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Thanks to the high profile of Colin Moriarty and his Sacred Symbols podcasts among the gaming community, Twin Breaker is getting a lot of love across the PS4 and Vita. Together with Lillymo and a team of crafty contributors, we have a simple game idea (Breakout or Arkanoid, depending on your frame of reference) expanded into something new with a sci-fi tale bolted on and some fun game mechanics.
It doesn't feel a million light years away from FuturLab's Velocity or Surge Delxue games in how it adds value to simple mechanics, and that's no bad thing. Twin Breaker has a relatively simple look to it, but feels right at home on the Vita screen with readable text size, despite the likely focus on the PS4 version.
The first twist to the game is that one player controls two paddles, using the thumbsticks, either at the bottom, sides or top of the screen (and sometimes both, but you can have two people playing at once, I guess). And each level has a series of natural features that either shorten the space each has to defend or adds in the risk of tricky bounces as the ball speeds up.
I won't go over the plot that becomes apparent across each of the 40 levels, but there's space travel, timey-wimey stuff and a geo-political background to it all. These two paddles are rescue spacecraft armed with Bouncers to clear the path to complete their mission. Trick two of the game is you need to S-rank each level to reveal the next bit of the plot over 40 levels. You don't have to, but it does help expand your enjoyment of the game.
Further tweaks include a charge-up ability to launch a ghost of your paddle up the screen to dislodge a ball that's stuck in an unhelpful pattern or just won't hit that last block. Hitting the blocks dispenses points tokens and power-ups, including the usual lasers, multi-ball, shrink or grow tokens and different effects for the Bouncer. Some aliens can be dislodged from the bricks, and you'll need to dodge them to avoid damaging your paddle, with bosses appearing from time to time offer a stiffer challenge.
Hearts grant lives and if you do run out, you can sacrifice 100 points for an extra go at the risk of blowing your high score or S-rank. If you get bored of the story, which can drag a little, then there are plenty of other game modes like Marathon and Pong to keep you playing, and a healthy line up trophies to win in the quest for the platinum.
Personally, I'd like a little more polish on the visual side and perhaps a little less story. While the Vita looks better than the big-screen PS4 version, I sense some rough edges or more variety could have made it feel more impressive, and for some reason it feels a rather muted palette on the OLED, and if you're making a game for the Vita it really should play to its strengths, even as an alternate colour scheme.
On the plus side, for us mortal players, if you just catch the last few pixels of the ball, it will go back into play rather than cost you a life, which \I used to hate some breakout-type games for, so good spot there!
Developer/Publisher Lillymo/Sacred Symbols
Size: 68Mb
Score 8/10
Price £8.99
Thanks to the high profile of Colin Moriarty and his Sacred Symbols podcasts among the gaming community, Twin Breaker is getting a lot of love across the PS4 and Vita. Together with Lillymo and a team of crafty contributors, we have a simple game idea (Breakout or Arkanoid, depending on your frame of reference) expanded into something new with a sci-fi tale bolted on and some fun game mechanics.
It doesn't feel a million light years away from FuturLab's Velocity or Surge Delxue games in how it adds value to simple mechanics, and that's no bad thing. Twin Breaker has a relatively simple look to it, but feels right at home on the Vita screen with readable text size, despite the likely focus on the PS4 version.
The first twist to the game is that one player controls two paddles, using the thumbsticks, either at the bottom, sides or top of the screen (and sometimes both, but you can have two people playing at once, I guess). And each level has a series of natural features that either shorten the space each has to defend or adds in the risk of tricky bounces as the ball speeds up.
I won't go over the plot that becomes apparent across each of the 40 levels, but there's space travel, timey-wimey stuff and a geo-political background to it all. These two paddles are rescue spacecraft armed with Bouncers to clear the path to complete their mission. Trick two of the game is you need to S-rank each level to reveal the next bit of the plot over 40 levels. You don't have to, but it does help expand your enjoyment of the game.
Further tweaks include a charge-up ability to launch a ghost of your paddle up the screen to dislodge a ball that's stuck in an unhelpful pattern or just won't hit that last block. Hitting the blocks dispenses points tokens and power-ups, including the usual lasers, multi-ball, shrink or grow tokens and different effects for the Bouncer. Some aliens can be dislodged from the bricks, and you'll need to dodge them to avoid damaging your paddle, with bosses appearing from time to time offer a stiffer challenge.
Hearts grant lives and if you do run out, you can sacrifice 100 points for an extra go at the risk of blowing your high score or S-rank. If you get bored of the story, which can drag a little, then there are plenty of other game modes like Marathon and Pong to keep you playing, and a healthy line up trophies to win in the quest for the platinum.
Personally, I'd like a little more polish on the visual side and perhaps a little less story. While the Vita looks better than the big-screen PS4 version, I sense some rough edges or more variety could have made it feel more impressive, and for some reason it feels a rather muted palette on the OLED, and if you're making a game for the Vita it really should play to its strengths, even as an alternate colour scheme.
On the plus side, for us mortal players, if you just catch the last few pixels of the ball, it will go back into play rather than cost you a life, which \I used to hate some breakout-type games for, so good spot there!
Developer/Publisher Lillymo/Sacred Symbols
Size: 68Mb
Score 8/10
Price £8.99
Currently playing on my Vita/PS4/PS5
