Twin Breaker: A Sacred Symbols Adventure

As fans of both Colin Moriarty and Chris Ray Gun, we were really intrigued to see their faces on a game. But with their preferred (and mainly discussed) platform being PlayStation, naturally it came to PS4 and Vita first. And whilst we do own a PS4 - it’s not our preferred console, and has been loaned out to friends and family more than we’ve used it ourselves over the past year or so. Thankfully, Twin Breaker: A Sacred Symbols Adventure got an Xbox release in September, so we finally got a chance to get stuck in recently. Written by Colin, Twin Breaker (with Sacred Symbols being the real-world name of his podcast alongside Chris) is an 80s inspired brick-breaking game with an in-depth story. Think Breakout, but with a lot more to it.

Developed by Lillymo Games, Twin Breaker is set in the 2300s as Earth recovers from a decades-long World War. The United States has been focusing on interplanetary travel instead - keeping themselves out of the War. But when NASA’s Generation Ships - spacecrafts that take off from Earth with people expected to live and die upon them, with offspring carrying on the duties and so on - disappear without a trace, only two pilots are capable of getting to the bottom of it. Colin and Chris head on through a wormhole to investigate, when they come up against various threats and have to deploy their bouncers, paddle-like apparatus that can bounce a projectile back and forward at their enemies. You take control of the two paddles at the bottom of the screen (instead of the typical one, hence the title) named Greetings and Salutations - a nice little callback to Colin and Chris that should be recognisable to fans. You’ll control Greetings with the Left Stick, and Salutations with the Right.

With forty stages, with four Boss fights spread throughout - the game gets steadily more difficult as you progress, with some levels shifting from just the standard horizontal bars at the bottom, to also having to control vertical bars at the side. It’s a nice evolution from the usual brick-breaker games we’ve all played in the past, and with a story that is fantastically well written and filled with interesting details, it really holds your attention. Add to that the varied selection of power-ups at your disposal, with some being delightfully powerful, you’ll have a lot of fun - even if you’re screaming at the screen in fury when you miss a ball. The only downside with the main gameplay itself is that it feels like you’re at the mercy of the RNG gods at times when it comes to power ups - one try of a level might net you a couple of multipliers that really help you to get a high score, whereas the next try you don’t get those as often. Levels can drag a little too, when you get down to the last couple of bricks as it can be hard to get the ball to go where you want it to - but this is a genre-wide feature, rather than a game-specific issue.

The art style is wonderfully retro, with a solid colour palette throughout. Some brighter colours would have been nice, but they work well as they are. The character models for Chris and Colin are pretty funny, and gently poke fun at Chris’ height when you see them side by side. Sound-wise, it further hammers home that sweet, nostalgic vibe with wondrously arcade-y beats that never get boring.

Including the main game mode, there are 7 modes available for you to play. You can also play on Marathon Mode, which continues the levels without a break until you die. At first, Allan went for this option to play through - but the levels are classed as “Marathon1” and “Marathon2”, etc. so don’t count for the level based high-scores. As well as Marathon, you also have; Hockey, Random, Shooter, Catcher and Boss Rush, as well as an Achievement Room to see any unlockables you’ve gained throughout your time playing. We both had a lot of fun (and varying levels of success) with each of the modes. Hockey has you going against bosses in a typical air hockey style game, with a twist: hit the boss repeatedly to temporarily destroy them, giving you a chance to get some quick goals in. Shooter mode has you shoot falling blocks, Catcher has you catch falling coins and Boss Rush has you going up against all of the games’ Bosses, one after the other.

At £8.39 on the Xbox Store, it’s a fantastic price for what is a truly fun - and frustrating - game. Able to be completed in around 3-4 hours, it’s a short and sharp game to get through which isn’t at all unusual for this style of game. But for one to have as much story as well as a bunch of different game modes to play, there’s bound to be something here you’ll enjoy.

In the end, we decided to give Twin Breaker: A Sacred Symbols Adventure the Collecting Asylum rating of 8/10.

Have you played Twin Breaker yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!

- V x

Thank you to EastAsiaSoft for the Twin Breaker: A Sacred Symbols Adventure Xbox One review code!