Written by: Ian

 

 

 

Once one of the rarest (and most expensive) games to find ever, "Guardian Heroes" is now unleashed on XBLA- but is it actually worth your points? A Treasure developed side-scrolling beat-em-up with a cult following- surely with a HD update this should be awesome, right?

 

 

Like any a good Treasure game, the story in Guardian Heroes somehow manages to be light, deep, and totally incomprehensible. It remains unchanged though from the original, unlike the other tweaks which permeate through the game.

 

GH is like many a Japanese game from the era, featuring a mix of fantasy, steampunk, and futuristic technology- so expect knights, magic, fantastical creatures, and, er... mechs. It’s not to my personal taste, but still seems popular, and for the type of game, there sure is plenty of text and backstory you can read through.

 

 

 

Guardian Heroes plays quite a lot like a Final Fight or Golden Axe, but with a more limited way of moving between the planes. Rather than having free movement, there are three distinct planes on the Z-axis, which you click the left stick to move between.

 

The game, whilst short like many of these games, has far more replay value though, as the game has a large number of paths to go through, much like Starfox 64. The game also has RPG elements, so you can level your character up, although once you complete the game these aren’t saved.

 

 

You can also unlock new characters, try out various challenges, and issue basic orders to the AI playing with you. The achievements are pretty good at getting you to play through all the paths as well, and to try and find all the different endings. Either way, as long as you don’t mind repeating the first level over and over (which is too long really), there is plenty to do and see really, and you could easily spend 5 hours or more in game.