Prima Game of the Week | No Heroes Here

Why You Should Play

• Intense couch co-op gameplay where teamwork is critical.
• 54 unique castle-saving levels to master.
• Online play is available in the event everyone is busy.

Despite enjoying online games, we have a soft spot for good old-fashioned couch co-op, where we get together with some friends and team up against a horde of invaders, or compete against each other in multiplayer deathmatch. This used to be common place, especially in the Nintendo 64 days because of the system’s four controller ports. Today these controller ports (and the N64) are gone, and most of us communicate with our friends and frenemies over broadband, with headsets.

This is why a game like No Heroes Here is such a treat. The winner of best Brazilian game at this year’s BIG Festival in São Paulo, No Heroes Here from Mad Mimic takes us back to those beloved retro days of high-fiving and even screaming at our buddies in person. It requires expert teamwork to succeed, or else the game’s baddies will humble everyone in the room. Of course, if your friends and family already have plans, No Heroes Here also comes with online play.

Gameplay

No Heroes Here is a tower defense game where you must repel enemies and prevent these men and monsters from destroying your castle. You achieve this by firing cannons at the evildoers, and this is where the aforementioned teamwork proves critical. You don’t simply walk up to a cannon and press the fire button. You must create a cannon ball and gunpowder, and then load these items into a cannon, whereupon which you have one shot before having to reload.

This is where things get tough. To make a cannon ball, for example, you need to gather resources, put them into the fire, and then craft… three steps total; gunpowder, by contrast, is only two steps. And when you fire the cannon, you must then clean the weapon before using it again. Therefore, and ideally, you must communicate with the team and assign each person a task. One player makes the cannon balls, while the other the gunpowder. Meanwhile, another player might be responsible for cleaning the cannons while the others collect ammo, or perhaps everyone makes cannon balls at the same time.

To make things trickier, enemies do varying amounts of damage to the castle, and each level features a castle with a unique layout. Resources might be all the way at the top, while the crafting stations might be in the castle basement, which forces you to frantically ascend and descend ladders while the castle’s health bar gets dangerously close to running out. Additionally, every cannon has a unique trajectory. Some cover the castle door, while others can hit enemies a bit further away. Everyone will need to know enemy types, positions, and whether cannons are loaded or not. Fail to call these things out and the castle will fall.

Side note, while No Heroes Here does let you play solo, the game quickly becomes too difficult to beat. By all means get a hang of things on your own, but in order to progress, it’s best to assemble a team of players to thwart those castle crashers, especially if you hope to survive the game’s brutal Nightmare mode.

Visuals and Performance

We had difficulty finding people online to play with (we have the Switch version of the game) so we can’t comment on online performance, but No Heroes Here runs great offline. You’ll have no trouble climbing ladders and jumping all over the place with your friends.

Additionally, No Heroes Here features cute 2D artwork that seems inspired by retro games from the NES and SNES eras. You will also see different scenery and castles over time. One is made of ice, while another is set against a spooky nighttime setting that reminds us of Konami’s Castlevania series.

Game of the Week

No Heroes Here makes for a wonderful pick for your next game night. The controls and rules are simple enough for anyone to get the hang of, while the communication aspect will have everyone in the room talking and even pointing at the screen. Download it today for Switch, PS4, and through Steam (the game should come out for Xbox One soon) and then over some friends to partake in a fun co-op experience.