Xbox Live Indie Game Review – Super Avatar Hero Force
This game is completely different from what I expected from the screenshots. I was expecting a Final Fight or Streets of Rage style brawler with avatar zombies, kittens and giant robots. Yes, those three. Unfortunately, I didn’t get that … it’s much much simpler than that. Not to say that’s a bad thing of course. This is made by UberGeekGames, who are fairly well known for making fairly simplistic games with an over-abundance of features in them that you would never expect to be there. Like online multiplayer Pong for example. Yes, you read that right. Online multiplayer PONG. But this isn’t about that (though you should try “A Game of Tennis”). This is about a weird little game where you beat the hell out of avatar zombies … though you never actually kill them because I don’t think Microsoft would like people killing off hundreds upon thousands of avatars. So you just knock them back, they go home, sleep it off and are fine in the morning.
As a whole, the entire game isn’t all THAT spectacular. Like I said in the intro paragraph there, one would expect this to be a beat’em up in the vein of Final Fight and Streets of Rage with avatars. But it’s not. You stand there in the middle of the screen. You never move. Enemies will run at you from either side of the screen and you either use the analog stick (either one) or the triggers to bat them away. That’s literally it. Occasionally kittens will come bouncing across the screen, and if you attack those you lose your score multiplier. It’s all about timing, sure you can kick them away easily enough, but if you time it just right you get this spectacular critical hit that knocks the enemies clear off the screen Super Smash Bros style. And THAT was my reason for snagging it. And that alone. It’s soooooo satisfying watching those retarded Xbox 360 avatars go flying off the screen. Nevermind the fact that the game doesn’t really do a whole lot. Nevermind the fact that there are the archaic one hit “kills” (they knock you down and dance). I just love the fact that the avatars go flying off the screen into oblivion with the occasional well done slow motion effect.
There are 5 different tiers, which all amount to the exact same thing just at different difficulties with Tier X being the default story mode (though there isn’t much of a story here. It doesn’t even set one up.) … online scoreboards, a tutorial mode and “Awardments” for those people who think like I do in thinking that Microsoft has made a very stupid decision in not letting indie developers add achievements to their games. And you take a look at these Awardments in game that are unlocked after you buy the game and you tend to see just how long this game could last.
The overall presentation of the game isn’t great by any stretch, but it’s not bad either. I’ve always thought the avatars looked terrible, and that’s no exception here. You start off on a fairly normal looking street that slowly gets worse and worse as the game progresses which is a nice touch. But you see the exact same street every time you play and it falls apart the exact same way every time it seems. The way the screen turns white when things initially go wrong with the sky changing color and the city just falling apart initially looks pretty good, but otherwise … well … after a while I didn’t find myself caring one way or the other about it after trying several times and seeing the same thing over and over. The sound itself is a bit on the light side, but perfectly serviceable. And the music, while there isn’t a lot, works just fine.
7.0 - If you hate those avatars as much as I do and want to see them go flying into oblivion, then definitely get this. Or if you’re one of those types who’s wasted their money on all the crap you can dress your avatar up in and wanna see them beat the crap out of other avatars, there’s another reason to get it. The gameplay may not be the deepest around, but damn it’s satisfying.
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May 4th, 2010 - 01:39
Sounds pretty funny actually. I’ll have to check it out.