88 Heroes review

Reviewed on: Xbox One

At 8:08 on August 8, 1988, Dr. H8 gave our world an ultimatum: if he doesn’t receive 88 octillion dollars, he will detonate 88 nuclear warheads on Earth!

This fixation on the number 8 – which is only outdone by the hilarious stories of Terry Pratchett and his Discworld – repeats throughout the game. You have 88 seconds to complete each of the game’s 88 stages, and a total of 88 minutes to finish the whole game. For that, you will have at your disposal 88 of the dumbest, craziest and often most useless heroes in the world. Will you manage it?

From time to time we are graced with games that take a simple idea or an already worn-out style and manage to surprise with brilliant gameplay or mechanic ideas. That’s the case with 88 Heroes.

It’s a 2D platformer with pixelated graphics where you must go from point A to point B to advance to the next stage. There are plenty of others out there, but the mechanic implemented here turns the game from a simple 2D platformer into a fun and engaging experience!

Similar to Broforce, here you always start the stage with a different, random character; when you die, another takes its place. The levels are not randomly generated, so you can – and should – memorize the paths and enemies you’ll have to get past to reach your destination.

The fun is in the characters: each one has its own traits, which depending on the situation can be very useful and in others even get in the way, and with 88 of them, you’ll always find new ways to make better use of the stage or finish it faster.

The variety – and craziness – of each hero is the best part of the game. You’ll have at your disposal a chicken that lays explosive eggs, a kung fu fighter who throws hadoukens, a useless dancer made of glass, a basketball player and many, many others.
The references are countless too: you’ll find a character that looks a lot like a certain “glitch” from a famous handheld game, or another that uses a weapon that creates portals. And the game isn’t limited to the gaming world; several pop culture references are present, and you even risk being rickrolled 😉

Another really cool idea from the Bitmap Bureau folks was the game’s HUD, which besides showing information such as the number of coins and remaining time, also adds the villain Dr. H8 at what would be his workstation, controlling the machine that sends enemies and traps to destroy us. Throughout the game several animations happen there, like soldiers walking through the room (even blocking part of our view of the screen), a robot serving tea and the doctor himself having to step away for reasons of force majeure 😉
After a while it loses some of its charm, it’s true, but it’s still something cool that shows the care and dedication of its creators in making the experience as immersive as possible.

But the game has its flaws too: despite the great variety of characters and number of stages, there are only 4 areas where the stages are distributed. At some point it’s impossible not to find it a bit repetitive. The same can be said of the sound: although it uses chiptune-style music that fits the game’s style and look very well, it gets quite tiresome after a while.

Another problem is that while there is great variety among the characters, some are practically useless, and in some situations the game can become extremely frustrating.
Despite these little problems, 88 Heroes is a very fun experience; you’ll spend many moments laughing at the characters and the situations the game provides.