Dillon’s Dead-Heat Breakers

Genre: Action / Tower Defense

Players: 1

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Review:

Dillon’s Dead-Heat Breakers is an Action game released on Nintendo 3DS in 2018. This is the third and as of this writing final game in the Dillon series that started with 2012’s Dillon’s Rolling Western. However, where the second game in the Dillon series, Dillon’s Rolling Western: The Last Ranger, was largely a retread of the first game, Dead-Heat Breakers completely reimagines the Dillon formula in multiple ways.

The most immediately noticeable change right from the start is a change in setting. The prior Dillon games were all inspired by the Western genre, but Dead-Heat Breakers is closer to post-apocalyptic fare like the Mad Max franchise, with the game’s first scene even starting out in the middle of a high-speed fight on a freeway surrounded by ruined buildings.

However, don’t let that make you think that Nintendo had abandoned the family-friendly tone of the prior Dillon games. The game starts with your custom-made Mii figure getting stuck in a barrel and being transformed into an animal version of themselves, with numerous other characters in the game being similarly constructed out of Miis you have saved. Surprisingly, these “Aniimal” characters fit into this game pretty well.

Overall, the presentation here is excellent, with detailed 3D environments that you’ll often find yourself speeding through, and fairly detailed characters with good animation. And while I don’t think the soundtrack is quite as good as what was in The Last Ranger, the fast-paced music still fits the game’s action really well.

However, the biggest changes here are definitely to the gameplay. Firstly, touchscreen controls are out – you now control your character mainly using the circle pad and the A button, holding it to charge a dash, holding it again to drill into an enemy after your initial attack, or repeatedly tapping it to use a combo attack. Personally, I liked the touchscreen controls, but I feel like these work pretty well too, and still deliver a visceral feel when you’re attacking enemies.

In addition, the way the game handles the Tower Defense elements have completely changed too. Firstly, the size of the area you need to defend is much smaller, which is far better when you need to personally roll over to areas that need your attention, and it keeps the action more focused. In addition, you no longer build the towers themselves – now you hire gunners to man these towers before missions, and simply slot them into their locations on a map prior to battle.

Personally, I feel like this latter change isn’t one for the better – I prefer the fuller customization typical to most Tower Defense games, and that the prior Dillon games technically did (albeit poorly). In addition, the repetition the earlier Dillon games had is mostly still present here, though this game does shake things up a bit by having the final phase of battle being a chase sequence where players slam into enemies on a high-speed chase in a manner similar to the game’s intro, something that does help to keep things from becoming too repetitive.

However, for the most part, the changes present in the third Dillon game are absolutely welcome. Even the way this game reins in the size of the area you’re battling in is a massive improvement. While there’s still a lot of room for improvement here, I feel like Dillon’s Dead-Heat Breakers is the first game in the series that manages to successfully marry its Action-focused gameplay and its Tower Defense elements. And while this is currently the last entry in the Dillon series, I really hope that the revamped gameplay we see here is built upon in future installments. However, until then, I think this game is well worth getting if you can stomach the somewhat overpriced $40 price tag. I do think this is well worth playing for its unique combination of its gameplay elements, but at that price, you may want to try the free demo before you buy… at least, you should do so while you still can, before the Nintendo 3DS eShop closes in March 2023 and both the demo and full game disappear forever.

tl;dr – Dillon’s Dead-Heat Breakers is a game that combines Action gameplay with Tower Defense elements. This game completely reworks the gameplay of the series, and the changes here are largely an improvement, keeping the action contained within smaller areas and breaking up the action into different phases to add more variety. There are still further improvements that this series can make, but overall this is a solid game with a unique gameplay that’s well worth playing, although the $40 price tag may give you some pause.

Grade: B-

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