Advance Guardian heroes = Dissapointment.

[Crush Crawfish]

Well, being the impatient guy that I am, I picked up a copy of Advance Guardian Heroes today, It's day of release. Although I've never played the saturn version, I'd heard nothing but good things about it. So I figured rather than plo down $60+ for that on ebay, I'd try this, the Sequel.

well, I picked it up (along with Gradius V), and fired it up. I decided to try tutorial mode first. The first thing I notice is the horrendous translation. It's not so bad that you can't understand what's happening, but It's just annoying and very sloppy on Ubi Soft's part (they published and translated it).

I finished training mode, and decided it was time to move on to the actual game. I chose my character, the blue guy (his name escapes me at the moment) and started up. After struggling to comprehend the engrish storyline, the game began. Now the controls are great; plenty of attacks and magic attacks, and they're all executed perfectly. Now everything seemed good. Until one problem. One huge glaring problem.


Slowdown.

Not minor, occaisional slowdown, but nearly constant slowdown. There are no problems when there's 2-3 enemies on screen, but the problem is that there's almost always more than that. There were times that a had to mash buttons franticly, just rying to kill some guys and attempt to get the game running at a decent speed again. The worst part is that somewhere, under that glaring technical problem, is a great game.

So anyone who was planning to buy this: I implore you, wait until a price drop. Buy Astro Boy: omega factor instead. That's easily one of the greatest games I've played in a long time. In the meantime, I'll be playing Gradius V( which just oozes greatness).

If anything, this proves that no company is perfect. Oh and does anyone find it odd that treasure's first ever sequel didn't turn out so good? I guess that's a sign that treasure should continue to only make original games. That's just my 2 cents.

- Crush "I can't beleive I actually typed all that" Crawfish[/b]

[Geddon_jt]

Holy cow, I can't believe it's out already. Seems like just yesterday I saw the first screenshots of it.

Thanks for the warning.
Gotta get it anyway though. :P

[max 330 mega]

i was looking forward to that game.... thats sad

[-hellvin-]

I'm surprised this came out so quiclkly and it sounds like a major letdown.

Oh well, I guess they just overshot the gba's capabilities...

[whoisKeel]

i never tried guardian heroes either, and was hoping to try the sequel first as well. but i can say one thing. slowdown kills me...i'm one of those nit-pickers that says slowdown ruins a game. so this will be a definite rent first for me.

on a side note, i've heard of this astroboy game. its that good? shmups+gba makes me cautious.

[blissfulnoise]

I disagree with some of your points. The slowdown is present, even abundant, but short of the annoyance of it, I never found it to be an issue directly affecting playability. Granted I'm only on level 4, so it may get worse from there.

I also started with "the blue guy" (Hyo I think?); and I thought it was extremely difficult at first, but then I learned that he just had a very weak attack. I fought my way through the first level (which featured a couple of fights that employed strategy as opposed to straight fights like the original on the Saturn) and pumped up my attack rating. Level 2 was a breeze.

As far as the translation goes, it's effective enough. I don't play Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, or Ninja Warriors for their storyline. I play them to combo up some baddies and smack them into the ground. Having said that, this game does that job in spades.

The graphics and special effects are awesome! IGN complained about the 'art style' but it looks pretty much spot on to the Saturn version, so I have no idea what they're talking about. The backgrounds, again, are amazing. Level 2 especially.

I think this is a worthy game in Treasure's playbook. Their best? Nah, probably not even in their top half, but you have to admire a company that's willing to deal with the hardware limitations of their chosen platform by saying, screw it, do it anyway. If that's spoken like a fanboy, then guilty as charged.

But yes, Astro Boy on GBA should be bought before this one. Short, but it's one of the best GBA experiences I've had. It's also not a Shmup, but a platformer in the vein of Gunstar Heroes, but expect a couple of Shmup sequences that are quite good, but second fiddle to the main "run n' gun" game.

[SamuraiSmurfette]

astro boy had it's share of slowdown too..
Great game nonetheless

[whoisKeel]

i take back my comment on astroboy being a shmup...i had only seen the back of the box, and i thought it was. i just tried out the game, and it is pretty cool so far. ( i got up to just past captain orange, 2nd or 3rd stage, i dunno what he is, i got jp version for trying it out)

[blissfulnoise]

I actually just beat Guardian Heroes Advance on Normal. I only got 87% discovery though. Going to work my way back through.

Let me tell you, slowdown didn't truely affect my experience at all.

IGN made it sound like the game was broken and that's 100% certainly not the case.

This game rocks and is an very worthy successor to one of the best beat em ups of all time. Doesn't reach the originals greatness, but it doesn't have to.

Get it before it becomes hard to find!

(back to the game...)

[davidleeroth]

I was quite shocked to see that the IGN review only talk about slowdown and art style. There was slowdown in Guardian Heroes and Astro Boy (in AB it felt it was partly a special effect ), too. In both cases it didn't affect my play in any major way. I haven't played the game yet as I preordered the JAP version (doh) but it didn't seem that horrid in videoclips.

Maybe UbiSoft hurried the release because they didn't want it to coincidende with their GBA Star Wars game?

[suppafly]

its a damn shame. I´m sure that the game´s problems could´ve been resolved if it´d spent a few more months in development

[midgey]

So...is the slowdown anyworse than the original Guardian Heroes on hard mode with 2 players?

[blissfulnoise]

Pretty comparable I'd say. Again, during my play through, slowdown didn't cause any major problem for me at all. Granted it was just single player though.

I really think that IGN's review may be the most off base one I've read, and that's saying quite a bit.

[soniko_karuto]

kong play game.

kong like game!!!

kong see no problem in game!!!


(have to remember that ebay selling strategy)

[maxlords]

Just got it today...was released today in Canada, and I must say, I have no issues with the game, cept for flying about doing hte double tap homing jump. It's not treasure's best, but it's a LOT like the Saturn one....and I think it's hilarious that the reviews all talk up the Saturn version and bash the GBA one for slowdown when the Saturn one has it WORSE!

[maxlords]

oops.

[Psycho Mantis]

astro boy: omega factor was awesome! i never get sick of that game. about advance guardian heroes: maybe i'll buy it if it goes down in price

[bluberry]

I really hate trying to pimp my stuff, but if you were looking for a <u>second opinion</u> of the game, I thought it was quite good. The slowdown hardly bothered me at all.

[davidleeroth]

I really hate trying to pimp my stuff, but if you were looking for a <u>second opinion</u> of the game, I thought it was quite good. The slowdown hardly bothered me at all.

Good stuff. Just one thing, Axelay was developed by Konami although one or two from team members have moved over to Treasure since then.

[bluberry]

Actually, from what I've dug up in the past (which may not be entirely correct), the majority of the Axelay team went on to Treasure. The "false alarm" is Castlevania 4, not Axelay.

Anyways... I'd take a bet that the reason Advance Guardian Heroes occasionally feels a tad unfinished (short length, slowdown) is Astro Boy: Omega Factor. If Treasure were the ones who polished it up for American release (and not Hitmaker), then maybe they had less manpower for a while to work on Advance Guardian Heroes. Then again, if it were Hitmaker that tweaked Astro Boy, then I haven't the faintest idea.