What happens when the world is in danger because an evil genius is threatening to annihilate all life within 88 minutes if he doesn’t receive 88 pctillian dollars? Well, 88 of the world’s worst heroes will be banded together in a bizarre team to save us all. Now if this doesn’t sound like the opening to one of the most unusual games around then I’m not really sure what to tell you. The fact remains that this is indeed the set up for what can only be described as a chaotically funny adventure that brings together an eclectic band of characters you couldn’t begin to imagine.
The gameplay mechanic of your protagonist changing each time you are either victorious or defeated works really well as you get plenty of opportunity to get used to all the different play styles of the characters. The idea that each of the 88 rooms must be completed within 88 minutes is a great challenge too because while it gives you plenty of time to find ways around the traps and enemies, it also provides a difficulty curve for players that might want to speedrun the game. Unfortunately, the downside of the different characters is that once you are down to your last hero, should you die and get a game over, you can continue the game but still with only the last remaining hero. This makes it pretty difficult to progress much further in the game. I found this to be a huge drawback as it felt like a lot of the game became inaccessible after this.
Something that sets this game out though, is that once it is available to purchase from the Nintendo eShop it will already have the DLC included that was available for other platforms. This DLC added new heroes to use in the game – and some of them have familiar faces! The likes of Rusty from SteamWorld Dig and Gunborg from Zombie Vikings are among the lineup of extra heroes available. There are also additional levels with a much harder difficulty for those gamers who love a challenge.
Overall 88 Heroes is great for some wacky gameplay and unique character ideas and is recommend to anyone who doesn’t want to take a game too seriously and possibly kill about 20 heroes in the space of 5 minutes. I would rate this game as a 6/10.
88 Heroes: 98 Heroes Edition launches on the Nintendo Switch eShop on 12/10/17 for £29.99. In order to review this game I received a download code from a PR Representative. This had no impact on my opinions or writing.