Twins Abra and Cadabra wanted to use color to dye their clothes but mistakenly unleashed Colormageddon. Now they need to use their chromagic powers to create spells to retain their newly dyed dresses. The story might be a little goofy but developers Flying Beast Labs needed to attach the color element directly to the gameplay.
Gameplay was designed with co-op in mind. In fact, since co-op play is required, a computer AI companion will assume the role of the other witch when playing solo. Although the AI does a decent job, it will never take the place of a human player.
The game board is essentially set up like a dodgeball field. From the perimeter of the grid, each witch shoots colored magic to the colored objects littering the playing field. Shooting a green burst of magic will dissolve a green object in the playing field, red destroys red, etc. While players will need to destroy these color objects with speed, they also need to create specific magic spells by destroying items in a specific order, generating a recipe for a colored magic attack. Sometimes when an object is destroyed it will leave behind a flask of color and collecting these flasks can unleash spells when collected in a specific order.
This is where teamwork comes into play since each character has access to all colors at all times. Each face button is assigned a color and can be changed at will. For example, tapping “X” will change the color to blue but tapping “A” will change the color to green. There is a problem when playing co-op with split Joycons though as the left Joycon doesn’t have letters, it has the mock d-pad buttons. This can make it confusing to select each corresponding color since the game is set up for the official button names, not mock d-pad directions, so playing with a Pro Controller is recommended.
Instead of competing in an endless wave like in Tetris, Magic Twins is divided into stages. Each stage features a goal with optional objectives. Depending on the final result of each stage, the player is award one, two, or three stars. Eventually the player will encounter a star threshold, meaning you will need X amount of stars to continue. Players are also limited on the number of stages available at one time, mostly revolving around the typical “beat level 1 to unlock level 2” progression system. This is a bit of an annoyance because some stages are best played with a local co-op partner. Playing solo makes it more difficult to unlock those stars which in turn makes it more difficult to unlock that next stage. Solo players have the odds stacked against them.
Magic Twins deserves recognition for trying something different and it can provide some decent co-op fun when played in short bursts. Although it doesn’t have the longevity of other puzzle games, this is one of those titles to put on your wish list and wait for a sale when you want to play a co-op game with your significant other after the kids have been put to bed.
Also available on Steam.
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By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz