I Am The Hero (Nintendo Switch) Review

Yes, this is "just another," pixel art game, and the design of the levels isn't that stunning, despite a decent amount of detail, and a more-than-decent use of lighting in each one. Instead, this becomes better looking through the use of a couple of special effects. First of all, while a traditional 2D side-scroller, the perspective is slightly skewed, effectively giving a sense of depth to this flat realm. The second trick is how many levels are filled with reflective surfaces, which, again, beautifies things, making this, otherwise bland, urban world stand out.

The only real flaw here is how the frame rate can take a plunge when multiple enemies appear - something that, thankfully, is not a frequent problem. Moving on to the audio, the few metal-esque tunes on offer are nice and all, but they kind of have a faux quality about them - in other words, the music is okay, but forgettable. As for the storyline, it's... there! Yeah, it's nothing to write home about, but few will care, as this wasn't made with a story-first mindset - which makes it easier to forgive the game for its many grammatical errors.

The reason why the plot doesn't matter, is simply the fact that I Am The Hero is your ordinary, side-scrawling beat 'em up. Therefore, the only thing that matters is the action, and, luckily, the action is good, with 'Hero' - mostly - controlling like a dream. As for his abilities, he utilizes the standard arsenal of a videogame fighter, with punches and kicks that can be combo-ed, a quick evasion move, plus a strong Ki-like move called an EX-Skill, which uses the build-up energy that's slowly filling a gauge as you play.

Sadly, in terms of variety this falls into the same pitfall that most its kind do, as things will soon get a tad repetitive, despite the fact that the different enemy types are thrown into the fray in the best pace possible. The only thing that spices thing up a bit, is that, upon completing a stage, the player can choose between an additional EX-Skill, or a new character, with new characters actually being enemies from the game, which can be called anytime with the push of a button, and who sort of act like extra lives.

Note that this is a very short experience, which will take you about two hours to complete. So, maybe the lack of a decent variety almost makes the available bless like a blessing, right? Problem is that, short or not, there's no real incentive to replay this besides chasing a higher score, or trying out a harder difficulty setting. This is a fun indie title, that's twice as fun in local co-op, but that's about it. Even genre fans might think twice before purchasing this, as there are plenty of alternatives available, with many of them being better.