''Duet'' is a 2013

action game An action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction time. The genre includes a large variety of sub-genres, such as fighting games, beat 'em ups, shooter games, rhythm games and ...

by Australian game developer Kumobius for

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

and

Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...

. Players control two coloured orbs, guiding them to avoid incoming obstacles. Its Android version was first released as a part of Humble Mobile Bundle 6.

Gameplay

The player rotates a circular track with two coloured orbs, guiding the balls to avoid incoming obstacles. The level is reset once an orb crashes into an obstacle. It's required to keep both orbs intact to pass a level. The names of the levels and the game's story are inspired by the stages of grief from the

Kübler-Ross model According to the model of the five stages of grief, or the Kübler-Ross model, those experiencing sudden grief following an abrupt realization (shock) go through five emotions: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Critics of t ...

Reception

The game has gathered mixed to positive reviews from critics. As of August 2014,

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

lists a score of 79 for the game, a rating of "Generally favorable reviews". ''Duet'' is also listed a score of 80.00% on

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

. Critics praise ''Duet'' for its controls and design, yet noting its notorious difficulty. It is rated 4.9/5 on Apple's

App Store An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...

, and 4.7/5 on Google's Play Store. Duet is also rated 9/10 on

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

. It was featured in The New Yorker's Best, Most Elegant iPhone Games of the Year 2013 and in Kotaku's Mobile Game of the Year 2013. The game has been downloaded by more than 20 million people around the world.

Accolades

''Duet'' won the awards for "Game of the Year", "Best Action Game" and "Best Sound" at

Intel Level Up The Intel Level Up was a series of annual video game competitions organised by Intel to support independent video game development, with winning games receiving monetary rewards in addition to the award. The first competition, titled the Intel Ga ...

2014.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of Duet is available independently on several music streaming platforms including

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

and

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

music. In 2015,

Tim Shiel Tim Shiel is an Australian radio announcer and electronic musician, best known for hosting the radio shows ''Something More'' on Triple J, and ''Arvos'' on Double J. Shiel has been releasing music since 2005 and has been used for film, televisio ...

performed the Duet soundtrack live accompanied by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

References

External links