Next Up Hero

Is this the game that brings Gauntlet-style, co-operative dungeon crawling into the 21st Century? We sharpen our swords and get our spell books ready.

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As Benjamin Franklin once observed, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Thankfully, Next Up Hero doesn’t offer simulated tax returns, but it’s certainly heavy on death.

A 2D twin-stick dungeon crawler, the game fuses Gauntlet’s attitude with Smash TV’s control system. One stick is used to move, the other, to aim. You choose from nine characters with a wild range of weird weaponry; as well as the usual swords and axes, you can fight with laser turrets, bongo drums, player-detonated mines and more, you can even steal monsters’ attacks and make them your own. It’s clearly a light-hearted affair, not the dark and dangerous fiend-factory flavor favored by many other dungeon delvers.