So
Herocore is out. As billed, it's basically an improved version of Daniel Remar's original attempt
Hero (He's also the guy that made Iji).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu_xdCHdSqgI wasn't a big fan of the original game, and this game doesn't do much to improve my biggest complaint with
Hero, the overly simple and unsatisfying core gameplay mechanic. I didn't like how you were in a game where levels were laid out in a way that made more sense for a top-down hero like Link to face, but the game made you more of a side scrolling hero who can only shoot left and right. That said though, there is a lot more combat variety in this game and the exploration aspects are a lot more satisfying than in the original. You can instantly teleport to any save point you've located, making backtracking to try out new powers on old obstacles very convenient and there's a lot more powers and reasons for exploration in general. These aspects improve the experience to the point that I actually found myself playing through the first few bosses without even thinking about it despite the game's short comings.
The reason for this is undoubtably because of the bigger draw here than the gameplay which is really just satisfactory, the atmosphere the art style fosters. This has really improved from Hero even though it was really the only thing going for Hero. I find the over reliance on simple, flat, white level terrain to still be a little boring at times, but there's a lot more cool looking doodads and set pieces in this game and I feel like that is really the strength of Remar's whole binary presentation. His liquid metal waterfalls, sheepish flora and fauna, and wonderfully detailed boss machines and weapon effects really make me wish I could travel back in time and play this on an old brick gameboy as one of its launch titles.
An other large improvement over
Hero that really helps this main strength of the game is the music.
Hero had really unimpressive MIDI jazz tracks that just didn't do it for me. This time around, Remar has gotten Canadian arctic dweller and Inuit chiptune musician, Brother Android to create the entire sound track. Despite having been a big chiptune fan, attendee of BLIP fest in New York City, YMCK and Anamanaguchi stalker, etc, I actually haven't been paying a lot of attention to the scene lately, but this guy is great. His music has a really desolate but never dull, arctic vibe to it that really plays well as a Machine-made, isolated, robot planet exploring soundtrack. You can get the
OST for Herocore from his site.
