Hammerin Hero PSP Review

The Fun Parts (4 out of 5)

Hammerin Hero is a short, entertaining, romp through a masterfully developed game that pushes the PSP to its limits. A unique visual style, engaging combat, and a surprising level of depth on many levels of game development make this game a pleasure to play.

A bright, colorful, graphical presentation matches the stylish characters wonderfully and the available costumes add nice variety and unique charm to each look.

Parts to Forget (3 out of 5)

The combat in _Hammerin H_ero starts out good, but after awhile its lack of depth makes it boring to continue fighting. You are given different weapons as you progress through the levels, but each weapon feels and plays the same, so it really doesn’t matter which weapon you use.

You’ll change occupations several times as you play the game, becoming a baseball player, DJ, Chef, but there’s little difference between the occupations, other than cosmetic changes.

The Game Graphics (4 out of 5)

The graphical presentation is excellent for a PSP game; the visual look of the game has a style and charm of its own, with startling colors and a distinctive look. The animations are smooth and fluid at all times when playing this action platformer, you dash to the right, dash to the left, and then bash someone on the head.

Screenshots

Sounds in the Game (4 out of 5)

The quaint sound track of Hammerin Hero is as light hearted as the game play, the tunes all have a fast beat that matches the game play, and are arranged to compliment the action well. The sound effects are just as simple, yet fun, and entertaining as the charming visuals. Funny electronics beeps and blips, bops and pops, all more designed to add laughs then serious sounds.

The Story Line (3 out of 5)

Gen the carpenter fights the plans of the evil corporation moving into his neighborhood, the Kuromoku Corporation, who want to build over all the houses in the neighborhood and leave the residents out in the cold. He will bash his way through 12 levels of platforming game play, fighting the henchmen of the Kuromoku Corporation, and dispatching a number of interesting and satisfying bosses along the way.

Playability (4 out of 5)

Hammerin Hero took me twelve hours to complete, which for some maybe a short trip, but considering this is a PSP game twelve hours of game time isn’t bad. There’s replay possibility in collecting the variety of Bento Boxes and unlocking the additional occupations and costumes.

The controls are fast, responsive, satisfying, and extremely rewarding to use. This platforming game has refreshing style and game play better than any PSP platforming game I have played. Enemies crash around the PSP’s small screen wonderfully when you hit them.

Hammerin Hero is a hard game to defeat, it takes patience, timing, and skill to win at several points of the game, but this is a result of design rather than technical issues.

The Final Word (4 out of 5)

Hammerin Hero is one of the most playable PSP games you can play for the first hour, but after that the game play becomes too repetitive to sustain the entertainment level of the first hour. This is a great game for someone who only has a few minutes occasionally or a gamer who prefers a platforming experience.