Babylonian Twins – The Quest for Peace in Ancient Iraq, Rabah Shihab’s long-awaited platformer, has found its way to the iDevice and is finally available in the app store. Playing as both twins, Nasir and Blasir, you’ll need to take advantage of the unique moves and abilities of each in order to explore the totality of each level and collect all of the golden palms so that peace can return to their land.
Babylonian Twins Pros:
- Terrific level design
- Beautiful polished graphics
- Engaging puzzles
- OpenFeint integration
- Good replay value
Babylonian Twins Cons:
- Jump controls not as tight as expected
Babylonian Twins offers more than a dozen levels of gameplay spread across 5 locations: The Prison, The Assyrian Palace, Procession Street, Tower of Babylon, and The Holy Gardens. Each level is fairly expansive, with new rooms, pathways, and locations accessible via the power of each of the princes. Blasir has the ability to dash quickly, opening up hallways in weak walls that allow access to other parts of the level. Nasir performs a destructive spin move that allows him to bore through weakened spots in the ground, gaining access to previously inaccessible rooms. During the course of play, you can only control one of the brothers at a time. Tapping on the icon in the upper left corner causes the current character to turn into a stone statue, while you take control of the other brother. The petrified boy is best utilized as a stepping stone to reach higher areas of the board or as a hefty weight to keep pressure-sensitive buttons depressed.
Each boy has a unique weapon to fight off enemies. Nasir is protected by a mace, while Blasir wields a sword. Each boy can take a few hits from his enemies before a life is lost. Losing a life will restart you from the beginning position. You have three lives. If you lose them all, your progress in the level is reset. You must collect all of the golden palms scattered throughout each level in order to unlock the exit door. There are also keys that may need to be found to gain access to guarded areas. Movements are controlled via a virtual d-pad, and a jump button and action button occupy space on the right side of the screen. Tapping the action button prompts your character to use his weapon, while holding this button will cause the boy to perform his special maneuver.
The levels exhibit a great deal of thought in their design, with areas that are different enough to keep the game fresh, but similar enough to leave you slightly confused about your exact location, which gives the levels a nice maze-like quality. A lot of attention has also gone into the look of the game, with backgrounds that reflect Iraq in a positive light. Everything looks very polished and clean, and the colors really pop. There are 7 original music tracks that offer a pleasant experience, fitting both the genre and setting very well. Controls are simple to use, though getting the timing just right in relation to jumping can be a bit tricky. We often found ourselves getting a too close to fires, falling just short of platforms, or making repeated attempts on the catapults until we finally nail the timing to launch us high enough in the air to reach our destination. If there is one weak spot in the game, it is the touchiness of the jumping mechanism. Otherwise, we are enjoying our time with the game immensely and expect to do so for a while.
Replay value is very good, as there are a series of treasures to earn, and OpenFeint displays leaderboards based on total game score and best completion times for each level. This gives players the incentive to replay the game in multiple ways, either focusing on spending time acquiring points or looking for the quickest route through the levels. Babylonian Twins is available for a special launch price of $2.99. If the promised updates with new levels come to fruition, this good value becomes a great value. As it stands, Babylonian Twins is a 5-Dimple triumph.
