Menu

«Previous post | Next post»

In Artax Games SL’s retro shoot-em-up “Iro Hero” you blast your way through waves of enemies in the top-down space shooter “Iro Hero”. Inspired by games of old, where it is next to impossible to get through without unloading pockets full of quarters. With a storyline of needing to save all of humanity, and finding that there are humans fighting with the alien enslavers. Story plot points are given throughout the levels, wherein this place I find myself in a place of conflict.

“Iro Hero is a vertical shoot ’em up with beautiful pixel art graphics inspired by many old-school classics.” – In other words, most old-school shmup gamers should feel right at home with “Iro Hero”.

All of the stories that happen in the levels are in the form of text on the sides of the screen and nothing is voice acted. In other words, you will have to read everything for yourself…And that’s easier said than done, as there is an absolute chaos is going on in the game. Simply put, I can’t keep up with the reading parts.

You can encounter ten different types of enemies, and each enemy got more than one hundred different behaviors.

However, at the same time how often that you are going to die while going through the game hearing voice actors speaks the same lines over and over again would get on a person’s nerves. As so, there are a lot of stories that happen. Nevertheless, I have no way of telling if it is good or not, maybe it just means that I need to Git Gud or the story just needs to be ignored.

There are upgrades that you can acquire throughout the game, and they allow you to increase the firepower and capabilities of your spaceship (there’s even a super weapon that you can use, as seen in this picture).

Let’s now talk about just how “Iro Hero” works and just how hard the game is. The player is in a single spaceship that moves around on the screen shooting down the bad guys. The ship that is being used has a polarity attribute where it turns from red and blue, mastering this is the players only hope of getting through the “Iro Hero”.

There are nine action-packed levels for you to play through in total in “Iro Hero”.

While blue the player’s ship can only shoot down red enemies and vice versa, but adding to this while blue if the player runs into blue shots it charges up a super shot, this is the same while the ship is red. Making it so that the player has to switch polarities very quickly to take down ships and gather up energy resources.

You got ten bosses to slay in “Iro Hero”, and each boss fight is action intense to the max!

You have three lives, and the ship can take three shots before a life is lost, or taking a single kamikaze from another ship. Furthermore, once all lives are lost the player goes back to level one, do not pass go do not collect $200 making it so game over screens actually mean something. To be perfectly honest, this is the first game sent to me that I have not been able to beat (yet that is), and I am loving the fact that “Iro Hero” isn’t just another way bam thank you ma’am style game where lives really mean nothing.

So, all in all, “Iro Hero” is a great and challenging retro shoot-em-up. So if you’re into hard retro shmup games, then look no further than “Iro Hero”!

Pros:
+ Exceptionally hard
+ Music and sound effects are nicely done
+ Brings back what games used to be like

Cons:
– The story is hard to follow with all of the chaos going on

Gameplay: 4/5
Graphics: 3.5/5
Sound/music: 4/5
Controls: 4/5
Replay Value: 5/5
Story: 2/5

tgg grade 4 out of 5

Verdict: 4/5
Iro Hero is the game that your daddy grew up on bringing with it everything that caused many controllers to break against various walls. Fast almost reflex twitch motions are required here to just survive, while at the same time bringing in more and more mechanics that makes use of the polarity system. Iro Hero is a game that I refuse to alow to beat me, I have become addicted to it.

Title: Iro Hero
Developer: Artax Games SL
Format: Nintendo Switch
Genre: 2D side-scrolling action
Resolution: 720p/1080p
Release date: 2018-06-07
Difficulty: Normal
Spent time: +6 hours
Average grade internationally: 56.67% via Gamerankings.com
PEGI age rating: +12
Price: 12,99 USD via the Nintendo Eshop