Next Hero (2018)

Next Up Hero is a very demanding, tough and unforgiving game based on dungeon crawling that joins the growing catalogue of the Nintendo Switch. Thanks to its colourful and cartoonish art style, the game invites the player to a very difficult adventure which is not without its problems and technical issues, but which will fit right with those who appreciate this kind of challenge.

Next Up Hero is a fun and colorful online dungeon crawler with a nice difficulty curve and an interesting gameplay system with its echo companions.

Next Up Hero manages to introduce intriguing, innovative ideas, but at the cost of executing the core gameplay mechanic well.

Next Up Hero is a great game. The play possibilities are endless, the creativity is open to the players, and the gameplay itself is fun. This is a game I'd definitely go back to and play with friends.

At its base there are definitely things about Next Up Hero that make sense and work. Its art style and general flow of gameplay aren’t bad, and the variety of character attacks are interesting and worth trying out to see what suits you. Unfortunately, it’s pretty much everything from that point on that falls apart. Truly, this feels like a collection of game ideas thrown together in the same basket without the care to get any of it to be cohesive. Progression is slow, there are entire modes for levels that plain aren’t fun and make no sense (including one where you take damage for collecting prestige points, pretty well guaranteeing your melee fighter is screwed as they fall when an enemy dies), enemy damage is all over the place, and the story feels more like an excuse to have some out of synch character art to include in the package than anything else. I would like to enjoy it for what it does right, but the avalanche of issues it has make it seem like it wasn’t ready for release.