Review: 3D Dot Game Heroes

I have been in love with the recent renaissance of classic style gaming. Seeing old ideas come to life with new technology with titles like New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Mega Man 10 and Castlevania Rebirth gives me with warmth I haven’t felt since the days of blowing dust out of cartridges and simple, yet rewarding game design. Well, From Software and Atlus decided to roll out their own retro style game with 3D Dot Game Heroes for the PS3, a game all too similar to a game about green elf boy from Hyrule.

They aren’t denying that they’re ripping off The Legend of Zelda: from a Wind Waker style intro to quotes purposely stolen from the original NES classic. At first glance it would seem to believe that Nintendo has lost their minds and incorrectly released a game on a competitor’s console. The game plays nearly the same as Zelda, a grand kingdom to walk around, a quest involving items like the boomerang and bow to accompany your sword and shield and dungeon design exactly like the old days. From Software has done a bit to make this adventure more next-gen however with advance character creation equipped with sharing capabilities and visuals though blocky, are hardware demanding due to gorgeous water effects, crisp colors and good use of physics.

The story takes place at a kingdom called Dotnia, a once flourished 2D kingdom that was once troubled by a dark lord. This lord was banished into an orb by a young hero until one of his minions stole the orb, and you, the hero’s descendant, must stop the lord once more. During this, the king saw his kingdom lose popularity and decreed that the kingdom turn 3D, pixilated look and all. While the story isn’t Oscar winning material, retro games are mainly known for solid gameplay.

What’s cool though is that you are not a fixed character. There are dozens of premade models to choose from: warriors, ninjas, dragons, monsters and even a tank! If you don’t like that, you can edit the premade ones or create your character from scratch, building the hero from Dotnia block by block. If you put the time into it, you’ll be rewarded with the character of your dreams (or nightmares).

The controls are mainly NES Zelda fare, with two item slots for the X and O buttons for the sword and the other equipable items. Those items are found in dungeons and after gaining them, you gain access to new areas and dungeons via those items. Remember those cracks in the wall? Bomb them. Is there a big gap in the way? Use the Wire Rod (Hookshot) to grab a pole and fly across. The dungeons become much more complex in later scenarios and sometimes might take hours to figure it out. One thing that may take players longer to finish them is the difficulty. Thankfully, unlike more recent Zeldas like Twilight Princess, the game is pretty hard, with enemies and especially bosses, taking several hearts from you from a single hit. Fans of Atlus and From Software’s difficult and delicious hit Demon’s Souls take note. When time goes by and your wallet fills, you can obtain proper equipment, like rings, to protect you. Beating bosses gains you an additional heart and you can find scattered heart pieces along Dotnia, collect four and gain a new heart.


When your health is full, the sword is gigantic.

However, it seems like the gameplay for Dot Heroes fell flat, and only creates needless frustration. One thing that Zelda is known for is pixel perfect gameplay. When the player inputs a command, the game responds without a hiccup, and that everything in the game’s world exists for a reason. This leaves the player’s skill alone as the only catalyst between their success and defeat. Dot Heroes tends to forget this part because players can go to their deaths from things out from their control. The sword would sometimes not work correctly, whether the blade would cut half its size, or in some cases, not show up at all, leaving your hero looking dumb with an empty hilt and sometimes a lost life.

Dot Heroes also suffers from random drops, meaning that the items that drop from enemy deaths and breakable environment elements, like vases and grass, can be anything like money, arrows, health, magic restoration or possibly nothing. Zelda always had this rule where money would never drop unless the player had full health, otherwise, it would drop hearts. This nonrandom drop method encourages keeping health up for money and keeping players alive and not scrambling for health. Dot Heroes doesn’t go by such a rule, so players can be at full health and see nothing but hearts or be half dead and never see a single heart. For a game that focuses of saving and spending money for upgrades on the character and the sword, using that Zelda rule would be a fantastic way of subconsciously invoking the player to do better without leaving the worthless sense of worry and frustration. Hey, if they’re going to rip Zelda off, they might as well not cut corners while they’re at it.

