Guardian Heroes is a side scroller, hack and slash, RPG game in which you can play from different characters on a story quest.
General Gameplay
Being originally on the Sega Saturn console back in 1996, Guardian Heroes is a more of a classic hack and slash, RPG game style of game. The game allows the player to jump into three different fields in which they can fight enemies and continue to the end of the level. As Guardian Heroes is an update of an older game, the Game Visuals went over a major overhaul. The in-game characters are detail but still at times pixelated when up close. The backgrounds, enemies, and other in game assets are also done with vibrant colors and able to be seen in the game. As the game is a hack and slash, in our playtesting we did not see anything too offensive for gamers, however we would recommend the game to be played by gamers that are 9 and older. There is no colorblind mode, and in our play-testing we notice some of our gamers had a harder time seeing some reds and greens on the screen. Guardian Heroes Audio is a lot of weapon sounds, character grunts, some one-liners from the characters, and background music. The game does not have any spoken dialog so there is no language or anything else that would be offensive to any younger gamers. The game does not support 5.1 surround sound but it is not needed. We would not recommend using a gaming headset with this game as parts of the game sound was unbalanced and very loud when using a headset during play. Again parents/guardians please use caution when having your gamers use a gaming headset for extended play session. The game Controls are like the Sega Saturn setup. The left and right shoulder buttons to move between the plains, an attack button, jump button and blocking as well. As the game was designed around a digital directional pad, so is the game as the remake. This is where it became interesting as the Xbox 360 and Xbox One game controllers are more designed to play analog and not as digital control as much so it took some of our gaming family to get used to. You can still play the game with the analog sticks but they felt a little sluggish when playing. As the game is backwards compatible, there is no need for any special controller.
“Guardian Heroes is still a gem for the Sega Saturn, however on a modern console the game does start to show its age”
Family Friendly
As we were reviewing Guardian Heroes because of the popularity of the game becoming backwards on the Xbox One, there were some things that came up in the testing, and one of those things is “Is the game still fun 20 years later?”. In the 90’s games like this were king both in the arcades and on the console. One of those things that made Guardian Heroes special was that it had a lot of replay value, and because of the multiple endings, it encourages you to play the game more. Also having the ability to have up to 8 players (4 for the story, and 6 for the multiplayer) was a lot of fun for local couch fun, but as the time went on, the gameplay got stale after the second or third play though. Another thing is that as this is consider a cult classic as far as beat them ups are but overall in this modern day and age the game is showing its age. Now if you have fans of the side scrollers in your gaming family they will love Guardian Heroes, but for most, they will get bored of the gameplay fast. In our special needs game testing, we did not have any issues with the game, controls, or even style but they too also got bored of the game real fast. Again, as the game is backwards compatible on the Xbox one, it is best to either watch videos of the gameplay and see if this is a right fit for your digital library.
Closing
20 Years ago, Guardian Heroes was the king of the consoles, but with dated gameplay, style, control issues it is just a game that is showing its age.
