Half-Minute Hero

Tired of the same old boring Role Playing Games on your sophisticated PlayStation Portable? Just looking for something original to play? XSeed, Marvelous Entertainment, and Developer Opus Studio have just the game for you--Half-Minute Hero. While the game won't impress you visually, it more than makes up for it in originally and fun.

In Half-Minute Hero, you control a variety of characters through different playstyles. Each mode offers the same "about thirty seconds" of gameplay via a ticking timer with the Time Goddess lending a helping hand by reversing time. Of course, time reversal is an expensive proposition and gameplay mode will have some sort cost associated with reversing time.

Before we get into a more detailed description of Half-Minute Hero, I want to take a moment to point out the visual style of the game. The entire presentation is reminiscent of an 8 bit RPG. This includes the opening introduction, cinematic sequences, dialogue with pixelated characters, and all sound effects and music. This gives the game a distinct flavor and though it won't win any awards for pushing the PSP to its visual limits--the look is very retro.

Gameplay in Half-Minute Hero is simplistic and rewarding with a variety of modes. Hero 30 is a RPG, Evil Lord 30 is a RTS, Princess 30 is a Shooter, and Knight 30 is Action game. The real fun lies in the RPG portion with Hero 30. This mode has you play a fast-paced traditional RPG with automatic fighting in random battles. The sequences are quite fast to help get the most out of the 30 second timer you have. Each area will have you trying to stop an enemy who is casting a spell to destroy the earth. Each time a fiend casts this spell, it takes 30 seconds to complete. To vanquish these foes, you must level up, gather equipment, tackle quests, and befriend others. The Time Goddess lends a hand to give you more time when needed. And as you progress into later levels--you will definitely need more time.

Evil Lord 30 is a light Real Time Strategy Game that is arguably the hardest mode of them all. You have to fight off waves of enemies with different creatures at your disposal. I found this mode to be annoying and hard at times and lost interest in it rather quickly

Princess 30 is a shooter that poses no real challenge other than to mash down your attack button in the desired direction. Players can shoot arrows, from a top down perspective, up, down, left, or right. As you run through the level, you will need to get on the Red Mat to reverse time, and suck up money to the Time Goddess, in order to defeat a boss, collect an item, or save a person. Players have troops that surround the princess and if you get hit, the number of your troops diminishes along with your speed.

The Knight 30 mode is an action escort series of levels that is quick, fun, and easy way to spend some time on your PSP.

Regardless of the mode you play and which one you find the most enjoyable, there is a lot of 8-bit quality variety here that will give hours of fun. At $29.99 on PSN and on UMD, I highly recommend Half-Minute Hero and give it two great big thumbs up in the air.

Real Life Ratings
Rated Everyone 10+ for Animated Blood, Language, Mild Fantasy Violence, and Mild Suggestive Themes--Players will find very little objectionable in Half-Minute Hero. While the game does center around magic and the realm of fantasy, this light-hearted adventure should be safe for a very large majority of users.

This is a collection of retro-style games with 8-bit graphics that includes a role-playing game, a scrolling shooter, a real-time strategy game, and an action game. Most games feature small characters engaged in minimal depictions of violence: casting magic spells, poking monsters with swords, tossing arrows at mushroom creatures that turn into coins. However, the dialogue punctuates the combat with phrases like "Prepare to Die," "I'll beat you to a bloody pulp," and "Kill 'im.'" One weapon, "bloody axe," depicts a red blade accompanied by the following text description: "The edge is blood red. But it's not rusted, mind you." The expletives "a*s," "damn," and "hell" also appear in text. In some scenes, female characters wear thigh-exposing short-shorts or tops that expose deep cleavage—in 8-bit graphics.