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   Company Hudson Soft ESRB Rating E for Everyone Release Date US - September 24, 2007 Controllers Wii Remote Classic Controller Gamecube Controller Wii Points 600  Review by: Corbie Dillard ©2008 Virtual-Turbo |
There are some games that
are just bad all around, and then there are some games that have a lot
of potential but are somehow ruined by one or more negative aspects
that bring the entire experience down. Legend of Hero Tonma fits into
that second category. The game has some nice visuals and a great
storyline, but the brutal difficulty and sometimes confusing level
design really cause too much frustration for anyone to actually enjoy
the game. What looks like a quality action/side-scroller on the outside
quickly becomes a lesson in futility that will cause even the most calm
and patient gamers to throw their controllers in sheer frustration. If
you like your games astronomically difficult, this is your game.
Legend of Hero Tonma follows the story of a young student of the magician Merlin named Tonma who suddenly hears the voice of a princess calling for his help. Merlin then informs Tonma that he is actually a prince and that saving the princess must be a part of his ultimate destiny. Tonma then sets out on an adventure to rescue the princess and fulfill his true destiny. He'll have to cross 7 deadly stages, each with an end-level boss in order to reach the castle where the princess is being held captive. Most games will allow you a chance to familiarize yourself with their control systems and get a basic grasp of how the game plays before pummeling you with enemies. Legend of Hero Tonma isn't one of those games. You'll be given about a minute to come to terms with the controls before you're going to be knee-deep in enemies and and their attacks. As you progress through the stages, you'll have to locate hidden keys and maps that will open up passages for you to continue on in the level. Once you reach the end of a stage you'll get to face off with a boss. Here's where the game gets tough. The levels themselves are difficult enough, but the bosses in the game are downright nasty. Not only can they kill you with one hit, they also take a long time and a ton of hits to defeat. There's nothing worse than spending 5 minutes attacking a boss only to make a mistake and take a fatal hit. And here's the fun part. Not only do you have to start the boss fight all over again, but the game starts you back at the mid-point of the level. It's the gift that keeps on giving. The control itself is fairly simple and straightforward. You can run, jump, and shoot your magic balls of energy at enemies. This might sound easy enough, but the game tends to overwhelm you with enemy attacks, so much so that the game can feel very cheap at times. No sooner will you vanquish one group of enemies that another group comes out of nowhere to take you out. It's not a matter of poor play control it's just the extremely high level of difficulty that brings the game play experience down. Maybe if you're really diligent and can stick with the game long enough to basically memorize each and every level from start to finish you might be able to eventually beat the entire game, but most people won't be able to deal with it long enough to accomplish that feat. It's a shame too, because the game has so much potential. Visually the game is fairly solid and features some very detailed and colorful backdrops. Even the characters and enemies all show a good amount of detail and animation. The bosses are a bit of a letdown as they're not animated very well, but trust me you won't have time to notice anyway as you'll be busy trying not to take a hit. The lack of parallax scrolling makes the game look very 8-bit at times, and even the level of detail isn't enough to make up for this omission. Tonma is about what you'd expect from an 8-bit side-scroller, but not much more. The music in the game is decent, but nothing to write home about. There are a few tracks in the later levels that shine, but that's for the choice few that will be able to get far enough in the game to hear them. The sound effects are pretty basic stuff so don't expect much. For anyone that played many of these types of games back during the 8-bit era, you'll feel right at home with the music in this one. It's fairly standard stuff. I hate to keep beating a dead horse, but this is one tough game. I don't mind a challenging game like Ghosts & Goblins that's difficult in a fair manner, but this game just kicks you in the butt just for the sake of rubbing your nose in it. Had the developers toned down the difficulty a little bit, this could be a very entertaining and enjoyable game but as it is, it's just too much for most gamers to handle and I can't recommend this one in good faith because of that. Buy this one at your own risk. |
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