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3D Dot Game Heroes: A Rowdy Retro Romp

If you want nostalgia, you got it. There is no denying that Atlus' 3D Dot Game Heroes is a retro RPG gamer’s dream come true. From the look of the in-game map, to the menu system, and to the items that our Hero uses, the overall style of the game is obviously based off of the NES classic, Legend of Zelda. It’s easy to lose oneself in the nostalgia until you remember you’re holding a Playstation controller and not a classic D-Pad.

One man's homage is another's blatant rip-off, but if you’re willing to dig a little deeper there is so much more going on in this game than just Zelda emulation. It’s full of references to classical mythology, fantasy, and retro gaming in general, with nods toward Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Lord of the Rings, and even Futurama.

3D Dot Game Heroes is funny and clever, and it doesn’t take itself seriously, and that’s what the developers were aiming for. In one scene, the King asks, “Will you accept this dangerous quest, oh Hero of Legend?” I answered “No” and he responded, “Yeah, I know how you feel. I wouldn’t want to do that either. But the story can’t continue unless you say ‘yes’, but you knew that already didn’t you?”. Once the quest was accepted, I was told to proceed to “The Forrest of No Return”. I remembered the wise words of Professor Hubert Farnsworth: “All the planets are named like that in the Galaxy of Terror”.

Don’t let the cuteness and bright colors fool you; the game offers a solid control scheme, clever game mechanics and some damn good puzzles. It flows along at a smooth pacewith an easy to use weapon upgrade system progressively harder dungeons.

The developers added in some really nice touches to this title such as a character creation system, an in-game camera for taking screenshots, and 3 mini-games. The character creator is easy to use, and Atlus is currently running a contest for the best Hero character "sprites". Players can trade their creations with each other on-line.

The built-in camera you take screen shots of the main character, background, and scenery, and it saves the pictures to the PS3‘s photo folder so you can view them later.

The mini-games include “Block Defense,” “Blockout,” and “Dash Circuit.” Block Defense is a tower defense game and the best mini-game by far. It’s simple, but entertaining. Blockout is a Breakout clone: the Hero is the paddle, hitting the ball back and forth using the sword or the shield. Dash Circuit is a racing game: the Hero runs around a track to beat his own and other NPC’s best time.

Zelda game play brings Zelda problems, and 3D Dot Game Heroes brings them out with its faithful embrace of the retro style. Zelda has always played well, but there are certain gameplay elements within that got more than a little tedious:

• The map is terrible.
• There's lots of needless back tracking.
• The fetch quests can be confusing and easy to lose track of.
• You must use Inns and sleeping bags as “Revival Points”.
• The "Wind Wing" won't take you directly to the dungeon, even after you've discovered it.

Many of these complaints are minor annoyances that feel more like intentional throwbacks to the 8-bit and 16-bit days rather than mistakes or laziness. They were originally due to technical limitations, and modern consoles can easily overcome them. The use of Zelda gameplay elements is another example of a developer’s “design choice”, for good or for bad.

This game walks a very thin line between homage and rip-off. It’s not just like Zelda, it is Zelda. The narration and tone are almost rubber-stamp copies from the original game. However, it’s not quite Zelda. It is missing the part of Zelda that keeps fans coming back again and again. The heart and soul are missing, replaced with winks and nods toward the past. When the humor drops away it’s just a generic “Hero and his Sword” game. Of course, that's the point.

I highly recommend this title to any RPG fan and especially to every Zelda fan. It’s not perfect, but it’s an excellent embrace of some of the best games of the past. While at heart it’s a remade Legend of Zelda, it knows that and pokes fun at itself for it. 3D Dot Game Heroes has such a lighthearted tone that you can’t help but enjoy it.