Babylonian Twins Review

Babylonian Twins has had quite the time getting to the masses. It was originally made for the Commodore Amiga system in Baghdad during the early 90's and is considered the very first commercial quality game to come out of Iraq. Due to Iraqi political turmoil and the death of the Commodore platform, the game was shelved for many years, only to come back after fan demand from a YouTube video got to a boiling point. In 2008, Rabah Shihab decided to release an updated demo for the game and then in 2010 released a full iPhone port that could be enjoyed by everyone.

Even with the uplifting history, it was hard for me to get too excited about another iPhone platformer. There are a few inherent problems that are working against games in the genre, almost all of which funnel into the control category. The D-Pad's are almost always sub par, the jumping is usually overly difficult because of problems with button placement/size, and the combat is hampered by the lack of a button that you can accurately hit as a reflex.

Babylonian Twins does a good job hiding the limitations that the platform genre typically faces by being a slower paced puzzler, ditching some of the treacherous mini platforms for some puzzle based trickery.

The game works by using a formula that was made popular (at least in my mind) by the old Blizzard (Silicon & Synapse) classic, The Lost Vikings. like the old classic, you must use your heroes, in this case the Babylonian Twins, to work with each other in an effort to pass each of the levels. To accomplish this, you alternate which twin you control, using the other as a platform to jump on, a placeholder for a button that needs to be held, or a partner in crime to spring another one free.

The resulting game is a smart, well thought out platformer that will challenge even the most experienced gamers. The graphics and sound really aren't anything to write home about (which is understandable, coming from the Amiga platform), but the resulting game is definitely worth a try. If you like platformers but want a bit more of a challenge, be sure to pick up Babylonian Twins.