3D Dot Game Heroes is a bittersweet retro serenade for Zelda fans and no one else. The reason the review is focused on comparing it with Zelda is frankly because From Software asked for it. They knew what they made when they finished this project and unfortunately didn’t do anything to expand the genre, add some sort of cool twist in gameplay or make it unique outside the cool visuals. The game is fun but stale, and has that constant nagging that it’s a totally inferior throwback to Zelda. If you like Zelda, it’s cheap and worth a spin, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. If you don’t like Zelda, stay far away from it. If you don’t know Zelda, then play Zelda: it’s a much more user friendly, rewarding and inviting experience.

3D Dot Game Heroes for PlayStation 3: 6.5/10

E3 Press Conference Impressions

It’s E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo - the biggest gaming event of the year. One week of pure announcements, interviews and on-hand demos where publishers, developers, press and retailer representatives show and cover everything there is to know for their next year and beyond. While there is a main show floor showing off what all the corresponding companies show off, it all begins with big press conferences. Many companies like Activision, EA and Ubisoft perform their own, but most people focus on three: Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, the three console manufacturers. These companies hold the future of console gaming, the future of their third parties’ continuing commitment on the console and the forward of content to the millions of gamers and their hard earned investment. This was a defining year: Sony and Microsoft are relaunching their consoles with new ways of delivering various forms of entertainment while the market leader, Nintendo, had to impress gamers with the successor to the Nintendo DS, the best selling system of all time.


I’ve become a huge Xbox fan throughout this generation, and any Microsoft fan can always look forward to a wealth of fantastic information of their investment every year at E3. Until 2010. Let’s be blunt: Microsoft’s Monday night press conference was not what fans wanted. While it started in its normal forte with Call of Duty and the premier showing of Metal Gear Solid Rising, everything went downhill when Microsoft started their “only for 360” line. They decided to throw out the idea of showing other great third party support with titles like Dead Rising 2 and Rock Band 3, and went short and straight for Halo: Reach, Gears of War 3 and Fable 3. With the exception of the tease of space fights in Halo, what was shown was what we expected from these titles. Anyone thinking about seeing new content only got the lousy tease for Crytek’s Codename: Kingdoms, something I would have been excited to see real information for. Core gamers - you’re done. Microsoft surely didn’t have much else to show, and this was blatant with 2011’s Gears 3 and its VERY early showing. This worries me that Microsoft admitted that isn’t anything else for 2010 for the core audience (AKA mostly everyone). They went straight to Kinect with a desperately cling because we all know the expansion of their current audience is done and they cannot expand unless a new hook hooks. Kinect is cool and I like the idea they’re bringing to the table, but they’ve announced that this isn’t for the core gamer and the core gamer was the only ones watching this. This was a continuous problem with Nintendo conferences, no core content for the core audience watching, and Microsoft took the torch for this. Microsoft’s ESPN announcement started cool, though went too long (and no NFL?), Kinect’s voice recognition was awesome to say the least and Kinectimals seems like it’ll be a guilty pleasure. However, their rampant Wii ripoff started with Kinect Sports, Your Shape Fitness and Kinect Adventures and then I realized that this is a gamble that Microsoft might lose. They want the Wii pie (Sony too, but they’re aiming core gamers in their route also), but the Wii’s out and has been out for four years and if they expect that audience to trade their system in and spend more money on a similar experience, they’ll be extremely disappointed (and the casual audience doesn’t even know GameStop exists). Their ending “surprise” was their redesigned console. The conference ended with the crowd cheering wildly, not because they were happy with the conference per se, but that Microsoft gave everyone in the audience the new Xbox 360 for free. I understand you want this new casual audience with Kinect, but don’t bite the hand that currently feeds you Microsoft. This showing made me lose my overall interest in Kinect.


