If Zombie Shakespeare were to sit down and compose a love letter to old school Legend of Zelda, he wouldn’t come close to capturing the nostalgia and joy that 3D Dot Game Heroes manages to convey.

3D Dot Game Heroes is an homage to classic Zelda. You and your fairy companion set off to save the kingdom of Dotnia by recovering six orbs and the power of the six sages. To do this, you’ll need to recover a legendary sword and then set off into various dungeons filled with monsters, traps, and puzzles. If it sounds like something you’ve been doing since 1987, well it probably is. However, 3D Dot feels more like a Zelda game than the last couple of actual Zelda games.

While hearkening back to old school 8 and 16 Bit titles, 3D Dot manages to create a unique spin that makes it more than just a straight-up Zelda clone. One reason the game succeeds is the graphics. They are strange and unique while somehow still capturing that old school flavor. All the sprites have been converted into dots (think Lego blocks.) This gives the game a feel that is unlike anything else on the market.

As you fire up the game, you have the option to create your own hero or pick from the dozens of pre-made characters. With the ability to fully customize the appearance of your character, you can save the day as an 8-Bit style Spider-man or Mario, if you take the time to craft him. You can also customize the pre-loaded characters, so you can add stylish sunglasses to Santa Clause or a viking helmet to a dragon. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination and your level of effort.

Whenever I am given a character creator to play around with, I always make The Incredible Hulk. The green skin and the ugly purple pants always seems like a pretty good indicator of an editors flexibility. I am happy to say that I was able to construct an Incredible Hulk. Although it looked like something a 5-year-old would draw with crayon, this was due to my shortcomings as an artist rather than the games tool set.

Filled with dozens of jokes and references to other games, 3D Dot kept a smile on my face for a good portion of the quest. If you pay attention, you’ll find references from old school Dragon Quest to Demon’s Souls. They are witty without coming off as shameless parody; think Son of Frankenstein rather than Meet the Spartans.

One old school reference that would make Sephiroth and Cloud feel inadequate is your sword. Remember in the original Legend of Zelda, when you had full health and your sword shot beams? This mechanic is taken to an almost absurd extreme. When you have full health, your sword can literally take up the whole length of the screen.

This makes taking out enemies way, easier. Lose even a tiny chunk of health and your sword shrinks to regular size. So with full health, you can power through most areas, but lose even half a heart and you’ll be cursing as enemies that couldn’t get within 20 feet of you are suddenly right on top of you.

The difficulty level was a little uneven. There were a couple dungeons that I powered through no problem while others seemed to delight in confusing the heck out of me. One boss in particular mopped the floor with me repeatedly. I probably spent more time on the dragon than all the rest of the bosses combined. If you are daring, a special Hard mode opens up after you beat the game. I don’t even want to imagine the curses that would come out of my mouth trying to fight the dragon on Hard mode.

In the end, the game was a blast, but doesn’t quite measure up to the Legend of Zelda. The music is catchy, but doesn’t quite reach classic status. There is nothing wrong with it. But just as there are no songs that I really hated, I can’t hum a single one as I sit here at the computer. The controls work well, but I found myself switching back and forth between digital and analog control.

My only major complaint was that the small pause as the game loads a new screen would make it so I am unable to use my sword. When a tiny chunk off your life makes you lose your screen filling sword, these small hits were a major annoyance. These little complaints add up to the point that 3D Dot is just shy of true classic status.

I still heartily recommend a playthrough. The game is a delight. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the kingdom of Dotnia. If you liked the old 8-Bit Legend of Zelda games, you owe it to yourself to give 3D Dot Game Heroes a whirl in your game tape playing machine.

This review is based on a copy of 3D Dot Game Heroes provided to us by Atlus.

Tags: 3D Dot Game Heroes, Atlus, budget titles, From Software, homage, Nostalgia, parody, ps3, retro games, Zelda

This entry was posted on Monday, June 7th, 2010 at 5:00 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.