The diminutive, anonymous hero at the adventure’s centre holds a magical sword which, as long as players keep their energy at maximum, grows to absurd size, allowing enemies to be struck at huge distances.
The old-meets-new atmosphere is matched with Silicon Studio’s own mischievous sense of humour. With the Zelda series becoming ever more complex (the following year’s Skyward Sword pushing the Wii to the limit with its lavish graphics), it’s refreshing and somehow touching to see a modern game reprise the pared-back simplicity of the 1986 original.
Naturally, only one hero can retrieve all the orbs and defeat the Dark King, which is where the player steps in, thumbs primed.įrom its light fantasy story to its weapons, Game Heroes clearly takes a huge amount of inspiration from The Legend Of Zelda and other 8-bit Nintendo-era action adventures, but Silicon Studios takes this inspiration in the spirit of nostalgia and affection rather than cold-hearted cynicism. But in springing up into the third dimension, an ancient evil has been unleashed, and the Dark King Onyx has made off with six mystical orbs and hidden them around the kingdom. In his less-than-infinite wisdom, the king of Dotnia Kingdom has decided that, to encourage more tourism to his remote and verdant land, it should make the jump from flat, 2D sprites to 3D polygons. Bearing in mind that Game Heroes was being developed before the release of such indie hits as Minecraft and Fez – the game’s initial release was in 2009 in its native Japan – it’s a look that is both unusual and disarming. It’s also just possible that you have happy memories of Silicon Studios’ joy-filled action adventure, 3D Dot Game Heroes.Ī relatively low-key success when compared to 2010’s bigger releases, PS3-exclusive 3D Dot Game Heroes was nevertheless one of the most charming little games of the year – a retro-themed fantasy romp which freely heaped elements from classic adventure titles into its basket, while coming up with more than a few ideas of its own.įrom the moment 3D Dot Game Heroes starts, the first thing that jumps out is its unique visual style: everything, from its squat little characters to its sprawling game map, is made from dozens of tiny cubes. If you’re a Nintendo fan, you may fondly recall the magnificent Super Mario Galaxy 2. Think back to the games of 2010, and you may immediately come up with deservedly acclaimed titles like Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect 2 or Alan Wake.
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