Reviews

Many games claim to be retro, but has there really been anything as old-school as Half-Minute Hero? Unashamedly revelling in the structure, style and visuals of Japanese 8-bit role-playing games, Half-Minute Hero still offers something new and exciting.

The first thing to realise is that you don't have to finish every level within 30 seconds, your guiding goddess can pause time when you visit towns, reset the clock if you pray (and pay) to her. Use this combination and you can spend a few minutes on each level, finding all the secrets, collecting all the rewards and beating more monsters to a pulp.

You don't get involved in the battles much, combat is automated - all you can do is make sure that your hero has the right gear at the start and use a health boost (provided by the local apothecary) if his life essence starts dropping towards dangerous levels. If you do lose a bout, due to the instamatic nature of the game, you'll be back up scrapping within seconds.

As with all RPGs, the key to success is having the latest weapon and armour, the odd secret item and a dose of luck. Where HSH comes into its own is time and money management. Perhaps the next generation of merchant bankers will be trained on a game similar to this. You arrive at situations where you have 4.52 seconds left at the last town before the big boss and need a few more coins to afford a clock reset from your favoured, if increasingly expensive goddess. Steeling yourself, you exit the town run into a forest, bump into a battle and, hopefully, dash back with a fraction of a second left.

You can't see monsters on the map, so finding battles is a random affair, enemies range from mushrooms, giant birds, boars and other creatures while bosses are often monstrous or bizarre, often dictated by the terrain. If you lose you reappear back at the start, but the clock keeps ticking. However, there is a flee mode (both shoulder buttons) if you're getting pummelled in a fight.

Each fight rewards you with money and experience, as the cost of resets goes up, so you need to fight for longer, eating up yet more time, to afford them - its all a bit of a juggling act. Most levels have a couple of towns to visit, a couple of points of interest (treasure, essential items or a big money fight) and a big boss at the castle blocking the exit. Sometimes a sub-quest must be completed to reach the boss, all of which eats into those valuable seconds.

If you are defeated, it will only take another go or two to figure out what you need to achieve in a level and maybe another turn to perfect a route. Talking to the locals and listening to your goddess is essential - happily, most of them only have a few words of succinct advice to keep the pace up. Once you've finished a level, you can go back and try exploring around to find any secrets or extra bits. You'll know you've missed something when you see an expensive object in a store that you can't possibly normally afford.

All your gained experience and money resets back to a base level after each quest, its a shame to see it go to waste, but you do keep your equipment and can change gear between levels. If you do get stuck, or want a diversion, then there are a couple of other modes you can enjoy. Evil Lord mode sees you having to summon enough monsters within the time limit, while in Princess mode, you play a frantic game similar to Super Stardust, but with bows and arrows and bags of humour. Multiplayer mode lets up to four players compete in battle to see who is the fastest.

While it might look retro, there are lots of modern tricks in Half Minute Hero but at its heart, you have a fun, fast-to-play arcade game disguised as a role player which proves you can do away with the hi-def 3D fluff as long as there is bags of charm and character. Fabulously addictive, Half-Minute Hero is available on UMD or on the PSP store.