Nintendo claims that all developers, big and small, will be able to develop for its next generation console, Wii and its current generation handheld, Nintendo DS. Despite this promise, though, the process of getting a game out isn’t quite as simple for the smaller, independent developers as we might like to think. ‘The Indie Scene’ aims to spread the word about independently developed games and help out the people behind them, who can be just as passionate about making games as the big guys, if not more so.
Please welcome EnjoyUp to The Indie Scene! A European developer, EnjoyUp have more than 8 years combined experience in game creation and their team members have worked in partnership with other companies on a fair few games that you may have played (plus a few you may not), such as Game Boy Colour games Turok 2 and Ronaldo V-Football. More recently, they have worked on Game Boy Advance games such as Asterix & Obelix, Inspector Gadget Racing and Droopys Open Tennis. Despite the licence heavy portfolio – which may knock peoples outlook on them down by looking at the titles of their past games alone – most of these games have done well overall in the reviewing world and as such they should not be underestimated
While they seem to have been quite comfortable in their licensed work, they tired of working solely on commercial, conventional games. They set up EnjoyUp as an independent company so that they could try out all the new ideas they wanted without being tied to existing licences.
Clearly, they have something going for them, or they wouldn’t have been signed to a publication deal with the UKs Lexicon Entertainment, who have previously been linked with well ranked games such as Pool Paradise on Playstation 2, Keepsake and Restaurant Empire on PC and American McGees latest title Bad Day LA. Only founded last year, Lexicon have already fitted into their groove of trying to find original titles that inspire, challenge and engage players and boast distribution deals with companies such as Conspiracy Games and Atari, with more to come.
Its not often that you see a truly original concept. You can get close to it by radically re-designing an existing genre, such Zen Studios Flipper Critters delightfully has with pinball, or you can remain rooted in the norm with a few new ideas put in to keep it fresh, but many developers simply enjoy taking features from others and recycling them. While EnjoyUps debut title Chronos Twin does not completely overhaul the platforming genre, it strays far from some other developers methods of putting out games with the same features repeatedly. What is does have is a new gameplay element that looks to set it apart from anything else seen before.
Before revealing the hook, though, here’s a miniscule history lesson on the project. When EnjoyUp broke off as an independent developer, they specialised in Game Boy game creation – as you can tell by looking at their previous projects. With this experience in hand, they decided to begin creation of their first project on Game Boy Advance hardware, finding it to be a very impressive machine with many possibilities. Originally the game seemed destined to be completed around Christmas 2004, but a surprise hardware announcement from Nintendo caused all this to change. Nintendo DS truly was the perfect platform for their title and, the opportunity too good to turn down, the game had been re-created on the later hardware.
See, the reason for DS being the optimal format for Chronos Twins release is the vertical split screen nature of it. While miraculously it still worked on Game Boy Advances single screen, the dual screens of Nintendos latest handheld were a godsend, and Chronos Twin was just the game to take advantage of such a unique prospective system. What was the reason for the need of split screen gameplay though? Simple – you’re not just playing as one character.
Well, actually, you are just playing as one person. Nec is the hero of the piece and is a part of some kind of special force that has set itself against a race of aliens. Necs brother has been killed by the enemy forces in a previous mission, leading Nec to go on a mission to defeat the aliens who are causing havoc to peoples lives. How Nec must do this isn’t cut and dry, though, as he is bundled into a special kind of time machine that allows him to exist in two time periods at once; past and present. Your job is, as you may have guessed by now, to control Nec through both time periods to reach his ultimate goal of revenge.
In other games about time travel you might be required to play in one time period at any time, switching between past, present and future to achieve your aims. Not here. Here you control Nec simultaneously in both time zones, traversing the same lands that have changed in the years between the past and present. The past is displayed on the lower screen of DS, while the present is shown on the top, and Nec appears on both. Using the d-pad, both versions of Nec can be moved along at exactly the same pace; using the jump button makes them both leap into the air, though the two have separate fire buttons. They also share an energy bar and time bar (this appears to be a fancy name for the number of lives you have left).
What this means is that Chronos Twin could be considered as smarter than the average platformer, as rather than accounting for one set of actions, you must correlate the pieces from both screens to ensure that you don’t bound out of danger in one time only to collide with a hazard in the other. In other circumstances you must use the features of both time periods in tandem – for example, a large gap may exist in both worlds, but not seem like it has enough platforms to get across, the spaces between them being too wide. However, if a platform exists in one world, you can hop on a mirror version of this platform in the other as well, even though it is not visible (how this is possible, its not sure; it could be to do with Necs group affiliation and the futuristic suit that he wears). It could sound complex for sure, and difficult to get your head around initially, but when it is seen in motion the idea becomes a lot firmer and gameplay looks far more plausible.
Its not limited to invisible platforms, though. Players will also have to face bosses, with some of the encounters unveiled thus far showing a dragon-like monster being taken on in the present while dodging about in the past and a purple boss that seems to time-shift between both screens, needing to be shot on either screen whenever it appears. Its also not always locked to simultaneous play, with it being necessary to freeze one version of Nec at times so that a puzzle can be solved that will directly affect the other time. One example of this shown is that a pit of spikes exists only in the past, whereas the present has a normal, walkable floor. The Nec of the past must be halted temporarily as the present Nec heaves a block across so that his past form can cross over safely without impaling himself. EnjoyUp did not want to make the game fully action oriented and decided that puzzle elements would work well in the title too, and this mix of mindless shooting and cautious planning looks like it could pay off. Its estimated that the game will last between 15 and 20 hours.
You can tell when you’re looking at a game that has something in it that’s never been done before. If you see a game which has an enhanced system over a previous feature you might think that’s nice or that’s a great improvement. When seeing something never done before that seems strange at first sight, you cannot help to be overwhelmed with a slight feeling of apprehension as you wonder whether it can work and create a brilliant new game experience or will sadly fail. It cant be said yet whether Chronos Twin will fall into the former or the latter category, but on first impressions its looking promising – as Nintendo say though, only playing is believing, and so it will have to be judged when the game appears in early 2007. For now, you may want to take a look at the official trailer below to help in-grain the ideas of Chronos Twin into your mind.
