New Beat-em-up with a retro flair!
I really enjoy beat-em-up games so I knew I wanted to check out Heroes of Mount Dragon from the folks at Studio RuniQ. The developers told me they wanted to make a game that was fun to play and felt like a classic beat-em-up. Heroes of Mount Dragon feels like a classic beat-em-up that could be compared to the likes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time or other classic beat-em-ups. I always go with Turtles in Time as an example because that is probably my favorite beat-em-up of all time!
You’ll be able to play with your friends in different modes either online co-op or online co-op. Games like this need online functions and I never understand why they release without it. You’ll have four characters to choose from at the start, each with their own attacks. You’ll start at level 1 and have to earn experience to grow. You don’t have to choose to level up. At the end of each stage, your character will level up and learn new skills. A nice feature is that you grow the character. What I mean by that is you can play through the game with one character, level them all the way, and then start with another one. The progress you made with the previous character will stay intact. That’s a nice feature as some games like this will make you level up and then reset the levels when you start with a different one. There were four characters to pick from for the demo and those will be the four you get to select at the start of the game. Oslow, Eliadora, Fenek, and Grog are the first four characters to pick from. Each character comes from a different location and has their own unique backstory. You’ll have to find out their backstories on your own.
Over the course of the journey, you will collect power that will let you transform into a dragon. Each character has their own dragon to transform into and I have to say, each one looks pretty cool. The dragons have special attacks like breathing fire for example. There will be plenty of enemies on screen so if you can, save the dragon transformation for that moment so you can attack a ton and collect a lot of points. Combat consists of basic attacks and combo attacks. You’ll have access to attack charts so you can see what attacks each character has. Study up on attacks and find the best ones for you. There is also a competition mode where you can play against the other players to earn the most points. Do you have what it takes to earn bragging rights among your friends? It feels like there were a lot of games at PAX East that had characters that I loved the designs of and Heroes of Mount Dragon was no different. There are books about the characters coming out as well if you’d like to learn more about their backstories. In the demo against the Managing Director, I scored more points so I’d like to think I have slight bragging rights this time! I used Fenek as her attacks felt perfect for me. In competition mode, you can find items to help yourself OR items that will hinder progress. You might be able to find a shrinking spell to slow someone down or a fire spell for more attack damage. That could be the reason why you win a match so be on the lookout. I’m really looking forward to seeing more of Heroes of Mount Dragon as I’m a big beat-em-up fan!
