Has-Been Heroes

Critic reviews

• Nintendo Insider

  Alex Seedhouse · Nov 17, 2017

  7.0

  Has-Been Heroes heroically treads the line between strategic brilliance and overwhelming frustration to result in an experience that will leave many feeling like toppling the Great Ghoul’s evil army is an insurmountable task. It is in the game’s difficulty and lack of accessibility, then, that sees these wearied heroes falter. Which comes as a great irony when you remember how ridiculously simple their quest had first sounded.

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• TechRaptor

  Samuel Guglielmo · Apr 14, 2017

  8.5

  By the end of my fifth or so run I was thoroughly enjoying my time with Has-Been Heroes. By the end of my tenth run, I was considering all new ways to approach my runs. By the end of the twentieth run, I had to kick myself off the game because I really do have to get to other reviews done, plus write this one tell you that Has-Been Heroes is totally worth playing.

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• GameSpot

  James O'Connor · Apr 04, 2017

  5.0

  Has-Been Heroes is, at least, a great fit for the Switch. It’s the sort of game you can play while half-watching a sitcom in the background, rather than one to which you’ll want to give your full attention. By the same token, playing the game with intense focus starts to feel like a waste of time after the first few hours. It’s a demanding game that gives very little back for the time and effort it eats up. The game’s name does not lie--it’s best to let these has-beens be.

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• NintendoLife

  Ron DelVillano · Apr 04, 2017

  5.0

  Has-Been Heroes is a game that is full of great ideas but gets dragged down by poor execution. The way it combines RPG and roguelike elements with basic tower defense gameplay has so much potential that it unfortunately can't live up to in the face of imbalanced difficulty curves and unwieldy controls. It feels much more like a proof of concept that, with time and updates, could some day lead to a great adventure.

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• Hardcore Gamer

  Jason Bohn · Mar 30, 2017

  6.0

  Despite all of these complaints, Has-Been Heroes isn’t a terrible time. Using skills in tandem to bolster their efficacy is, on its own, a reason to check this game out. The issues lie elsewhere in the design, making this a title to pick up for one or two runs before closing it down and doing something else. It does work in bite-sized chunks, which isn’t exactly a rousing endorsement for what Frozenbyte was trying to achieve. Should the developer want to revisit this concept in the future, the two best suggestions would be to add some real variance to the enemy art design and do something with how attacks are doled out by the heroes. Allowing lane switching when the heroes aren’t attacking would open up the combat in a way that is fun and there doesn’t seem to be a reason that this solution would remove the game’s challenge. As it is, Has-Been Heroes is fine for short bursts, but anybody looking for something that can eat away the hours should move on.

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• Nintendo World Report

  Justin Nation · Mar 29, 2017

  8.5

  This is something I haven't beat yet, something I'm still working out the nuances of, and it is constantly trying to tell me I'm not good enough. Maybe I'm just a “kick me while I'm down and I'll still get up” kind of guy but the best compliment I can pay Has-Been Heroes is that it scratches an itch I never even knew I had, and I don't come along games like that often enough. Depending on where you are on the challenge-loving scale will likely determine where you'll stand, individual results will likely.

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