The concept behind Twin Blades: The Reaping Vanguard is a simple one. You are a scythe-waving nun aiming to put the damn back where they belong. Aside from a sharp sword you also sport a variety of upgradable guns. Each has its own special touch to killing the dead (is that possible?). Let’s break this down….
The Positive
While TB didn’t have the depth of the mainstream gaming audience, it certainly has some flavor. The upbeat mojo that the music sports helps along a very violent, bloody side-scroller that doesn’t apologize for taking the heads off of the dead. For a younger audience, maybe early teens, this might be appealing. Twin Blades moves fast and it strikes hard with the ante constantly getting raised thanks to different dead folks and more armored enemies. The two ways to go in this game are slice up their heads/bodies or blow their brains out with heat that your nun is packing. The simplistic controls are only rivaled by the simplistic upgrade system that Twin Blades sports. Killing the dead earns you points, which in turn earns you more upgrades.
As Dan Aykroyd says while advertising the Bass-o-Matic, “It’s just that simple.”; and it is.
Each level is grouped into three and every three equals out a day. There are a lot of days to cover, so there is plenty of action here.
The Negative
While Twin Blades certainly does have a simple gameplan in mind and fast moving gameplay, regretfully it lacks typical elements of a side-scrolling game. The game itself is based off of points. Had this been anything else than a slaughter house side-scroller, the point system would have been enough to love the game. As you go through the game you begin to want more than just killing different types of dead folk. Sure you get upgradable weapons and sure you get tougher dead folks, but I personally need more to take out. I need goals, I need different boards (not the same three over and over again). Basically, as simple as this is going to sound, I need more to do. Twin Blades feels like a game unfinished, as it really doesn’t take the players too far. Sure it’s only 240 MS Points on XBL, but there are a lot more games that offer quite a bit more for that type of price.
***UPDATED May 11, 2010 —
While it Twin Blades certainly doesn’t excel beyond most platform-esque type games, there has been an update to the game that moves beyond my original gripes. The simplicity of the game, where it’s simply just a hack and slash through a small amount of levels, has been given purpose. The devs at Press Start Studio updated the game with a storyline (yay!) that gives the players complete purpose getting through many different levels of zombies. You’re working with a friar now that apparently wants the world rid of the undead. On top of this, the friar helps you upgrade your weapons (which has improved a bit) and the upgrading of your weapons ensures your survival against different type of undead.
On top of this upgrade, the addition of bosses is now included. The bosses are well animated pains in the ass. I love ’em! They actually provide a challenge and more importantly they provide a ‘goal’ as the game progresses. This was desperately missing from the original. As an avid gamer, I want a reason to waste 200+ zombies. If you’re going to make me do it then make me do it knowing there is an ‘ultimate’ goal to work towards.
On top of all of this (sorry for using that again) the zombies get progressively harder, which requires you to upgrade/update your weaponry. That is a good flow to a game.
What’s even better is that this update is free to folks who have already downloaded the game. It makes the game that much better of an experience. So, with that said, I’m going to update my scoring on this game to reflect the improvements. Game companies generally don’t update their games to make them better (wouldn’t that be something if they did), so I HAVE to update this. Press Start Studio wants to entertain gamers and they want you to be happy.
Again, wouldn’t that be something if bigger game companies tried to do that when they knowingly are selling you a par to sub-par game?