When the Nindie showcase was aired, of all the games that I saw, there was one that left a huge impression on me. That was Unruly Heroes. It looked like a really fun action-adventure, beat ’em up with a gorgeous art style like seen on Rayman Legends (my favorite game on Xbox 360). I was impressed when stalking–I mean investigating–the folks at Magic Design Studios. They are composed by industry veterans who worked in Ubisoft and the Indie game industry. I expected great things from them, and let me tell you, I am not disappointed.
Unruly Heroes is a game that is inspired by one of the Four Great Chinese Classical Novels: Journey to the West. For those of you who don’t know, Journey to the West has inspired many works of fiction, like movies (my favorite being The Forbidden Kingdom) and most prominent manga and anime artists. Akira Toriyama was inspired by Journey to the West to create everyone’s favorite saiyan, Son Goku. Unruly Heroes brings us an action-packed game with some hilarious moments and some tense and precise platforming.
The goddess of mercy Guanyin Pusa has summoned the four Unruly Heroes to save the world from plunging into endless night. However, as she says when you meet her, “No pressure, though–you’ve got this.” After that funny introduction, your journey begins and are taken to the basics of the game play. One of the things that makes Unruly Heroes different from other games in the genre is that your starting character is not set in stone.
In Unruly Heroes, each character is needed to traverse for the myriad of obstacles and challenges in the game. For example, Wukong has a double jump. However, for long jumps it’s not enough, so this is where the hero swap mechanic comes into play. By pressing the L button, you can swap with the other heroes in stand by. If there is a jump that Wukong can’t make, you can swap to Sangzang and he can glide over the pit or obstacle, and then once on safe ground, you can swap back to Wukong or whoever you were using. The swap mechanic not only helps with succeeding over obstacles, but also when you die. If you die, as long as there is one hero left, you can swap into that hero. However, what happens with the ones that fell in battle? Well, when your hero dies a floating soul starts to hover about after a few seconds it becomes big and bright and will have the shape of your fallen heroes so you just need to move closer to it and hit it. With that, the soul will burst and your hero will come back to life, albeit with a little bit of life, but it’s better than continue from the last checkpoint.
Speaking of which, checkpoints work differently as well. In order to activate it, you need to defeat enemies and get parts of the scroll needed to activate the check point (how much power you need is indicated by a lamp icon on the lower right part of the screen). If you are only avoiding enemies, you will start from the beginning if you die. Each character has their own moves and characteristics, and they all feel fun to play with (my favorite is Kihong; never doubt that a pig can fly!).
Scattered through the overworld, there are statues of the heroes. these play a important role in progressing through the game. Wukong’s statue has him making his magic staff (GOKU!) as a temporal bridge to cross pits and traps. However, if Wukong attacks, the bridge disappears (pro tip: if you swap to another hero, you can attack normally and the bridge will continue there). Kihong’s statue makes him swell up and float, so who says pigs cant fly? These mechanics make the game even more fun, since you never know what is going to happen next. In each stage, there are a lot of surprises and secrets to encounter.
Speaking of surprises, the game is full of them. You can see that the developers did not leave a stone unturned to provide a memorable experience. For example, when the stage is loading, you can see a group of four musicians doing nothing, but if you press either BAYX buttons, they start to play music! I was delightfully surprised by this. If you hold down the buttons, they play nonstop for as long as the area is loading, so you can create some interesting music combinations. It’s a clever way to deal with the loading times (and let me tell you that the game loads fast, so this mini game ends fast).
In each area, there are 100 coins to find. These coins can be used to unlock different skins for your characters. There are also hidden scrolls that unlock special artwork, so for completionists, you have your work cut out for you. Playing co-op is a blast, and the swap mechanic works the same as in solo. Sometimes it is a fight to keep your preferred character because you’ll be swapping constantly for laughs and challenge.
When you are done with the co-op adventure (that unfortunately is local coop only), you can duke it out in player versus player matches a la Smash Bros, here PVP is local or online. This is a really welcome addition, since the battles can become really hectic, especially with each character’s ultimate skills.
The music in the game is superb as well as the graphics. What makes this game truly a delight to play? The well done controls The developers have done a terrific job with the game. No floaty controls. Everything is responsive as it should, and it’s the cherry on top of a tasty cake.
Bottom Line: Unruly Heroes is a great game that I thought it would be awesome, but it went beyond my expectations. With tight controls, beautiful art style, good music, and a fun cast of heroes, this is a game that you should be playing now! I cannot recommend it enough, and I foresee great things in Magic Design Studios future.
A Review copy was provided for this review.