. Combat is delightfully gory, with liberal use of blood and guts (blood will even drip down the screen after it splashes). Heads will roll, bodies will lurch to a stop, and torsos will be severed ” and those are just the effects of the scythe.
The nun can also use six different sets of upgradeable ranged weapons, each of which has a different effect, so it ‘s well worth putting your points (zombie hearts, if you must know) into purchasing every one of them just to see what they ‘ll do to the undead.
Conclusion
Despite all of the variety in death animations, level backgrounds, and weapon effects, Twin Blades is still a fairly basic game ” which is alright, so long as you view it as something similar to titles like Minigore when you buy it. Don ‘t let the blood and guts fool you either: Twin Blades is a title that was made with a lot of love and care, and it ‘s ultimately the attention to detail and the awesome manga-styled graphics that this game well worth a recommendation, despite its rather repetitive nature.
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Twin Blades is available for $2.99 on the App Store
The app was bought by JAiB for review on the site. For further information regarding our site’s review policies, please see the “About” page.
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TAGS: iphone action game
