Absolute Twin Blades Review

Anannya Sen’s Review

Help destroy the Earth!!

Twin Blades is a great game. It's a take on the old Arkanoid and block breaker games, but instead of having one paddle and one direction to aim at, you have two paddles which can move around 360. Yup, 360, making this a much more complex game.

At first I thought it would be too hard. Using 2 paddles meant that my brain stopped working when I rotated the bottom one only to have the top one rotate the opposite way. They both move at the same time you see, part of a perfect circle. So when you move one of them left the other moves right.

This was confusing, I admit, but once I got the hang of it I started to get into the game. I started to make last ditch saves and then whizz the paddles all the way around to make sure I could angle the shot where I wanted. The special rules (sometimes you have to hit blocks in order of size or colour) didn't phase me. I needed to clock the level and get to the boss battle.

Once there, I would usually take a few goes to see their energy bar hit zero, but it didn't matter as you have infinite continues. So it was only a matter of time before I finished all 9 levels in each stage and then unlocked the next one. Of course, the power ups (magnetic balls, fire balls, multi balls or larger paddles) definitely helped me along the way.

And as the game went on, the levels and boss battles got more complex. The once pointless time limit on each level became a factor, as did the animations streaking around behind the blocks. These didn't interfere in any way, except to perhaps put you off when you would be taking a crucial shot. Still, with the bold colours and retro music, the game was certainly appealing.

As was the addictiveness. Whenever I got a chance this Easter weekend, I had a quick go. And lo and behold, the day of the review is the day I finish all the levels and help repel the alien invasion. Now see if you can do it. It's not that hard, but it certainly is a lot of fun. And there's even an ending.