Previous Next

In times of recession and worldwide strife, Mother Nature kindly bestows upon us cute arcade games to smooth the worry from our brows. Mega Twins, by Mother Nature (via US Gold), is vying for the Andrex Puppy Award for making you embarrassed to be seen buying it.

You're on another planet - you'd have to be - and there are three (count 'em) Kingdoms: air, water and land. You must rid each of nasties before you can free some princess or other and discover some other legendary nonsense. Oh, I don't know. The point is, you - and an easily bribed friend, if you choose - have got to bounce along through Primary-Colour Land, bopping nasties with your sword and collecting glittering things. The baddies - which aren't particularly nasty or bad, actually - don't try and stop you much, but they do get in the way. Regretfully, you must murder them.

Each level is divided into sublevels which only seem to be a few screens long. This means that you come up against End-Of-Sub-Level-Baddies all over the place. No bad thing, because these actually put up a decent fight.

Every time you lose a life, you start the next exactly where you died, but with temporary invulnerability. So, even those who blub at not being able to get past certain bits of most games should be able to beat any nasty by using this feature for a sustained attack.

The graphics are big, colourful and smooth. What more do they need to be? The game is certainly large enough to keep you from your sleep for many a night, and the sound is as cute as your inner ear can withstand. If you haven't invested in a game of this ilk and you're feeling in need of some harmless goodwill, Mega Twins is for you. It's a lot of fun and stands out like a beacon in an otherwise sad and depressing world (sigh).

1. Similar to Rodland, this is ideal for the toddler in your cellar - er, life.
2. Although it's good, it's not very original - try Toki or any other of the hordes of arcade conversions. How many more cute-'em-ups can there be?