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Guardian Heroes was one of
the Saturn’s early titles to showcase the 2D oomph that
the console had. Made by Sega veterans Treasure in 1996.
The game is a one or two player affair or up to 6
players with a multi-tap in the VS mode mentioned in the
review.
The game is mainly a scrolling beat-em-up but it does
have RPG elements in it. The story of the game is a
bunch of treasure explorers have found a great magical
sword and the lead character Han has position of the
sword for the first level till settle you into the game.
After you have done the first level this is where the
game starts to pick up pace. Han losses the sword and it
goes to a character called the “undead hero” who you get
to control throughout the rest of the game with a few
simple commands! The most devastating command is a
massive explosion, which completely engulfs the screen!
The RPG element in the game is for levelling up your
chosen character. There are 4 main characters in the
game to start with Han who is the muscle, Nichole who is
weak but fast, Ginjirou who is an all-rounder with
lighting attacks and Randy who mostly specialises in
magic with a little hamster thing on his shoulder called
Nando who will also attack the enemies.
Han only has one magic attack and is thus pretty boring
to play but he is usually the first player people will
pick.
You do meet another character called Serena along the
way that will become playable in the main game. The
games story as I mentioned earlier starts with the group
finding a magical sword but it then goes into very
Japanese anime story telling involving heaven and hell
and depending on which of the many routes you chose
during your game which are chosen after the end of most
levels will determine which ending you get out of the 6
available some are good some are bad endings.
The gameplay is fast and frantic with multiple enemies
attacking you at once and you do get a bit of slowdown
on occasion usually when more of the bigger enemies
appear on screen but this can be forgiven because it
happens rarely and a game of this type would never work
on the Playstation!
For so much data within the game the load times are very
minimal which shows you what great programmers treasure
are!
The game has lots of transparency effects particularly
Nichole’s pink cape, which I think was probably an up
yours towards people that said the Saturn couldn’t pull
these effects off.
There is another game mode in this an excellent VS mode
where 6 players can fight out in teams or against each
other if you like. As you meet characters in the game
they will become playable in the VS mode, which adds up
to over 40 characters to use in it!
I did forget to mention that the game opens with a
fantastic anime intro which I hoped would eventually
lead to a full blown anime series but sadly this has
never appeared!
Treasure is mostly known for the radiant silvergun game
on the Saturn, which is a shame cause I feel that this
game does get over looked although it will cost you a
pretty penny to buy on ebay!
It’s a must for any Saturn owner!
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