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By Anthony Swinnich on September 20th, 2005
Legendary development team Treasure once had an unofficial "no sequel" clause. Fans were always accepting of this, because it meant that some of their favorite games wouldn’t have their reputations tarnished. How bad would it be if a sequel to a well-loved game came out and was absolute crap? Treasure was just trying to protect their property from the same fate that the Tomb Raider series met. Fans were accepting, but they always felt a pang of sadness that further installments of such great games would never be available- that is until Advance Guardian Heroes was announced.
"I found Advance Guardian Heroes to be an enjoyable, if short experience..."
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The coming of Advance Guardian Heroes erased the unofficial rule on sequels. The critically acclaimed Gunstar Hereos is getting a GBA installment (Gunstar Super Heroes, due October 24th), and a sequel to the N64 shooter Sin and Punishment is rumored to be in the works. Its good news for fans to see these games are on their way, but it’s important to note that Advance Guardian Heroes set a precedent for these games by playing as well as it does. If Eidos messes up the next Tomb Raider, people will probably brush it off; if Treasure were to botch a sequel, fans would take note. While I’ve never played the original Guardian Heroes for the Saturn, I found Advance Guardian Heroes to be an enjoyable, if short experience, and one which fans should go into with an open mind.
Greater Gameplay Than Story
Advance Guardian Heroes tries to sell itself as an RPG, but you’ll quickly realize the game falls more accurately into the Beat ’em Up genre. At the beginning you’re given three characters with varying stat-points to choose from, but it really doesn’t matter which one you pick since they all practically play the same; just pick which ever color you like best. After you pick your character, you set out on a quest to. a journey to fight some guys. I really can’t tell you what you’re supposed to do; the story isn’t very clear to say the least. I’m not sure if it’s due to poor translation or if it’s just not written well, but it’s not very developed at all.
While the story may be poor, the gameplay is anything but. Advance Guardian Heroes makes use of many, if not all conventional elements in the Beat ’em Up genre. Those who have played Double Dragon, River City Ransom, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: the Arcade Game will feel right at home with the basic set-up. The player walks from left to right on a field that takes up about half the screen, from the bottom up. The character is free to wander about the playing field. As the player progresses, waves of enemies will come, and the screen will cease to move. In order to move on, all of the enemies have to be defeated. The game supports an impressive amount of enemies on screen at a time, without slowdown, contrary to many other reviews mentioning a "crippling" slowdown issue which quite frankly doesn’t exist.
The More Options The Better
It isn’t the fact that you have to fight a large amount of enemies that makes the game so much fun, rather how fight that makes it fun. Generally in a Beat ’em Up game, combat gets old quickly. The repetitive nature of the genre is probably one of the main reasons its popularity has declined. However, if more developers took the route Treasure took with the genre, it’s possible it might not have died out as much as it has.
"Advance Guardian Heroes warrants a play-through if you’re a Treasure fan, or a fan of Beat ’em Ups in general."
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Combat in Advance Guardian Heroes is surprisingly deep, and it offers up a plethora of ways to take out your enemies; it’s just a shame the enemies aren’t smart enough to force you to be creative. I would make a comment about artificial intelligence, but that would give readers the assumption that the enemies have some form of it; I don’t consider walking and attacking intelligent. The enemies don’t block, and they don’t try to take you off guard; the only thing you really have to make sure you do is counter-attack, and steer clear from being swarmed. If you become cornered death is pretty much inevitable.
Even though enemies are brainless, intuitive controls make combat shine. Controlling your character remains simple but still offers an astounding number of offensive options. By pressing the B button, your character will attack. If you press a direction on the D-pad while pressing B, you’ll perform different attacks. Up, down, and left or right and B all perform a different attack, which help out in different situations. Pressing down and B is generally a good move when you’re surrounded, as it performs a circular attack, while pressing over twice and B knocks an enemy across the stage with a dashing attack. If you press the A button your character will jump, and you can attack while jumping as well.
Pressing R puts up a force field, which serves as a blocking mechanism, but timing an R button press correctly while an enemy is attacking performs a counter-attack. Counter-attacks are necessary for survival in the later stages, but they’re maybe needed a little too much sometimes. Pressing R and B performs a magically powered attack, and you can cycle through four of them with the L button. Magic is a little too slow to use effectively, but it looks cool and works well on weaker, slower enemies.
Not Your Fathers Beat ’em Up.
With combat being an absolute blast, it’s hard to imagine getting sick of fighting enemies in Advance Guardian Heroes, but it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Treasure obviously knew this, so about every other act (give or take) a boss battle ensues. Unlike most Treasure games, the bosses don’t normally fill up the screen, which struck me as odd. With six stages that have five to ten acts each, you can imagine there are lots of bosses that need to be taken down a peg or two.
They also added occasional sequences here and there to break up the routine action. They play differently while still using the same engine, though I’m not really sure why they weren’t expanded upon better. Instead of fighting in an area, you’ll sometimes need to jump from platform to platform, but it’s usually in a dangerous situation. One segment has you jumping along the wreckage of an enemy ship that’s falling from the sky. Double tapping A will jump you from platform to platform; miss a jump and plummet to your doom. The problem is, just jamming on A has the same effect as double tapping taking any semblance of skill out of the equation. Mixing the sequence up, maybe with directional presses added in, or the B, R, and L buttons would have made the sequences more challenging, and more enjoyable.
"Combat is surprisingly deep..."
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Even with the multitude of boss battles and strange jumping segments, the game is a quick play. You’ll finish Advance Guardian Heroes in the span of a few hours, though it’s hard to be surprised when most games in this genre aren’t very long. Of course you could go through the game several more times and play the other modes to unlock the fifteen hidden characters, but chances are you won’t be attached to the game after beating it several times.
Not Treasure’s Best, But Still Good Fun
Even though the game is short, and the enemies are dumb as bricks, Advance Guardian Heroes warrants a play-through if you’re a Treasure fan, or a fan of Beat ’em Ups in general. The combat mechanics alone show that even if the genre is dying, it still has room for originality in the hands of capable and inspired developers. It’s also an important game for Treasure fans everywhere, because it shows the company can still create an engaging game, even if it’s a sequel. |
