The Nyagu are an alien species with good intentions and a lot of time on their hands, so they travel around the galaxy bringing peace and love (cue Mr Burns from certain The Simpsons episode). So when they meet the human race, they saw the energy crisis and had the brilliant idea to teach humankind how to harness electrical power from their life force. However, something that seemed like a blessing quickly became a curse because big corporations started to see humans as nothing as electricity container. Even worse, aliens like the Re-wu started to kidnap humans and use them in their power plants…This is the story in a nutshell of Iro Hero, a game that was inspired in treasure’s classic Ikaruga.
In Iro Hero, you take control of Iro, our hero, on its quest to save humankind on its trusty space ship. The ship uses a polarity system. With this, you can change your color from red to blue. Like a magnet, bullets and enemies of the same color can’t harm you, but the same enemies of different color and bullets are another story. In Iro Hero, the control scheme is basic: you move with the Left Stick (or directional buttons), you shoot with A, R changes your polarity, X fires the powerful Tesla Shock (and attack with a gauge that slowly fills with enemy bullets absorbed), and with Y Gravity ignition that you get after beating the first couple of levels. It’s a mighty arsenal, right? However, even with all that in your favor, Iro Hero is a tough nut to crack. Because Iro Hero, like shmups of old, is hard. It’s not insanely hard that you can’t beat it, but it’s hard nonetheless. You have to be on your toes and anticipate what is going to happen on the screen (honorable mention first level after the second story dialogue, you need to quickly maneuver through some floating platforms, needless to say I died a lot here I felt my ship to slow).
Another factor that makes Iro Hero a little rough around the edges, isn’t the story per se, but how it is told. In other games (like another favorite of mine, Sine Mora), when there is story involved, they either pause the action, or put the text in a way that shouldn’t distract you and get you lose a precious life. Iro Hero action is non-stop, so you need to pick what to do. Do I read what the characters have to say? Or, do I clear the area of enemies? These are tough choices, and I didn’t mind to lose a couple of lives to understand the story (but I thrive in hard games so), but the average gamer cares more about lives than story.
Graphically, Iro Hero has beautiful art, and everything looks so crisp and detailed. The gam eplay itself is displayed in the center in TATE mode, and the music is really good. You can get you pumped up, and playing with headphones is a must. Iro Hero has four different modes of shmup goodness: History mode 3 lives no continues, Normal mode 3 continues but scores are not taking in consideration for ranking, Arcade classic arcade action 1 continue only, and 1CC a mode that you unlock when you beat arcade mode. With all of these different modes, you have Iro Hero to keep you playing for a while. However, the lack of co-op play is a bummer. I think I would be even more fun in two player co-op.
Bottom Line: Iro Hero is a really fun shmup, that while it takes inspiration in Ikaruga, it doesn’t feel like a rip off. It has enough personality and game play elements to make it stand proud on its own. I recommend it if you are a fan of shmups. It’s hard but not impossible. While it doesn’t have two player cooperative mode, the different modes and online ranking make up for the lack of it.