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Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Review for Xbox 360

Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Review for Xbox 360

30 Seconds to Remake a Hit

Half-Minute Hero was a charming little game for the PSP that condensed all the grinding and melodrama of the JRPG genre into short 30 second snippets of gameplay. Unfortunately, when it first came out, the PSP wasn’t the most popular handheld console out there, and it was passed over by many JRPG fans that otherwise would have gotten a big kick out of it. Now the game has been remade into Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax, a downloadable game for the Xbox 360. Is Half-Minute Hero better and, more importantly, more accessible the second time around?

First off, let’s talk about the original Half-Minute Hero for those who missed the bus. You take the role of the Hero, who has set out to put an end to the eternal battle between the Goddess of Time and the Ultimate Evil Overlord. Unfortunately, there are many lesser evil lords in the world, and all of them know a spell that will destroy the world in 30 seconds. It’s up to you to thwart their evil plans before the world meets a melodramatic end.

Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Screenshot

The object of the game is to complete multiple JRPG plotlines in thirty seconds or less. As you wander around the world map, battles automatically take place, and at the end of every battle you gain experience and money. You level up furiously fast, easily jumping up two or three levels every time you complete a battle, and you become rich just as easily. Unfortunately, you also frequently find yourself spending this money as fast as you earned it.

Paying to pray at a goddess statue is the only way to get you more time. The price increases every time you pray, eventually becoming far too expensive for your income. If you somehow find yourself with some extra cash, however, you can stop at a town to buy some equipment, heal your wounds, or buy a single-use item.

Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Screenshot

Other than that, you basically do everything you would do in a JRPG, just at hyperspeed. You talk to villagers, solve puzzles, participate in sidequests, go down branching plot paths, and eventually face off against the final boss in a triumphant battle between good and evil, all within your 30 second time limit. Then you do it again, about 30 more times. This would get a little boring if it weren’t for the game’s absolutely hilarious story. Heck, at one point you actually save the world from becoming a Gameboy game.

Super Mega Neo Climax has all the original levels of Half-Minute Hero, only the graphics have been totally redone. While the original game was drawn in a retro 16-bit pixelated style, Super Mega Neo Climax comes with a “Neo Cartoon” mode that replaces every sprite and environment with beautiful hand-drawn cartoons. It’s pretty to look at, but it misses the point a bit. The pixelated graphics were part of the parody, and eventually I simply switched the graphics back to classic mode for nostalgia purposes. It was then that I realized the game was actually easier to play in classic mode. Spaces that you can walk on are clearly outlined by the blocky pixelated graphics, whereas invisible walls and boundaries are kind of ambiguous in Neo Cartoon mode. And trust me, a single second spent walking into a wall could mean life or death in this game.

Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Screenshot

In the original Half-Minute Hero, you eventually gained access to extra game modes. Evil Lord 30 played like a 30-second RTS, while Princess 30 played like a 30-second shoot ’em up and Knight 30 played like a 30-second action game. In Super Mega Neo Climax, all these modes have been removed and replaced with singular levels that are rather similar to the main game.

Evil Lord has to free castles and towns from enslavement, Princess has to search around for a cure to her father’s illness, and Knight has to search for holy ground among a series of illusions. Even though there are some slight differences, like the Princess’ ability to fight at range or the Evil Lord’s ability to summon monsters, they all follow the same “pray at a statue, complete your quest before time runs out” formula that the main quest did. Sure, they have the same Neo Cartoon graphics mode the rest of the game does, but that doesn’t make up for the replay value we lost through the removal of these fun little diversions. Luckily, Hero 300, which tasks you with saving the world in 300 seconds with no time rewinds, and Hero 3, which asks you to save the world on a ludicrously strict three-second timer, survived from the original game untouched.

Half-Minute Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Screenshot

There is one massive problem with playing Super Mega Neo Climax, and it’s not even a problem with the game. It’s the Xbox 360 controller itself, which is easily your greatest foe in every game mode. Neither the analog stick nor the d-pad is accurate enough to allow you to make the sharp turns needed to maximize your time. You will frequently find yourself running into rocks, walking in circles, and simply going in the wrong direction because the Xbox controller can’t detect a clear up, down, left, right input. In fact, I had far more fun playing this game with my TE fight stick, than I did with the controller. Oh, and dashing is utterly useless. It’s supposed to allow you to get around quicker at the expense of your HP, but since you can’t navigate well it’s really nothing more than an HP drain.

Still, it’s almost like the creators of the game factored this frustration into the game’s cost. It’s only ten bucks—as opposed to the original forty dollar price tag the PSP version had—and you are basically getting the majority of the content (minus the extra game modes) that the PSP version had. At the very least you are getting quite a lot of value for your dollar.

The last thing Super Neo Climax has over its tinier brother is a well-implemented multiplayer mode. Two to four players can get together to quest across ten awesome maps, and internet play, both ranked and casual, is fully implemented. There is only one tiny problem with their new online system: The servers are absolutely dead and barren. If you know your friends are getting Super Mega Neo Climax, it will be a blast playing online with them. Just don’t expect to join any random pick-up games.

In the tradition of Half-Minute Hero, I will now sum up my thoughts on Super Mega Neo Climax in a mere 30 words: Not better than the original, but not worse. New graphics are nice, but extra modes are less interesting. A great value for anyone who still hasn’t played the PSP version.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.7 Graphics
Though the Neo Cartoon mode makes the game harder to play, it’s kind of nice to see hand-drawn images of the sprites from the PSP game. 1.3 Control
You simply cannot play this game with the stock Xbox 360 controller. It’s impossible. Use a third-party controller if you can. 3.9 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Thrash metal and 16-bit sound effects. It’s like Marvelous Entertainment hooked a speaker up to JRPG fans’ brains. 4.3 Play Value
No matter which way you slice it, Half-Minute Hero is still loads of fun. At only 10 dollars, it’s well worth your money. 3.9 Overall Rating – Good
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 – 1.9 = Avoid 2.5 – 2.9 = Average 3.5 – 3.9 = Good 4.5 – 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 – 2.4 = Poor 3.0 – 3.4 = Fair 4.0 – 4.4 = Great 5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

  • Fast-paced Action for Instant Gratification – A fresh new way to play games, clearing stages in 30-second intervals.
  • Old-School Graphics, New-Age Metal Sound – Classic 16-bit graphics give this game its unique visual style, while original music by one of Japan’s most critically-acclaimed guitarists keeps a pace as fast and furious as the gameplay.
  • New NEO Cartoon Mode – Experience Half-Minute Hero with brand new HD visuals.
  • Intense Multiplayer Action – Connect two to four friends over the internet for blazing fast competition!

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