Guardian Heroes Review

**Smore ninja** · October 16th, 2011

Following the tradition of several other popular titles of gaming’s infancy, here is Guardian Heroes. Originally released on the SEGA Saturn and is considered one of the best games that came out for the SEGA Saturn, it shows some time old traditions. Guardian Heroes is a side scrolling beat-em-up game with some RPG elements tied in as well and while I have never played its first incarnation, Guardian Heroes on the Xbox Live Arcade makes me wish I had. Luckily, this HD remake can taunt me for missing out.

The most interesting thing about Guardian Heroes is that this remixed version has two modes to everything; the altercations made for the remix and the way the original game had it. You can have the game have its new remixed graphics and use the original controls or have remixed controls with the original graphics. The game mechanics are also tweaked differently depending on which set of controls you have. The tweaks are nothing major but are just more suited for the controls you are using.

Guardian Heroes is at heart a beat-em-up game that keeps strong ties to what made the genre great. The remixed controls are very simple and great. In fact, they are modeled similar to Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. You can press X for weak attacks, Y for medium attacks, and B for a strong attack. Along with your regular attacks you have your special attacks that are triggered by specific movement of the left stick and pressing either X or Y, in a similar manner that you activate Ryu’s Hadoken or Spider-Man’s web swing attacks. Along with your regular attacks, you have very powerful magical attacks. These are triggered in the same method as special attacks except the B button is used instead. You do have a variety of defensive options like blocking by pressing the left trigger, and after a successful block you can press Y to perform a force guard, which pushes all enemies back giving you some breathing space if you get swarmed. With the amount of enemies that you face, it is bound to happen. When you get hit it is also possible to press both the block buttons and B so you can force all enemies back, causing damage to all. Your final option of defense is pressing A to do a back-step, which will dodge enemy attacks.

The general workings of Guardian Heroes are very solid. It nicely blends the two genres, beat-em-up and RPG together. Because of this, it is no surprise to see that Guardian Heroes is considered one of the best games for the Sega Saturn. You have HP and MP. Every character always has 100 MP to fuel their spells and to regain lost MP you need to land melee attacks. There is no way to regain lost health other than to complete a stage but you can gain more max health by levelling up. To level up you need to gain experience by landing attacks. The combat is quick paced and hectic and working out the best combos helps making your character gain back lost MP, which lets you cast more magic. All the fighting on Guardian Heroes takes place on one of three lanes. You can move to the lane closer to you by pressing the left bumper and move to the lane father from you with the left trigger. This adds a nice ability to run around your enemies and attack them from behind or dodge certain attacks that take up an entire lane.

There are three game modes that can be found on Guardian Heroes, Story, Arcade and Verses mode. The Story mode has you pick between one of the main characters and fight your way through the story by means of constantly going right and attacking everyone you see. This game mode can be played in co-op with another person. The second level you gain a minion that is a very effective fighter and stays with you throughout the remainder of the story. You can directly command this fighter, and if used effectively he becomes outstandingly formidable. At times you will also find random AI teammates to assist you. After completing each stage, if you level up, you can allocate stats points to several different attributes that can range between increasing the damage of your melee attacks to your character’s resistance to melee and magic attacks. The Arcade Mode has you pick a character that you have unlocked from the story mode and then takes you on a never-ending horde of enemies until you die. When you level up in this mode, the points you gain are randomly placed. The final mode is Verses where you, and up to three other people, can take part in a brawl that can contain as many as twelve contestants or as little as two. You are also able to select between characters that you have unlocked from the Story mode, just like in Arcade mode. You don’t level up in Verse mode, but you can select what level your character is within the restraints of the verse game type and allocate all the stats points.

Overall Guardian Heroes is a blast from the past that is fun, frantic and if you missed out on the original you now have a chance to play this great gem and you owe it to yourself to play it.

Overall Rating:
9/10