Many gamers have been crying out for some more traditional games for Nintendo’s 3DS. When Square Enix announced that they would be bring hack n’ slash dungeon crawler Heroes of Ruin to the handheld their was a sigh of relief. Finally gamers could trawl through endless pits scavenging for loot while on an epic quest to save the world.

We really are not sure as to why the Nintendo 3DS does not have more games like Heroes of Ruin. The handheld’s touch screen interface makes it perfect for that awkward micro-management of your inventory, viewing maps, checking stats ect. Couple that with the fantasy world and some great 3D visuals and (hopefully) you have a best seller on your hands.

On initial viewing Heroes of Ruin manages to do things well. Upon booting up the game I am asked to set up a custom lobby, either joining someone or playing offline. You can play the game online with up to four people which is how I recommend you play it. Thankfully, unlike other Nintendo games, this one supports voice chat, something very important in a dungeon crawler. After choosing my lobby I am prompted to pick one of four unique characters: The Vindicator (Sword based), The Gunslinger (Self-explanatory), The Alchitect (Mage) or The Savage (Close-up brawler), and to do some minor customisation.

The game then starts with your ship being wrecked and you find yourself washed up on a beach. As the story continues I realised that it was pretty flimsy. You main mission is to find a cure for the ruler of the Nexus, the game’s central hub/marketplace. Heroes of Ruin follows the same pattern from one section to the next. You enter one area and clear the baddies, finish your mission, return to the Nexus and collect more missions for a new area. Rinse and repeat. The majority of missions are pretty tame too. Villagers in particular give you quite a few fetch quests. In fact I frequently completed a task without knowing it, only to be rewarded when returning to the Nexus.

What Heroes of Ruin lacks in its story it makes up in its combat and levelling systems. Each class has its own unique set of skills and there are quite a few to choose from. After you have selected a skill you can still level each one up three times which means you will have to tactically think before choosing your powers. Playing as the Alchitect, I found my powers to be fun and flashy as I played a support role from a distance, as the Savage I was in the heart of the action, pounding my enemies into dust. There’s a good amount of variation here which gives you re-playability.

The main problem I have with the game is that areas can become a slog at times. Certain dungeons seem to take an age and bored me after a while. Similar enemies appear in each area and generally you have to keep hacking away at the respawning goons until you meet a boss. During boss fights is when Heroes of Ruin improves, mixing up your tactics and forcing you to fight specific ways, such as attacking weaker points first or teleporting enemies. These sections also show off the game’s impressive 3D capabilities which, at its best moments, are some of the handheld’s finest.

Heroes of Ruin‘s controls are brilliant, in fact they are some of the most excellent I’ve experienced in a dungeon crawler. You can map three powers to different face buttons with B acting as your standard attack. By using the D-Pad you can quickly use either health or mana potions. If you find an item you want to pick up, sell or equip you can do it with the press of a button instead of pausing and fiddling with your inventory.

I could go on about the amount of features in this game for ages. Streetpass mode helps you unlock items, there are daily and weekly challenges to complete that give you access to special items, an online trading system, and so much more.

Heroes of Ruin is well worth playing. It is by no means perfect and has several flaws but is well worth giving a go, especially if you have a few buddies to play with online. We really hope that Square Enix give this game a sequel because with a bit more money and tweaking this could have been one of the 3DS’ killer titles.

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