Big Helmet Heroes Review (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, & PC)

Beat ‘em up games have always been simple at heart. Level after level, you’re given hordes of enemies to beat to a pulp. Ideally, as long as you master a devastating combo mix of a light and heavy attack and throw in a powerful special attack for good measure, you should be good to go. But no matter how simple the core aspect of beat ‘em up gameplay sounds, many popular games have polished and refined how to keep you coming back for more. 

It’s hard to explain, but even though the combat can get rather repetitive at times, it feels surprisingly rewarding to breeze through all of a beat ’em-up game’s stages and reach the end, your health bar still having one or two breaths left. 

If you’ve been a veteran of the sub-genre since the ‘80s to the ‘00s when beat ‘em ups were the talk of the town, then you most definitely want to check out Big Helmet Heroes. However, if you’re a newbie or are still skeptical about Exalted Studio and Dear Villagers’ newest release, then perhaps our Big Helmet Heroes review should make it a little easier to make up your mind about whether the game is right for you.

Back to the Start

Big Helmet Heroes will have you controlling knights in shining armor on a competition-like brawl with a spectating audience cheering you on. As a single-player, you start with one knight donning the signature big helmet, while local co-op players will each choose a character from a set of two. You’ll be busy minding your business, smacking the foes coming at you right between the eyes when the princess is suddenly kidnapped. The drama all unfolds via handwritten cartoons seemingly designed for a storybook adventure. Oh, and the characters don’t say a word, only using grunts and giggles to fill up the silence. 

But for some reason, the execution of, quite frankly, the predictable story ends up leaving a smile on your face. Perhaps it’s the wonderful aesthetic the game uses to pull you in from the start. Perhaps it’s the stubbornly cute knights masquerading around in their larger-than-life helmets. I don’t care, really, as long as I’m having a good time. 

As you have already guessed, it’s time to go after the princess’ kidnappers and return her home. We’re living in medieval times, after all, and as “big helmet heroes,” it’s your job to secure the throne and stomp on anyone who dares desecrate its status among the people.

Anything Goes

As much as the early levels are steeped in medieval settings, whether grassy plains or the royal court, the levels that follow soon stretch their horizons to a little more than expected scenery. Your big helmeted heroes soon find themselves fighting the bad guys in all sorts of imaginative biomes. 

They could be trolling goblins beside hot lava-filled pools. But Big Helmet Heroes has a unique way of making familiar-level design choices on their own. The lava pools suddenly transition into a water park of sorts, where you can swim down slides and all. Indeed, in nearly all of the levels you’ll tread, from moonlit deserts to neon-soaked amusement parks, Big Helmet Heroes has a humorous way of making them fun. You even fight on top of a gigantic electric guitar, if you can believe it. 

I believe this is the standout feature in Big Helmet Heroes. The spice that sets it apart from other beat ‘em ups, including 2008’s Castle Crashers, that you might find to bear close similarity. As much as Big Helmet Heroes borrows a page or two from the greats that came before, it also manages to be a unique entree by the absurd ways it spices up its level designs. 

Variety is the Spice of Life

See, often looking forward to the surprise that might come next is one of the keys beat ‘em ups use to remain constantly entertaining. Big Helmet Heroes has the master key for this trick, not only in its constantly mesmerizing levels but also in the over-the-top weapons you can pick up along the way. See, your big helmeted heroes can loot weapons from fallen foes, pick them up from sometimes obvious spots but also tucked away someplace hidden, or as new unlocks and upgrades. 

While each of the 29 playable characters in Big Helmet Heroes has its own unique default weapon, you can swap them for more powerful ones throughout the course of your playthrough. And by God, will the weapons you pick up constantly nudge you into putting in more hours into the game? I mean, who wouldn’t want to smack goblins in the head with a giant lollipop? You can fight with a flyswatter, but Big Helmet Heroes thought that was boring, so they made it electric, too. Indeed, quite a ton of the weapons on here will be imbued with some kind of elemental energy, which brings us to the combat bit of gameplay.

Pow Pow!!

The chaos on each of the levels in Big Helmet Heroes, as you beat down waves of enemies, is electric. Our big helmeted heroes may not know how to speak, but they sure know how to throw down in a fight. It’s all so chaotic that you’ll probably get lost in the madness of it all. Yet the combat is entertaining throughout your time here. 

While you start with one hero and two for a two-player local co-op, you’ll soon stumble onto cages that, once you pry open, release a new hero to add to your roster. With a total of 29 playable heroes, they all group into the Warrior, Monk, Brute, or Rogue classes. The Warrior is your sword and shield guy. The Monk is your staff guy. Brute is the massive hammer guy, and Rogue is the twin daggers guy. 

By virtue of each class’s distinct weapon, you want to be careful which hero you take to battle. Brutes, while able to inflict devastating damage, are slow. Rogues, on the other hand, will tear through waves of enemies at lightning-fast speeds. The distinct classes also matter in the freedom to swap characters mid-game. This feature mostly helps to refill the waiting character’s health bar with each successful combo of the active one. However, you can also be clever in how you balance out the characters’ strengths and weaknesses.

Crack in the Wall

The thing is, though, swapping characters isn’t available in local co-op. Not to mention that it only allows two players to play the game at the same time and that it can only be enjoyed locally. It feels like a missed opportunity for Big Helmet Heroes to take home the win truly. Hopefully, though, with the variety of characters and levels, the sequel can introduce online multiplayer. 

It’s possible that you may be thrust into the dreadful exercise of frustration when it comes to the camera angles. I applaud Big Helmet Heroes’ effort to implement dynamic camera angles. It zooms in and out depending on the fight and, at times, switches from isometric to a bird’s eye view of the game. However, it can sometimes obscure clear vision of where enemies are and anticipate their next attack move. You can react a little too late as a result. Or end up button-mashing, hoping to hit an enemy stuck out of the camera view. 

But it’s the performance issues that may be the deal breaker, at least until they have been fixed. Some chaotic moments may experience frame rate drops and stuttering. Heroes can clip through floors. Enemies can nib you through walls. Input lag can result in a fight lost, among others. Yet these issues never take away the genuine blast of a moment you have with Big Helmet Heroes. From the comical designs and story moments to the stunning cartoon violence and art, it’s clear that Big Helmet Heroes’ developers have really poured their heart and soul into this one, and that alone deserves credit where credit is due.

Verdict

Often, you’ll choose a game based on its genre. And by Big Helmet Heroes being a beat ‘em up game, it may immediately ostracize some gamers. However, you might want to give this one a chance, given the many gameplay elements it gets right. The heroes, for one, are deeply interesting, especially in their unique special attacks. From shooting a constant laser beam all across the stage to unleashing a stampede of sheep on enemies, every character has their unique way of gripping your attention. 

But so do the weapon and level design choices, which often veer close to the absurd. Weapons are overwhelmingly many and over-the-top, while levels never fail to get belly laughs out of you. Even though the gameplay remains to beat up the enemies you run into to a pulp across 20 levels, these nitty-gritty humorous and creative ways that Big Helmet Heroes carve their own way ensure that no one level ever feels the same.