Review: Song For A Hero

What we liked!

• The song: It might look like a cheesy start to an actual review, but trust me, it actually isn’t. When I saw the steam page for this review, my eyes glanced over this one statement: “A classic platform with a twist: A dynamic soundtrack and funny lyrics that sing the player’s actions and responds to what is happening during the adventure.” And to my defense, I would think what every other gamer would think: there is no way they made someone sing the entirety of the WHOLE game? Well, it turns out, they actually really did it. I found myself just listening to the “hero” singing this song about EVERYTHING that happened in the game. Without missing a beat, the whole game through till where I played.
  It’s really something that deserves a stamp of Uniqueness among the gaming community, since most games these days are just concept copies of other games, without much effort put into them. But in this game, the effort just shines off the screen, and through your headphones too ?
• Art style: Song for a Hero is drawn in this classic well-known pixel art vibe that gives you the nostalgic flashbacks to the old Mario games or sonic you played on a CRT tv. Or heck, even the game boy days (yes boomer alert). But damn, they somehow made it feel nice and pixel-based, while also making great use of the currently available technology to make the gameplay even more fluid and have smooth animations.
• Combat variation: This game is not only a slash and block system, during the course of the game and different levels, but you also get to pick up weapons/powerups, which you can then use later on. Because luckily Dumative Game Studio realized that there is no way that I am fighting a big mean-looking snake that is bigger than the apartment I live in, all by the sword alone.

Somewhere between

• The controls: This game has great controls by default, but you have to check them out though before you start the game (at least for mouse and keyboard users). Since all the keys when using the keyboard are mapped as blanks. While if you do actually go to control options, you see keys like Z and left shift bound for attack and blocking. On a controller, they come as classic as you can get them, well mapped, for quick and simple access.  Overall took me a few moments to get used to on keyboard, but fluent enough to make me happy.
• Screen compatibility: the game does not launch in full screen. By itself not that bad, but knowing it’s just an adventure single-player game, I think they could look into giving it ultrawide 21:9 support for the extra immersion. Then again, you get this older vibe by the blocky display settings though.

What we disliked

• I absolutely loved playing Song For A Hero and honestly can’t come up with anything I disliked in this gaming experience!

This game is just something you really do have to experience yourself. You could go ahead and base your knowledge only on this review, but go ahead, check out Steam. As of the time of writing, the game has 626 positive reviews, and is getting praise from almost everyone. It will just become one of those games that, if you are into the genre, you just have to have, or your collection is just incomplete. Overall, just a perfect game, and certainly some of the most fun I had with a 2D pixel game in a VERY long time!