NEXT UP HERO PC Beta Impressions

Sometimes wearing your influences on your sleeve can be very enjoyable for how others may perceive your work.  Digital Continue’s Next Up Hero feels like the best of modern twin stick shooters combined with the art style and isometric perspective of Bastion and the jaunty tone of Scribblenauts.  That last comparison is particularly apt, as Digital Continue is actually made up of former 5^th Cell team members.

Next Up Hero is a visually dazzling game with cute hand-drawn sprites, monsters, and tracks.  In the Beta, there were a total of eight heroes I had access to with various abilities and firing modes, much like Assault Android Cactus.  There are weapons ranging from swords and rocket launchers, to even bongo drums and boomerangs.  Other than the unique weapons, this game also carries the vaguely Souls-esque Echoes.  An Echo is corpse of another player who died during the level which the current player can resurrect and use as an AI partner for the rest of the level.  The ghost will then fight alongside the player, also pulling enemies and giving the player a respite if an onslaught of monsters becomes unbearable.  You can resurrect as many echoes as you can find for that particular instance of the level which makes completing these tracks way easier as they cannot die.

Adding another layer on top of this is the concept of the Ancients.  Ancients are temporary followers that confer special abilities to your character once you have spent the proper number of Echoes on them.  Abilities such as an invincibility buff, a charging attack that one-hits enemies in a straight line, or waves of energy that deal huge damage in a particular radius can help in a pinch.   However, this can lead to some frustration as there may not be as many echoes as you’d like on your particular instance of the level.  I am still unsure as to how this factors into leaderboard tracking, perhaps by limiting the scores of those who’ve resurrected Echoes.  But considering you can also regain health by dispensing your follower Echoes, it feels limiting in terms of which levels you would want to pick given that you would be missing out on health upgrades and other advantages if you pick a lesser populated session.

While the Echoes and Ancients are a unique idea that makes the mundane concept of death in games a little more meaningful, I can’t help but wish multiplayer wasn’t asynchronous.  Co-op would make the game maybe a little too similar to other twin stick shooters, but if the option existed it would make the experience an easy recommendation.  The game also only really has one mode of completion for the ventures.  You can’t really “complete” a venture, instead it harkens back to some arcade games where you keep going until you have expended your lives.  This is all well and good, only there doesn’t seem to be a continue option and how far the player goes in a venture is often determined by how many echoes have been left behind on that instance.

Perhaps keeping the Echoes in your current session and only being able to be used by you or your partner in replays, that would keep the flavor of the game intact while also adding to the communal arcade feel the developers are trying to convey.  All in all Next Up Hero has some neat ideas that could make for a very fun package overall, your mileage may vary, however, if you want to make your solo runs really matter.  I would, however, recommend this game to anyone looking for a quick fix of fun with a progression system and unlockable heroes to keep you coming back.

Take a Look at the Next Up Hero Announce Trailer:

Next Up Hero is available for $19.99 on Steam Early Access.