Genre: Action/Adventure
Publisher: Oxygen Interactive
Developer: EnjoyUP
Release Date: October 2, 2007 (Europe)
Official Website
Writer: media_girl (Kalina)

Rent

Chronos Twin has a pretty cut and dry story; a plot involving a planet getting attacked by outer space invaders and time travel , yawn. But there is one interesting twist. Instead of the attacked planet being earth, it is an alien planet, so aliens are getting attacked by other aliens. It’s not exactly mind-bending stuff, but when you consider the caliber of stories found in the genre (Chronos Twin is a platformer), it’s pretty good.

Graphics:
Chronos Twin has bad graphics and sound; the graphics are subpar because they are blocky and fuzzy, while the sound is just nothing special and in some areas, verges on squeaky and annoying.

Flow:
It’s too bad, because the shabby exterior hides carefully planned interior. The gameplay, unlike the graphics and sound, is quite good. In fact, the gameplay is actually-I am still pleasantly surprised by this even as I write it-challenging. The first thing that makes the game so challenging is that you are controlling two characters at the same time, one on each screen of the DS. What makes it even more difficult is that the game is so fast-paced in terms of enemy attacks and such. If you think it’s hard controlling two different characters on two different screens at the same time, try doing so while enemies are swarming around you and hacking away at your health bar on one screen while fireballs rain at you from the sky on the other. Of course, you still simultaneously have to take care of BOTH screens. Oh, and the enemies can teleport and surprise you.

Still, even though I found myself agitated with the game at certain points, that agitation was worth the sense of accomplishment I felt when I got past an area. The puzzles also are interesting and well-designed. In these puzzles, what you do on one screen will affect what happens on the other. Therefor, the puzzles require you to utilize both characters to solve each problem.

In essence, I never felt the game was unfair in terms of its or puzzles. Though the beginning of Chronos Twin was the most difficult, once I got past those first few areas, the challenge actually made me want to play more rather than less.

Fun Factor:
Yet, I do not reccomend this game for younger gamers at all, as the steep learning curve to the gameplay will lead to both many game over screens and many temper tantrums. Make no mistake, this is not a game for a casual gamer. Though I could appreciate the gameplay, I had trouble getting past levels, myself.

However, for all the positive things about the gameplay, there is one negative thing-there isn’t a whole lot of variety. Shoot aliens. Shoot more aliens. Shoot even more aliens. And then, for an exciting new task…shoot some more aliens. Suffice to say, if you don’t like either a) shooting or b) aliens, you should not play this game.

Also, this game adds one unfair sense of frusteration in the form of its save points. The save points are infrequent, which means you can’t play the game on the go at all. Chronos Twin is a portable game that really, isn’t portable in the least. Forget playing thirty minutes on the way to school. Oftentimes, it can take an hour or longer to find a save point (eek). Really, the least any game (and certainly a DS game) can do is at least provide enough save points.

Female Aspect:
Not much of a girl factor to this game, really. The few girl characters in the game at least aren’t complete stereotypes, though granted, they aren’t really all that interesting or important to the story at all.

In addition to the randomly appearing enemies, there is also the trickiness of the two statistic bars at the top of each screen. These bars represent the energy and life you have left in your characters. Life is pretty self-explantory (the amount of lives you have) but energy takes on a different meaning from the usual. In this game, energy represents how many times your character can still teleport back to the main hub of the game, the science lab. Trust me, if you don’t pay careful attention to especially the energy bar, you will have even more deaths in this game than usual. This is because once your bars are depleted, there are only two ways to fill them up;one, you can go find the very rare orb that will fill them up or two, you have to wait to get to the next level.

Controls:
The controls are nothing original or exciting, but in spite of how basic they are, they can actually be a bit frusterating (however, they do become easier after awhile of playing). You don’t even use the stylus-which is a bit riduculous, considering this is a DS game-but rather just press the required direction on the D-pad to move. Shooting, the other main element in this game, requires pressing different face buttons depending on the weapon you want to use. These face buttons are different for the two characters on each screen (now you see exactly why controlling two characters at once is so difficult!)

While I really, really (I can’t say this enough) appreciate the challenge, I wish that the controls were a bit more thought out, as this would provide for many less cheap deaths. But I have to admit, the game does give you a good sense of accomplishment-it just drains at your patience at first because of the rather steep learning curve. Expect to die quite a few times when you begin the game.

Replay Value:
You’ll die so many times and be forced to replay so many areas as a result that the small replay value this game has gets rapidly lost. The last thing you will want to do after playing the game through once is go back and play it again, due to the challenge and number of times you have to die and replay an area. There isn’t really much you can get for replaying the game anyway, unless you are a completionist and want to get every last item.

The game as a whole is enjoyable enough if you have both a good deal of time and a calm space where you can concentrate fully on your DS. Of course, for most gamers on the go, cars/trains/other means of transportation are hardly tranquil or leisurely type places. The idea of the game is original and interesting, but the execution is unneccessarily convoluted and frusterating. Worth a rent, especially if you want to try something different, but not worth a buy.