Nostalgia is nearing its own genre in video gaming. While we let a Tarantino slide with constant homage filmmaking, it’s not nearly so subtle when ambushed by pixels over polygons on an HDTV. This isn’t a plea for help, not at all. Some games, like Retro Game Challenge and Half-Minute Hero used throwbacks effectively while also supplying unique brands of fun. 3D Dot Game Heroes is Silicon Studio’s new PS3 exclusive, though it plays much closer to a particular classic Nintendo franchise. Do these dots amass to more than a speck on the glorious pixelated past?
The kingdom of Dotnia was a happy joyous place, enjoying their lives in 2D harmony, until the king noticed that no one wanted to visit an outdated world. Updating into 3D, the kingdom now experience new dimensions, as well as new evils. The Dark King Onyx once brought misery to Dotnia using six mystical orbs until stopped by one legendary hero. Generations later, the Dark King has returned, leaving it up to you, descendant of the hero, to wield a magical sword, find the orbs (each located in six differently themed dungeons, of course) and bring peace back to the virtual land.
To say 3D Dot Game Heroes plays like The Legend of Zelda would be underplaying it. The game is Zelda, essentially, and the developers went great lengths to ensure it resembled the classic adventures as closely as possible. You move along a series of square grids on a map, slashing at spear tossing goblins and charging beasts with your sword. Like in Zelda, with full health and the legendary sword, you are given a great advantage, only now instead of firing light beams, the sword is enlarged. To like, the size of the entire screen. You get boomerangs, shields, context specific runes, lanterns and plenty more familiar tools. Even each dungeon just banks on the textbook elements with a thesaurus. There are nonsensical strands of dialog inspired in lieu of “I AM ERROR” encountered in inn after inn. And yeah, chickens totally don’t dig it when you hit them. While Zelda is a perfectly fine model to be inspired by, it’s a little boring to be just that and nothing greater. The puzzles and dungeons are a little flat, the bosses slightly generic and overworld confusing to navigate. Mind you there are some differences, scattered amongst the bits.
