System: DS
Dev: Brownie Brown
Pub: Square Enix
Release: Aug. 14, 2007
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
Review by Nathan Meunier

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Review Rating Legend
1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid
2.0 - 2.4 = Poor
2.5 - 2.9 = Average
3.0 - 3.4 = Fair
3.5 - 3.9 = Good
4.0 - 4.4 = Great
4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
5.0 = The Best

Combat is fairly automated, and your units will attack enemies that come within range, at least most of the time. The fragile nature of your heroes - who you must simultaneously protect and utilize to slay foes - is a minor hindrance to victory at times. Heroes do not level up, but they can be improved by equipping various attribute-boosting items. In most maps, the game will end if you lose a specific hero, and survival comes down to relying on summoned units to keep progressing forward. Long-time fans of the Mana series will be pleased to see the return of many beloved creatures such as rabites, mushbooms, and beelancers, which can be summoned into battle to do your bidding.

The real problem in Heroes of Mana lies within the game's poor A.I. and the frequent inability of your units to react appropriately to commands. Selecting large groups of units and sending them after the enemy frequently results in at about half of your troops standing around doing nothing. This is incredibly frustrating, especially once they reach the desired foe-ridden location on the map and simply don't attack because they can't get close enough. The other half of the time, instead of taking the most direct path to the location you send them, your troops will take the scenic route around the farthest unexplored reaches of the map, attracting the attention of more enemies. By the time you notice they've strayed from the flock it's usually too late.

The path-finding ability of your units is downright insidious. This is primarily because movement is grid-based, and two creatures cannot occupy the same invisible square simultaneously. If a square directly in the path of one of your troops is occupied, they will attempt to go around, wasting precious seconds and subjecting themselves to damage from enemies in the process. This is less of a problem in the earlier open-terrain maps, but it can be crippling in tight quarters where you end up with major traffic jams between the enemy, your heroes, resource-collecting units, and combat units. Even with a maximum cap of 25 units, congestion is unavoidable in later maps. The difficulty ramps up significantly in the latter portion of the game, and there were times when it took an extreme measure self-restraint not to throw the DS across the room due to the aforementioned A.I. and path-finding issues.

Anger management and other problems aside, Brownie Brown manages to pull off a solid real-time strategy experience on the DS that does get a lot of things right. The game has an excellent storyline, spanning a lengthy quest set in the Mana realm, and up to 40 bonus maps can be unlocked. You can also go head-to-head in local wireless matches against opponents, but each player's strength is limited by how far they've progressed in the single-player campaign. The Wi-Fi capability is disappointing, as it only allows you to rank your progress against other players instead of battling it out with them. Heroes of Mana is far from perfect, yet it's bound to easily win over new players and Mana fans alike.

By Nathan Meunier
CCC Freelance Writer

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