Hands-OnEvil Twin

Dreamcast games in development have been dropping like flies since Sega announced earlier this year that it would no longer produce the console. Evil Twin began as a Dreamcast game, and although its developers claim that it's still coming to Sega's 128-bit console, the only version of the game on display at E3 was for the PlayStation 2.

Evil Twin is a dark 3D platformer that follows the story of an orphan named Cyprien, who bears a striking resemblance to Chucky of horror movie fame. As children sometimes do on their birthdays, Cyprien tires of being a child and assumes that his imagination is holding him back from blossoming into adulthood. Unbeknownst to Cyprien, his pleas have been heard by a menacing figure called The Master, who kidnaps Cyprien's friends and holds them hostage in an imaginary world. Forced to face his imagination, Cyprien is sucked into the parallel universe, where he must rescue his friends and discover the revelry of being a child.

With 65 to 70 sections spread out over eight different levels, Evil Twin looks to pack plenty of gameplay punch. Like most 3D platformers, there's a great deal of jumping, climbing, swimming, and attacking to be done. Difficult platform jumps are plentiful, and the camera isn't always the most cooperative. The square button causes Cyprien to jump, the X button fires projectiles, the triangle button swoops the camera into first-person view, and the circle button lets Cyprien use objects that he collects.

Once the proper item has been collected, Cyprien may transform into his white-haired alter ego, Super Cyp. Changing from Cyprien to Super Cyp is accomplished with the press of a single button, and while playing as Cyprien's evil counterpart, you may perform lightning bolt attacks, rush forward with his supercharge, or scale tall leaps with the super cyp jump. Cyprien's main weapon is a slingshot that automatically locks onto enemies. As you rescue each of Cyprien's friends, new types of slingshot ammunition are made available. The slingshot can be used as a basic projectile attack or to fling controllable paper airplanes, which may be used to push switches that are out of Cyprien's reach. Once Cyprien finds the bubble gum, he can blow bubbles and use them to retrieve objects. To save in the game, Cyprien must first collect save power-ups and then take them to his mutated elephant friend, Wilbur.

Matching the tone of the story, Evil Twin's graphics are murky and bleak. Most of the playable levels consist of grungy caverns dominated by brown and gray hues. Real-time lighting is scantily used to light the way, making it sometimes difficult to find your way. It looks as if the low-poly character models used in the PlayStation 2 version of Evil Twin have been imported directly from the Dreamcast code. While the color palette remains largely unchanged throughout the game, the texture variety and clarity are already impressive. The game's story is moved forward via real-time cinemas that include facial animation and streaming dialogue.

While there are more than 100 different character models in the game, few enemies were shown in the playable version of Evil Twin we saw at E3. Some of the nightmarish enemies that were shown resemble insects with segmented legs and round, beady eyes, while others escape description due to their otherworldly looks. The bosses included in Evil Twin take on a special twist because they are gross mutations of the very friends Cyprien is attempting to rescue. One especially rotund boss must be forced to vomit so that one of Cyprien's friends may be released from the confines of its stomach. A second boss that resembles a demon will take three different forms before finally being defeated. While not at the very top of the PlayStation 2's graphical food chain, Evil Twin is looking like a good port of a visually impressive Dreamcast game.

If you've been waiting for a creepy 3D platformer with a twist of the macabre, Evil Twin is one game to keep an eye on. There aren't many PlayStation 2 games in its genre, and the ones that have been released thus far don't tell half the story it does. The real question is whether Cyprien is a character that appeals to a broad audience. The same team that created the impeccable Rayman 2 is developing Evil Twin, but the only giveaways are the tight graphics and gameplay to match. Evil Twin: Cyprien's Chronicles is scheduled for release in September. We'll have more on the game when we receive a playable copy.