‘Allstar Heroes’ Review (iOS)
Allstar Games, the newly launched UK-focused arm of the successful Asian mobile publisher, have made a solid debut in the west with Allstar Heroes – a brand new mobile title for iOS and Android devices, which brings the complete MOBA experience to mobile devices, smashing together the strategy synonymous with the genre with the fast, fun, pick-up-and-play nature of traditional mobile titles.
In a quest to rid the world of darkness, players will come face to face with a range of challenging encounters. Thankfully, with dozens of unique heroes to choose from, players have thousands of battle formations available in the palm of their hand – all of which can be unleashed with just one finger. An online component sees thousands of users competing to become champion of the Arena, while Bluetooth Battles allow players to test the strength of their squad by taking the fight to their friends. A vibrant, eastern-influenced-design gives the game distinct character and looks to capture the eyes and imagination of both newcomers and veterans of the genre alike.
To be fair to Allstar Heroes, I had never even so much as touched a MOBA before getting this game to review, so my experience may differ hugely from those that are fans of the genre. It may sound bizarre, but for me the main attraction to the game was the graphics – which are a gorgeous mix of Asian, mainly kawaii, influences and old-school 90s video gaming. Disclaimer out of the way, what exactly did I think of the game? Well I hated it. With a passion. Which seems to be disctinctly the opposite of the norm given that I’ve read a number of tweets, Facebook posts etc. proclaiming folks love for this app…
Why the hate? Well those pretty graphics that attracted me to this game are the ONLY thing Allstar Heroes has going for it. It certainly isn’t the gameplay which consists of nothing more than watching your chosen characters fight CPU-controlled villains and occasionally selecting the odd “special power” for your characters when the option arises (i.e. when it flashes white). This is the type of game babies could play, for that’s the thing there really is nothing to play, you’re watching “watching” the game do [almost] everything. This is even less of game than the likes of Dragon’s Lair and the FMV titles of the 90s/early 2000s. Hell, there’s less to do here than in Heavy Rain – and that’s saying something! When all’s sadi and done, Allstar Heroes actually has more in common with traditional table-top roleplay-style gaming than it does video gaming.
Allstar Heroes is structured as a series of maps and battles which you must complete. As I stated previously, you watch ther battles take place and activate the special attacks of your team, whilst collecting any dropped items etc. As you progress through each map you’ll pick up new team members whom you can rotate in and out of your core squad of 5 characters. There is *supossed* to be some skill in selecting the right team members for each battle but random selecting any that take your fancy seems to work just as well! You can upgrade your team by collecting treasure and artefacts – which are often dropped in-game at random. Each level/battle you complete gives you a star rating and the aim of the game is to (as per a LOT of these types of star-based reward systems) get all the stars on all the levels. Repetition is the name of the game here.
There are other aspects of gameplay in Allstar Heroes – a challenge mode, battle arenas, your usual shop where you can pay through the nose – via debit/credit card – to upgrade your team of characters without grinding so much. This is a “freemium” game after all. Additional game modes are [apparently] unlockable the more you play, but given that I only played as much as I needed to for this review it’s needless to say I didn’t unlock any of those.
Allstar Heroes is currently in closed beta. It will be available on Android and iOS.
