My, my, the embrace of the holidays. There’s nothing like a winter evening at home coupled with some tea, a snack to go along, and hundreds of zombies to kill. Wait, what’s wrong with this picture? Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the iPhone. But really, is there a better enemy group in video games other than zombies? They are lifeless, soulless, undead individuals who want nothing more than to eat your brain, or infect you and make you one of them…or just tear you to shreds. Perhaps what makes them such easy targets is the lack of emotional attachment; the idea that your morality will in no way be influenced by the extermination of these undead savages because you are only fighting for your survival.

Bulkypix and Press Start Studio have teamed up to deliver a ruthless zombie-killing experience on the iPhone/iPod Touch with art design resembling the manga/anime style. So the question is, does the game fare up against others that revolve around the familiar zombie-thrashing experience? Well, the answer is kind of complicated so let’s get to it right away.

Gameplay

In Twin Blades, you take control of a nun hell-bent on ridding the town of zombies. At your disposal you have a trusty scythe to knock some heads off the zombies, several guns, and a number of upgrades to help you through the campaign. The game lasts 31 days and after you complete each day you will access the purchase and upgrade screen. Here, you can buy yourself a machine gun or flame thrower; if you own them, then you can upgrade them to become stronger tools in your battle against the undead.

There are a variety of zombies. Some have pots and pans or helmets on their head which will nullify the effects of your weapons, meaning the scythe will be your best bet. Some will grab you and you will have to shake your device, while others will simply hurt you as they get close. Naturally, the game gets tougher as you progress through the days. It’s fun and once you start you will seldom put it down because of the addictive nature of killing zombies.

But the truth is that Twin Blades‘ gameplay is by no means revolutionary. There is nothing fresh nor overtly exciting about it. It rests on the same sidescrolling concepts that the hit Zombieville USA spawned. The manga element is nice, but this is more of a stylistic characteristic rather than one that affects gameplay. In other words, if you’ve played any other sidescrollers on the iPhone/iPod Touch that are of the same vain, then your familiarity will stifle some of the excitement over this title. On the other hand, the game does give you the ability to jump and provides a little more of a distinction with the quickness of the main character. All in all, if you enjoy sidescrolling games then this is right up your alley but you should still be prepared for repetition.

Style

The game is certainly beautiful. The manga/anime style artwork is nothing short of fantastic as the environments and characters (although the zombies look the same for the most part) are very well-detailed and presented. The colors are vibrant and there is no question that style is the best thing about Twin Blades.

Story

I must have missed the story because it seemed like there was none. It was honestly a little mind-numbing to go through each day just killing zombies and upgrading. Perhaps if Press Start had integrated a full-fledged story into the title, it may have been more engaging. Sadly, no such story exists.

Everything Else

The music is fine and it’s always nice to have integration with leaderboards, achievements, and a community, in this case OpenFeint. For $0.99, there’s almost enough in the title but the fact that it’s missing an extensive story and some fresher gameplay elements make Twin Blades suffer. I hope Press Start Studio will take these criticisms and work them out.

It should be noted, I played through the recently updated version which brought some major changes to the title. These changes did slightly improve the title.

[The reviewer obtained a free copy of the game for review purposes.]