The next morning, Nintendo was up to bat and boy did they swing hard. This was the best Nintendo presser since their Wii unveiling in 2006. Wii-wise, Nintendo was only concerned that you had Wii content this year, so they did something about it. Donkey Kong Country Returns, Disney Epic Mickey, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, Goldeneye 007, and Metroid: Other M; all big, solid, and exclusive titles. Also, millions of casual gamers got two games that they’ll most likely pick up: Wii Party and Just Dance 2. This wealth of 2010 content softened the blow that was The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Mario Sports Mix’s 2011 launch. Zelda was a complete mess on the stage, but seeing players play it after showed that the game works and that there is tremendous depth to the control scheme. However, did anyone realize that the controls are ripped from Wii Sports Resort? The sword and bow are obvious, but did you see that they “bowled” bombs and chucked them like “basketballs”, or that the beetle was like an “air sport”? After an impressive Wii showing, Nintendo continued with the unveiling of the star of the show, and probably all of E3: the Nintendo 3DS. A much more powerful handheld, the 3DS sports a 3D screen, a new sliding analog stick and a 3D camera for taking 3D pictures. For the first time that I can remember, they teamed up with movie studios to support multimedia content, in 3D as well. Nintendo started showing off the software side of things, starting with the first Kid Icarus in twenty years. Kid Icarus: Uprising looked amazing, showing that the 3DS was powerful – like GameCube or even Wii powerful. After saying Pit’s new adventure lead the 3DS launch, they showed nintendogs + cats(lower caps intended) as their blue ocean system seller. This continued with big announcements of third party support. Resident Evil, Street Fighter, The Sims, Ninja Gaiden, Kingdom Hearts, Metal Gear Solid, Professor Layton (Nintendo isn’t localizing them anymore), Dead or Alive, Assassin’s Creed, Saint’s Row (though everyone laughed)and three Shin Megami Tensei games. The system already looks to outnumber the DS’s complete M-rated library. This was the press conference to watch, and it really felt that Nintendo and Microsoft swapped positions this year. Nintendo’s conferences post-Wii launch has been really poor, but it really did feel this year that Nintendo showed off a Microsoft-style E3 event full of world exclusive announcements - and nothing could have been better. It wasn’t done once the conference itself ended either, Nintendo did not kick anyone out until 11 that night (the press conference started at 9 AM). That meant more info after the conference itself, from Mario Kart 3DS, Animal Crossing, Pilotwings, Starfox 64 3D, Paper Mario, and teased remake of The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time in 3D. Surprisingly missing: the Wii Vitality Sensor that was announced at last year’s E3, but no one cared.


Sony had the pleasure of being last so that their updates would bury Microsoft and Nintendo’s news into further and forgotten pages of game websites. “Exclusive” was their favorite word at E3 2010, showing their own games while trying to score content from other publishers. They started with the audience with 3D glasses watching Killzone 3 gameplay with Sony stating that 3D is a particular focal point for them like Move, another gameplay element that Killzone supports. First party is very strong and full of sequels: Infamous 2, LittleBigPlanet 2, Motorstorm 3, Gran Turismo 5, and two newly announced games: Heroes on the Move – a Jak/Ratchet/Sly Cooper collaboration and a new Twisted Metal. They dated Move for September with the audience flipping out seeing a $50 price tag, but that stopped quickly when they realized that the navigation attachment is sold separately for $30. Plus the camera’s separate, although the controllers will have various bundles with games and consoles as well. Sony announced new marketing, with a Coke agreement with Move and a new way to humiliate the PSP with a lame kid to ripoff their own Kevin Butler. With the 3DS unveiling mere minutes ago, seeing the PSP continuing its rocky history with a slim lineup, it isn’t looking good for the Sony handheld. Going back to Kevin Butler, Butler stole the show with one of the most entertaining things in E3 history: his total mouthing off. It’s something you need to watch because words only dilute the effect. Sony surprised everyone when they brought up their exclusive campaign: Third party agreements. They did this with a celebration of EA, one company that most gamers probably wouldn’t like a celebration with their horrible PS2/GCN/Xbox/GBA lineup. However, their recent increase of quality and their road of redemption really started with Dead Space, an excellent survival sci-fi horror. The EA segment had the sequel, along with a PS3 exclusive Limited Edition including the Wii’s Dead Space Extraction for Move. Medal of Honor’s reboot also has a PS3 exclusive LE which has Medal of Honor Frontline remastered for HD on the same disk. Arguably the biggest bombshell was that Valve is supporting the PS3, starting with what’s supposed to be the best console version of Portal 2 with Steamworks support. They also announced PS3 only content for Mafia, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and very quickly reminded everyone that Final Fantasy XIV still exists. Finally, the other big announcement was that some free stuff PSN users got as well as newer content will now have to be paid with their new subscription service. Losing stuff like the Qore magazine is a bummer. All in all, Sony was solid, but most of the games we all knew about, some facts were hard to swallow and the exclusive content rush seems like they’re bringing back the smugness that made them collapse their market share and made them play catch up the last four years. They did beat Microsoft by a long run though, and all Sony probably cares about anyway.