Publisher - Hudson Soft
Developer - Hudson Soft
Platform - N64
Type - Fighting
Score - 2/10
The following review is based on
the Japanese import version of the
game. We will re-review the game
if it is ever released in the West.
Let's hope that will never happen.
Even though most N64 fighting
games are only average when
compared to those available in
arcades or on other consoles,
Western N64 owners should
consider themselves lucky. Imagine
you lived in Japan. Although fighting
is one of the most popular genres in
that country, it took 18 months to
bring a fighter to the N64.
December 1997 marks the release
of Dual Heroes, Hudson's third
N64 title after the enjoyable
Bomberman 64. Time to rejoice for
Japanese fighting fans? Ummm, no.
Dual Heroes makes the N64 look
so bad, it could easily be a system
seller -- meaning N64 owners
selling their systems to get a PSX or
a Saturn.
Gameplay: When Hudson first
showed renders for Dual Heroes,
everyone was excited. Futuristic
super-heroes fighting in precarious
environments, on top of a moving
train, knee-deep in water,
threatened by collapsing walls --
not bad... If only those things were
in the final game, too.
Dual Heroes enables you to select
from eight Power-Ranger-like
characters, two girls, five guys, and
one alien with a tail. As with other
fighting games, each character
comes complete with unique special
moves and slightly different
attributes. So, how does it play?
One word: "Argh."
You control your character with the
analog stick, the D-Pad cannot be
used. Z allows for 3D movement
(sidestep), A is punch, B is block,
C-Down is kick. Considering that
the selection of moves is dreadfully
limited, their implementation in 3D
space is even worse. Often you’re
facing the wrong way and miss your
opponent, or gameplay turns into a
simple button mashing contest. As a
matter of fact, when we first picked
up the game, we beat it on the
normal setting in shortest time,
mostly using a low kick (OK, so
we threw in three punches for the
final boss).
Luckily, it's not all THAT bad. For
example, there is an innovative
Robot Mode, in which you teach
another character how to fight. This
translates into you hitting your
opponent, for example with a punch
kick combination, and your "robot"
will copy your moves and
remember the combo for later use.
The other cool feature is what
Hudson calls the "Virtual Gamer."
Select one of five characters
labeled as "gamers" (they are only
represented by drawings and don’t
actually appear in the game), who
will then randomly pick one of the
eight fighters. Each gamer has
his/her own speed settings and uses
slightly different tactics, e.g. Reiko
is fast, Alan & Milan (Siamese
twins) are better in the defense
department, while Zara likes to
attack and not worry about
defense. The virtual gamer is an
awesome idea and if the game itself
wasn’t so bad, this would definitely
lengthen its replay value. Finally,
there is a two-player mode and a
practice mode.
Graphics: Awesome! Vibrant
colors, fantastic reflection-mapping
and dynamic composition. But let’s
put aside the box art and look at
the actual game. Decent, if
unoriginal polygon models are
texture-mapped with some of the
ugliest textures yet. The N64’s
hardware tries to smoothen out
what’s there, but in the end, even
bi-linear filtering and anti-aliasing
can’t correct bad design. The battle
arenas (select from barrier, no
barrier, or wall) are simple squares
with low-res ground textures (often
made up of a vomit-inducing
primary color pattern). The
backgrounds are equally shoddy,
with dithered color schemes -- as
flat and uninteresting as they can be.
Don’t misunderstand me, I have
nothing against bitmap
backgrounds, but it looks like
Hudson compressed the hell out of
these and they weren’t very well
drawn to begin with. The
motion-captured animation is
definitely one of the high-points of
Dual Heroes -- too bad that the
camera angles screw up your view
when pulling off a special move.
Yes, there's a lot to dislike here.
Whether it's the fighters' gray
shadows, the atrocious load-time
(can you believe it?) before some of
the fights, or the fact that the display
is letter-boxed at all times. Dual
Heroes is definitely the Boris
Karloff of fighting games.
Sound: It’s happy, it’s Japanesey,
it’s pure Super NES goodness.
While not the worst music on the
N64 yet, it’s utterly forgettable. If
only you could switch it off -- it
boggles my mind that always the
games with the worst music don’t
include an option to give your ears
a break.
Overall: Let’s not waste any more
time on this game: Dual Heroes
would be the worst fighter for the
N64 if it came out over here.
Despite some innovative ideas, the
final project is a shoddy first
attempt at 3D fighting for the
Japanese market. Hudson was
smart enough to base the game’s
characters on artwork by a
renowned Japanese manga artist,
which will probably be Dual
Heroes’ main selling point as well.
At the moment, it’s only available in
Japan -- and if you’re smart, that’s
where it should stay. Buy only if it
ships with a free N64 packed in.