Demo Review 33: Chronos Twins DX

In solar system Neon, inhabited planet Skyla receives the visit of a powerful evil hell-bent on destroying everything. Each plan attempted by the armed forces results in a failure. After fleeing the planet, the Ancients deduct that this evil character has travelled through time, and that their only chance to beat it is to send one of their warriors in the past. Thus, they build a machine and send Nash, a proud fighter from a race of warriors, back in time to fight the thing.

That’s what we learn in the Introduction to Chronos Twins DX’s demo. The main menu also allows one to change the controls (you can use the Wii remote and Nunchuk, or the Classic Controller, or the GameCube controller). And it’s kind of a pain with the Wii remote and Nunchuk if you ask me; the default control settings had the character attack with B and A, move with the joystick and jump with the C or Z button on the Nunchuk. Kinda problematic, it might take a while to get used to that. In fact, wouldn’t it be simple to just use the Wii remote held horizontally?

In Level 0, we control Nash as he makes his way across a city. He quickly reaches the boss and proves unable to defeat it – Hell, it’s rigged so that you cannot beat it, and it gives Nash a thorough beating. That monster is attacking in two time periods at the same time… Don’t try to make sense of that. On his dying bed, Nash tells his younger brother Nec to fight for the people of Skyla… and many years later, Nec is ready to step into battle with the ability to battle the villain in two different time periods at once. Hence the “Chronos Twins”. One Nec attacks with B, the other attacks with A, and since he exists in two periods at once, this means he can walk on platforms that are in only one of the time periods and not in the other.

After Level 0, we get to try four other levels in this demo. Level 1 is a straightforward level that showcases the dual-screen gimmick. Level 2 has a large monster following behind Nec and the protagonist has to destroy the large rocks falling in his way – in both time periods – while escaping the monster. Level 3 explains how Nec can stop time in one period to solve puzzles, such as pushing blocks in one period to allow the one in the other to jump over tall pillars. And Level 4 is a boss, which you must defeat by taking into account the top screen (where the boss is) and the bottom screen (where there’s two platforms that you must jump on to reach the boss’s weak point).

All in all, this looks like a solid game. However, it’s extremely difficult to keep your attention on both screens, so you may end up falling into traps you never saw coming. Either something hits Nec in the bottom screen while you are looking at the top one, or vice versa. That’s what would happen to me. Still, it’s a really creative concept. I wouldn’t buy it, but the demo was rather fun to try. Besides, very few demos offer so much. Feel free to give it a try… maybe you’ll be better at it than I was.