Game Info
GAME NAME: 3D Dot Game Heroes
DEVELOPER(S): Silicon Studio
PUBLISHER(S): Atlus
PLATFORM(S): PS3
GENRE(S): Action Adventure
RELEASE DATE(S): May 11, 2010
Well, wow! What a game. A lot of teams worked on this, most notably From Software and Atlus. I think it’s safe to say that everyone involved is a fan of video games, and it shows.
3D Dot Game Heroes has a cliched, quirky, not-too-serious story – and it’s everything one could hope for in a game like this. Everything is so tongue-in-cheek, over-the-top, and deliciously satirical. The entire premise for the game’s look is, “The King of Dotnia declared that the sprites would upgrade to 3D, so they did!”. What’s not to love? There are ten million in-jokes related to games of all sorts, ranging from Mario to Bionic Commando to Resident Evil to Demon’s Souls.
The game controls well enough. The controls aren’t exactly perfect, but I don’t think they’re supposed to be. It feels somewhat like somebody mapped an NES control scheme onto a PS3 controller. Turning is clunky and you’ll often swing your sword in the wrong direction, but everything else is fun. Dashing, boomeranging, etc. is all pretty damned entertaining.
Where the game really takes off is the character editing and creating. Through the official site’s Hall Of Heroes, you can download a multitude of “original” characters – I.E. ones that won’t get the game creators sued. However, do a bit more digging and you can find this beautiful site, chock-full of HUNDREDS of copyright-infringed characters from every video game/movie/TV show you can think of! This increases the game’s fun factor about ten-fold. Heck, I beat the final boss as Inignokt from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Mooninites!
Graphically, I haven’t seen anything like this game before. How would one describe it? It’s pixels… but in 3D (thus the title). It’s an amazing blend of old and new school graphics. It just works. The characters look delightfully classic, and the world, while borrowing heavily from The Legend Of Zelda series (in many other forms other than world design), looks fantastic. And the music! It’s such a smile-inducing infusion of classic 8-bit chiptunes with orchestral themes, all reminiscent of this classic tune or that, you’ll find yourself unable to stop smiling.
If you’re big on nostalgia, you can’t go wrong with 3D Dot Game Heroes. It offers a surprisingly deep experience, and you’ll be encouraged to play through again after you’ve beaten it. I give this masterpiece 9 pixels out of 10.
