Twin World logo

UBISOFT £24.99 Joystick

The Gaspars were a peaceful and prosperous race, watched over by the magical family Carikens. Sadly, the family neglected their magic and the Kingdom began to fall to pieces. That is when the evil druid Maldur decided to move in and massacre the family.

Only one child survived and it is down to him to collect the 23 parts of the magic amulet that have been scattered throughout the land to prevent the family Carikens from rising again.

But we cannot have evil triumphing over good, can we? So you will have to take on the persona of Ulopa, the last of the Carikens, and ensure you collect all the parts and thereby defeating Maldur.

It is an arcade adventure from French programmers Blue Byte with its roots in Super Mario Bros. The 23 levels each have an upper and lower level (world) and the player can easily get from one world to the other by going through the cavern mouths on the levels. Getting from one level to the other, though, involves running around and collecting the pieces of amulet and then finding the level exit (identifiable by the symbol above the door).

Maldur is none too keen on the idea of you running about trying to ruin his fun, though, so he has infested the levels with all manner of flying, walking and crawling nasties that all remove one of your six lives in contact. To combat them you are armed with three types of ball shots of varying strengths and properties (one of them bounces) which you can fire. Destroying the monsters also causes them to leave behind caches of more ammunition which is jolly handy.

There are other bonuses that come in useful during the game including a parachute which allows you to fall off high platforms without injury and springs which are very helpful for when you want that bit of extra sporting to leap over a particularly high wall. These extra are activated simply by hitting a key. Run about finding the bits of amulet, take on the big monster every fourth level and try to find a way into the treasure rooms for extra points; and there you have it.

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

The main sprite is great: neat touches like him skidding when he swiftly changes direction for example all add to the effect. The rest of the graphics are colourful and well drawn and everything is well animated. The in-game tune is fine as are the effects, but neither of them are outstanding. Altogether a very cute-looking game.

JUDGEMENT

Platforms and ladders, running around collecting things, different worlds - they are all old hat nowadays, but when the game is as well put together as this one it is easy to see why the formula became such a hit. Great fun, highly playable and addictive too.


Twin World logo

Ubisoft
Price: £24.95

Once upon a time there lived a peaceful and prosperous tribe of people called the Gaspards. For centuries they lived under the wise command of an old family endowed with magic.

However, Maldur, an evil druid came to learn of this and stole the amulet that controlled their powers. Maldur was unable to master the power and the amulet exploded and was blown into twenty three pieces which scattered across the country. It is your job to reassemble the amulet and return the country to its former glory.

Basically, Twinworld is a platform/maze game. You control an elf-type character and you must jump around shooting enemies and gathering the objects that are left behind.

Each level is made up of two worlds (hence Twinworld) and the player can switch between them by using wells and doors (some of which require keys). One piece of the amulet can be found on each level and must be taken to the exit door. Every four levels you are confronted with a major enemy that must be offed before progress can be made.

Graphically, Twinworld is nothing special but makes up for that in other areas. All sprites are of a reasonable standard and all of them are nicely animated. The backdrops are also extremely good and plenty of attention has been paid to detail and variety.

Sound is quite limited; a strange tune plays on the title screen and the few in-game effects often verge on the annoying (although there is an option to turn them off).

A lot of time and effort has obviously gone into Twinworld, the presentation of the game is excellent, from the use of joystick right through to the perfectly smooth scrolling.

"This is all very well, but how long will the game last?", I hear you ask. Well, that is a problem, like many platform games Twinworld can soon become very frustrating due to the fact that you have to work through early levels every time. The programmers have tried to overcome this by supplying an option to play any level; but although this is a help it does not stop the gameplay becoming a bit stale after a while.


Twin World logo

UbiSoft/ST & Amiga, price to be arranged

Amiga reviewJonathan: For some reason which eludes me, you're responsible for a small sideways scrolling landscape which is patrolled by a group of baddies. As well as wandering left and right, our hero can also go through doors (assuming he has the right keys) which lead into a sort of underground bit. Weapons can be found and used against the enemy.

The graphics tend towards the cutesy, but they're nicely done and complemented by suitable music and sound effects. Rather than be radically daring, Twinworld goes for a traditional formula and manages to be fun, if not exciting. I liked it.Stop
 


Twin World logo

Ubi Soft, Amiga £24.99

Once upon a time lived a peaceful and prosperous people. And they all lived happily ever after... or they would have done if a nasty magician, the Maldur, hadn't invaded their country with hordes of demons to slaughter them all! Except, that is, for the Ulopa who can now defeat the Maldur by finding the 23 pieces of a shattered magic amulet.

Each of the 23 levels is divided into two parts: above and below ground. Ulopa jumps around platforms, searching for the amulet fragment and then escaping within a time limit. Useful items to collect include jumping springs, parachutes and magic stars to throw at enemies. Doors connect the two parts of each world, some requiring keys to unlock them.

In two-player mode the second player takes over the underground exploration.


Phil King The separate above/below ground sections and twin player option give this platform arcade adventure a spark of originality. The graphics are of the cute variety and some of the levels are very weird (especially the underwater ones with clams and sharks). With plenty of neat graphical touches and simple gameplay, programmers Blue Byte have made Twinworld a lot of fun.
Stuart Wynne It's a pity the main sprite is so uncharismatic because otherwise this is a very fine game. The need to plan your way around the levels adds that vital bit of tactical thinking. Working out how to complete the first four levels was really enjoyable, and 23 levels provide good variety. There's not much originality here, but lots of puzzling levels - albeit overpriced.