Those darn emo kids have accidentally summoned a horde of alien-zombies to destroy the city! Who should we call? The police? A dashing bandit? A Victorian-era, impressively side-burned gentleman thief? A redneck in a trucker's hat? Jason Vorhees? Well, all are options in Random Heroes, the new platformer from Woblyware. Random Heroes is a solid run-jump-and-shoot action game with a very cool aesthetic that goes very well with its parallax scrolling effects. It's a little reminiscent of the Metal Slug series, though with a much slower pacing. Gameplay is a little repetitive, and the pulse laser upgrade unbalances the challenge level, but Random Heroes definitely delivers a dose of random fun.
Review
Game of the week
technical is a little pixel jewel but the game machanics are really too slow and unchallenging with most of the time spent on waiting slowing moving platform. with the same engine but with a totally new fresh enemies and leves it'll be a top knotch product
I have to agree. Play the first two levels and you've played the whole thing. If you do play longer, get the money bonuses, then just save up for the best laser immediately.
I know its petty of me or whatever but I was kind of sad there were no female heroes for me to choose. I just like playing as a girl character and I didn't want to play nearly as much when I saw that there were none out of 5 options.
Bonnie - I agree completely. And I don't think it's a petty complaint at all. Really, is it so much to ask from a developer (especially one working with pixelated characters) to thrown in at least one female option for those of us who like to play as girls? I really don't think so.
That being said, it was a cute little game, albeit very easy. Got the super cannon weapon probably about halfway through the second set of levels and the rest of the game was a breeze.
Any good tips for beating the turtle boss?
@energythief
Not sure if it's helpful but you can make your life a lot easier by that point:
Save all your money, then the first two things to buy are the money books. You'll get loads of money really quickly now by the time you get to the turtle you can have a load of the clothing/armor (i.e. lots of health) and a decent weapon.
With the turtle boss you can then afford to take a few hits, just stand on the ledge shoot until he starts firing move over to the right, slowly, then find a gap to work your way back. If you time it right you should be on top of the higher left ledge again by the time he stops shooting so you can blast him again. Rinse, repeat 3-4 times with a decent weapon.
In fact the artist did draw two pixelated female characters.
They're included as bikini-clad rewards for the successful male hero at the end of the game. Perhaps not what you were looking for?
On a more game-mechanical note:
Dying in a level doesn't claw back the money you've earned when you restart, so you can farm for any amount by replaying the level. Not that it's required - the challenge level is low (which is perfectly fine).
Solid and simple retro shooter. As the reviewer mentioned, the pulse laser makes the game far too easy, but I played through the majority of the game with the shotgun anyway. Got all the achievements too. Yay!
Bit easy, bit boring. Pleasant to have a lot of diversions, but it's a pity that the only rewards in all the bonus areas are just cash and medikits. A few of the enemies in the final zone were almost challenging enough to make it interesting, but the hoppers were a bit too weak (to the pulse laser) and the diagonal-shooting guys don't turn round once you pass them.
Even the achievements weren't particularly diverse. I got 90% of them on my first playthrough, and all-but-one of the remainder are just "play through with a different character". (Does that even make any difference to the gameplay?) I'd have liked to see some more diverse achievements: perhaps "collect every coin on each level of one world", "complete a level without taking any damage", "defeat an enemy that knocked you down to your last hit point", "kill two enemies with the same rocket blast / flame jet", that kind of thing.
I suppose the graphics were nice, with a nice steampunk/victoriana feel. (Playing as the Gentleman definitely contributed to that - though he did look a bit amusingly mismatched with the rocket launcher and the pulse laser.) Graphics just about drag this up to 3/5.
Help me !! Im stuck on level 3 the sewers :( I keep on failing and its really annoying considering I'm a competitive person :$ any tips to help me ? :)
Update