After the success of indie competitive co-op darlings such as Towerfall: Ascension, Sportsfriends, Niddhog, Starwhal, and more, it seems that copycats have become far more common. Whether they take elements or try to replicate it completely, they’ll always come off as uninspired and lazy. However, this isn’t always the case in a thriving, yet saturated genre. An example of this is the new coop shooter/brawler Square Heroes, which offers potential and completely squanders on it.

Gameplay:

The only challenge in Square Heroes besides others is navigation, which feels less chaotic than it’s supposed to.

In Towerfall, you can edit the levels in numerous ways to up the difficulty, and clutchiness, generating a considerably memorable experience. But in Square Heroes, this isn’t there. While this isn’t the biggest knock-off, it just goes to show how much Square Heroes is missing. Sure you can pick up a health crate and a random weapon, but this becomes overly grindy in certain scenarios, especially single-player. I know a game like this isn’t meant for the latter, but it would have been nice to keep in mind.

Plot/ Design:

Upon killing another opponent, players are given a bounty of coins to make purchases

Another huge gripe about Square Heroes for me is that there’s no real strategy. Other competitive co-op games use the stages to their advantage, adding yet another variable to the equation. In Square Heroes, this isn’t an option, as the maps feel more or less like filler. For a game that lacks any real sense of tactical pace, this is criminal. It makes me feel like the game has good intentions, only to forget what it stands for.

Presentation/ Audio & Visuals:

Cough (None of these are squares) Cough

If there’s anything that makes up for what was previously stated, it’s Square Heroes art-style. Although not revolutionary, it adds character and personality to a game that solely needs it. This is further strengthened by a cartoon-ish sound library, bringing in a much-needed aura of self-awareness. Options menus aren’t as laudable though, and feel slapped together and ill-fitting, especially for a game that has robust online multiplayer. For example, most games start off defaultly with a twenty minute timer. This makes the game even more tedious than it really needs to be.

Conclusion:

I didn’t hate Square Heroes, but I didn’t love it either. It’s that type of game that few may enjoy and that will certainly sit well at a party when everybody’s looking for a cheap game on sale, but it doesn’t serve any purpose beyond that. There’s always room for improvement, but Square Heroes needs to do a lot to get on that path.

Square Heroes gets a 5/10. (Flawed)

We’d like to thank Gnomic Studios for sending us a code for this one!

For more reviews and features like this one, please check out The Cube on Medium.com, or our twitter account @TheCubeMedium