Kombo’s Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don’t waste your time. This is why we’ve split our reviews into four sections: What the Game’s About, What’s Hot, What’s Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game’s About
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes is a brand new RPG experience on the DS. It is set within the Might & Magic universe but this is a different take than most stalwart fans of the franchise have come to expect. Clash of Heroes is made by the brilliant minds at Capybara games who have also released the much praised Critter Crunch and departs heavily from the tired old M&M formula that doesn’t mean much to gamers anymore. This breath of fresh, beautiful air is something that all DS gamers need to sit up and pay attention to.
What’s Hot
Clash of Heroes is heavily influenced by the 16-bit days of the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo. The art direction is simply delightful. The visual style is done with colorful sprites that have unique appearances in a richly drawn world that might be 2D but feels alive and interactive. There isn’t an ounce of generic sprite work to be found, everything is given a personality and life. It just goes to show artistic flare can beat out high-end graphics that push the DS to its limit as long as they are appropriate to the game. The range of units you fight with in the game are all distinct so you won’t be left wondering what little guys do what on the battlefields. Clash of Heroes is a fine mix of sprite-based art and useful visual information that smooths the pavement for the other incredibly well polished areas of game development.
The story that is told in the game should feel very familiar; it is very close to a Lord of the Rings in terms of having one powerful item that controls the demon hordes want possession of to rule the world. It sounds like something that has been done before, and it has, but the writing is unusually good for a game of this nature so it feels fresh. You don’t have free roam over the world; you move on game board like grids so it keeps your adventure on track without you feeling lost or hopeless about what to do next. By keeping players “on-rails” for the RPG adventure and distilling cities and villages down to the necessary buildings and key people this is a tightly packaged story that never feels bogged down by blindly searching for your next mission to tackle.
The real star of Clash of Heroes is the combat system. The game bills itself as an RPG game with a new battle system. That isn’t the whole story, because veteran gamers will notice influences from other games like Fire Emblem, Puzzle Quest and Bejeweled. When you engage in battles, you don’t line up a party like every other RPG game in existence. What really goes on is the top and bottom screens are flooded with troops for each side. You have to line troops up to put them in attack mode or build walls to block incoming attacks. That is the really simplified version of the basic battle mechanics because the actual gameplay is incredibly detailed with plenty of layers for strategy. Because the gameplay is designed this way, you don’t always need the biggest stick to win. A sound strategy and a little bit of luck when you order reinforcements can take you a long way in the game. Clash of Heroes doesn’t ignore traditional RPG conventions entirely. You level your characters, get special items and collect money and XP. The money is used to purchase prestige units that can increase your power in battles exponentially.
A time will come early on in the game where something inside your brain clicks and you become engrossed with the entire game. With the different factions to play as with their own unique strategies and the lengthy single player, you’ll close your eyes and see the game from memory. This is an addicting game, start to finish. Just when you think the game is all the same with battle after battle, a new twist on the gameplay will introduce itself a variant that keeps you hooked. So instead of exchanging HP blows, you might have to target specific units at the same time or avoid friendly units in the enemies field. Small yet brilliant choices to ensure Clash of Heroes never goes through the motions.
What’s Not
There are a number of main characters in the game. One of the largest annoyances is starting from zero with each new member. Specifically, the transition between the first and second characters hurts the most. When you’ve gained levels and ranks, growing accustomed the more powerful elite and champion units, it makes it unpleasant to change. The reason for that is because you start back at square one where you have assemble your army and gather the forces when you already did that before. The feeling of washing back all your progress just to make it again is tiresome. It is the largest design oversight in the entire game.
Another oversight in Clash of Heroes is you can’t see what level your enemies are before taken them on in a fight. When you find out their level, it’s too late to back out without penalty. If you lose a match, there isn’t a penalty but it does waste your time. It’s something minor but when you start gaining levels, it becomes increasingly important.
Final Word
Clash of Heroes can be summed up very easily. This is one of the best games of 2009. Capybara Games needs to be commended for taking a franchise that nobody cares about any more and turning it into something that deserves undivided attention by using an innovation, beautiful art and smart game design to keep the gameplay addicting.
