Twins of the Sun establishes a grand, mythic objective from the start: restoring the cosmic balance between light and shadow that has been shattered by a primordial rift. The player takes control of Sol (the Sun Twin) and Luna (the Moon Twin), two celestial siblings whose duality is the core of the experience. Their goal is not just to reach the end of a level, but to re-ignite ancient beacons across the corrupted realms, merging their opposing forces to overcome unique environmental challenges.
The core mechanics of Twins of the Sun is that of an arena style arcade fighter. The game plays like a low budget take on something like Smash TV. Once you pick to play as either Sol or Luna, you get put into a stage that acts as an arena. You have to clear the arena of all of the enemies. Each time you defeat a set of enemies, more will spawn.
These new sets of enemies get gradually harder and once you have defeated the set number of enemies in a stage, you get to move onto the next stage.There is some light platforming around the stages to avoid things like pits and bodies of water, but that’s really it. I went into this game thinking it was going to be a 3D platformer or even a side scrolling one. Instead what the game offers is an arena style experience that isn’t much fun or really enjoyable.
Visually, Twins of the Sun is kind of a mixed bag. The character models for both the player and the enemies are large and pretty detailed. They are also very well animated and look good on screen. The environments are nice and detailed as well, though there isn’t a lot of variation.
Because the game is more of an arcade type arena fighter, each stage you play in for a given environment looks very similar to one another; with only slight changes. For example, you could find yourself in a forest stage, then when you move onto the next stage, it’s the same except for the additional set piece or platform you can jump up onto. The stages themselves only change every so often, but when they do change, the stages look really good. The stages have good geometry, great lighting, and the parts that are animated are animated well and the stages do seem to come alive at times.
Twins of the Sun is rather lacking in the audio department. When the player or the enemy attacks, there are sound effects that do sound good, but are repetitive and can be a bit bothersome. The music in the game is good, but kind of takes a backseat to the sound effects in the game. Also the music doesn’t quite fit the game. I feel like it should have been more arcade sounding instead of what we got.
The music sounds kind of soft and kind of childish. I would have liked to see the sound track be more upbeat and reflect the gameplay style. I think it could have gone a long way to make the game more enjoyable as well as having the music be more balanced against the games sound effects.
Twins of the Sun is described as being a platforming adventure game when it clearly isn’t. I mean yes, there are some platforming elements but it’s far from what I would consider to be a platforming game. Running around a single screen stage and defeating enemies can not be called a platforming game, at least not in my eyes. If your game is a platforming game, you really should have about as much platforming as you would find in games like Mario, or Sonic. I mean by this logic, I could argue that Smash TV or Xenocrisis are both platforming games.
If you’re looking for a half decent arcade style arena fighter, then Twins of the Sun is a good game to scratch that itch. But if you’re going into this game thinking that it’s a platforming game, you would be sorely mistaken in that line of thinking. I can not recommend playing this game as there are games out there that are better experiences than this game can offer. I would stay far away from this game and look more towards classic arcade games like Smash TV and at games in the Mario and Sonic franchises if you’re looking for a traditional platforming experience.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
In addition to writing articles, Ryan Byers also creates content for his YouTube channel called "Obscure Games and Consoles", collects video games, and dabbles in video game development.