Helmet Heroes Online Client

2D platformers are probably never going away, given the fact that they are still a thing nowadays when we have tools like Unreal Engine 4 and CryEngine 3. The genre is too iconic to just be forgotten, which is why developers are constantly creating new games that emulate those from the golden era of the 16-bit consoles, albeit with a few modern modifications.

Helmet Heroes is a 2D platformer with MMO elements in which you get to battle other players or work together with them to overcome huge monsters. Unfortunately, the game is not that polished when it comes to gameplay mechanics or level design, which means that it gets both frustrating and repetitive after only a few minutes of gameplay, which is not good news in an MMO.

You start by creating a character, and there are multiple classes to choose from, depending on how you want to approach the action. Whether you want to be a warrior, an archer or a wizard, every class has its perks and special abilities. Unfortunately, the gameplay is a bit too disorienting and repetitive, especially since the controls are annoying and imprecise in certain cases.

One of the things that might annoy you the most is that your character does not automatically pick up anything, not even the tiny coins that are spread around the levels. These are also quite difficult to spot sometimes, which makes it that much more frustrating to carefully pick up each one of them. The jumping mechanics are quite shaky as well, not to mention the fact that your character moves slowly for some reason, and there doesn’t seem to be a sprint option.

The graphics are subpar as well, even if they are designed to look retro. While there’s nothing wrong with the classic 2D environments, the ones in Helmet Heroes look a bit too simple and repetitive, and it’s sometimes difficult to tell when you move from one level to the next. The soundtrack is not bad, but it sometimes fails to be relevant to the action on the screen.

In the end, Helmet Heroes is quite clearly designed to be enjoyed by the casual crowds, but that doesn’t excuse the lackluster gameplay mechanics and the poor controls. Hence, this could still be turned into a nice game, but it needs more work for that to happen.