Hero Express

Genre: 2D Stunt Racing

Players: 1

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Review:

Hero Express is a 2D Stunt Racing game like the Trials series, where you’re balancing a vehicle as it drives on a 2D course. The concept here is that the player is making equipment deliveries to a hero fighting a variety of monsters… which doesn’t really factor into the gameplay much, but it’s a cute concept in any case.

The presentation here is pretty good, using a combination of good pixel art with a lot of color and personality, and a solid chiptune soundtrack. At least from an aesthetic standpoint, this game is really appealing.

The gameplay, unfortunately, is less appealing. From the start, the vehicles in the game are a pain to control – they jostle about too easily at changes in elevation, and it’s often frustratingly difficult to get them to climb up hills. You can’t be careful in how you approach these levels either – you lose gas like it’s being siphoned off of you with a vacuum pump, and pickups only supply players with just barely enough gas to get to the next pickup.

Players gradually upgrade vehicles as they earn cash in the game’s levels, but what this ends up meaning is that you will have to lose and restart levels time and time and time again to get them to be anything near playable. Also, as each level has a separate vehicle, you have to restart this process repeatedly throughout the game. The result is a game that’s frustratingly and artificially difficult in a way that’s tedious and frustrating.

I really wanted to like Hero Express – the core concept is cute, and the presentation is wonderful, but the gameplay is designed to be as frustrating as possible in ways that artificially jack up the difficulty. If you want a game like this, you have multiple better options on the Switch.

tl;dr – Hero Express is a 2D Stunt Racing game. The game’s backstory is cute, and the presentation is great, but the gameplay is tedious, frustrating, and artificially difficult. Skip this one.

Grade: D+

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