With a genuinely amusing trailer that captured the imagination, the thought of a modern, tasty 3D brawler with a wordless comedic approach that focused on slapstick and absurdity very much appealed to me. Whilst there is a lot to love and as much fun as the game is, it can’t quite shake the creeping repetition that haunts the genre.A 3D brawler, Big Helmet Heroes features a cast of almost thirty unlockable large-helmeted (or hatted) player characters that have various powers and stats, with the player – in single player mode at least – being able to switch between a selection of them in each stage.
From the slower, harder-hitting characters through to nimbler, more athletic entrants, it’s initially fun to see the special powers of each character as you weave and bash your way through hundreds of enemies. Each playable character has both a light and heavy attack, alongside dash and jump buttons, and after a gauge is filled, you can pull off a very handy special attack (for some reason this feature is mapped to Y&B on Xbox, instead of the unused triggers, not sure why as it just makes the control layout slightly more cumbersome) which is visually impressive as well as being incredibly practical in wiping out the enemies, although it does feel like your charged attack fills up rather quickly, lessening the impact after a while as it seems to be usable every few seconds.
There are twenty levels available to hack and slash your way through, and the environments and backgrounds can genuinely be beautiful and varied – as is Pierre Galibert’s score, which effortlessly weaves from delicate piano through to jaunty medieval melodies and thunderous epic waves, definite highlights that go a long way towards fighting off the pretty straightforward bashy-bashy gameplay, switched up as it is by occasional top-down more maze-like segments and pattern-based boss fights. You may be able to button bash your way past the first couple but believe me, challenges await you!
The ability to play with someone else in local co-op is cool, but a four-player mode would have really gotten the party started, and whilst this isn’t a deal breaker, it doesn’t help that occasional audio and frame-rate stutters take you out of an experience that should by all rights be pretty smooth in a game such as this.
SUMMARY
In summary, Big Helmet Heroes has big, colourful visuals and a soundtrack to match, but the lack of any online aspect or four -player modes may be a shame to some.
The ability to play with someone else in local co-op is cool, but a four-player mode would have really gotten the party started, and whilst this isn’t a deal breaker, it doesn’t help that occasional audio and frame-rate stutters take you out of an experience that should by all rights be pretty smooth in a game such as this.
In summary, Big Helmet Heroes has big, colourful visuals and a soundtrack to match, but the lack of any online aspect or four -player modes may be a shame to some.
It’s a very good looking and sounding adventure with enough humour to keep things light, but it doesn’t quite have the wow factor to hold off the more tedious gameplay aspects of the side-scrolling brawler genre in the long run.
Although for short blasts of mindless fun, I tip my helmet to it.
7.5/10
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