Genre: Action
Developer: Koei
Publisher: Koei
# of Players: 1-4 Players
Memory: 3 Blocks
ERSB: Teen
Supports: N/A
Also On: PS2
Website:Koei.com

Presentation
Mystic Heroes is the first crack publisher Koei first crack at the GameCube platform. Sometimes called the "kiddie" version of Koei’s Destiny Warriors action packed PS2 game. But did it live up to the standards of its PS2 father. Let’s take a look shall we? The game is loosely based on a popular Chinese fantasy legend of a time when mystical and powerful beings, Senin and Mamon, roamed the land. The game depicts one period of their flamboyant battles. By combining Koei’s multiple characters (group) Battle System and the high level of expression possible with the Nintendo GameCube, this game will provide an original and refreshing experience that has not been found in other multi-player action games for awhile. Mystic Heroes starts you off by letting you choose one of four characters (a few dozen less than the number of playable characters in Dynasty Warriors), each with a different elemental magic at their control and various speed/strength weaknesses. While the lack of variety may seem a little disappointing, it’s actually to the game’s benefit—by narrowing its focus, Mystic Heroes’ battle system makes for a far less button-mashing-intensive experience, and the story feels more tangible. It also means that the game’s four magic types (Direct, Jump, Target, and Sword) are exceedingly well balanced (not to mention easy to pull off), and you’ll find plenty of situations where one type is far more useful than another.

Graphics
Even with the enormous number of enemies on screen, Mystic Heroes always runs super-smooth without any slowdown, though the trade-off comes in the form of simple textures (that’s often blurry), unadorned levels, close draw-in, and a problematic camera without a much-needed zoom function. Unfortunately, the draw distance suffers in this game. After playing Sunshine & Starfox Adventures you just know it could have been better. Koei has kept the framerate up to 60 and mostly solid with all the magic-casting particle effects, but the whole tone of the game is foggy. Something Progressive Scan could have helped with. But MH has no progressive scan support for HDTV users. Best thing to see here is the giant bosses!!! Simply great to look at.

Sound
The fantasy-rally music is quite good (a few tunes may even manage to get lodged in your head), and the sound effects do a great job of forging a fantastical fracas; the voice-acting is lame, though, and the repetitious calls for help from your beleaguered battlefield comrades get old really quick. Turn on your radio put on some headphones and jam to Britney Spears during gameplay. You’ll be fine.

Gameplay
This is one of the most genuinely FUN games I’ve played in a while. Start the game by choosing one of four characters. Each character has unique physical attributes. Some are quick, others are strong, some are good with magic, etc. Each character also specializes in a particular element of magic. Once you choose your character, you fight your way through various battles in which you rack up hundreds of K.O.s, and boss fights. Your character has basic and jumping attacks for his/her weapon as well as a wide variety of magic spells. You can earn new spells by collecting Runes. The magic system adds great depth to the normal hack n’ slash formula. Your character can collect items during battles that permanently increase his/her stats. Pressing the ’’A’’ button makes you perform a standard attack with your weapon, and doing combos builds up magic. Pressing ’’B’’ makes you jump, which is very easy to do. Pressing the ’’Y’’ button allows you to do a direct spell attack, which is a quick shot of a different magic spell depending on what you have equipped. If you hold Y for a few seconds, you will go into 1st person and you can do a Target spell, which can lock on to up to 4 enemies, but some spells have a wide attack range and can do massive damage to much more than 4 enemies. If you press X, you will do what is very similar to a Musuo attack from Dynasty Warriors, which is basically a large sword combo where you are invincible for a short time. And if you press X while in the air, you will do a devastating Bombing or Jump Spell, which is good for scattering enemies. Only downfall is it can get quite repetitive at times for some. You can also do all of this in a multi-player mode supporting 4 players (not story mode). But playing on a split screen spoils the action. I recommend playing with only one other player.

Conclusion
What Mystic Heroes lacks in depth it makes up for with non-stop action. It’s even justifiable, considering the bulk of combat is against very weak enemies who don’t need a lot of fancy moves to be defeated. Yet in a boss battle, against a friend, or just for fun, a little real variety would have extended the playability of the game. It’s not better than Destiny Warriors 1, 2, or 3 but it is just as good (none of Koei’s titles are ground breaking). To the right person this is a real killer game. To another a lame experience. To me it’s a solid title that’s worth your time. But I recommend a rental first.

~ditto~

The Good
- Fast and fun action
- Tons of hundreds of hits combos
- Nice storyline

The Bad
- Blury graphics brings back N64 memories
- Combat can get repetitive
- No story multi-player mode

The Stupid
? How easy the final boss is