I had the chance to preview a very enjoyable title, soon to be released, by Savory Games, called Swap Heroes. I was half expecting a dungeon rogue-like game, but I was pleasantly surprised. In this one, before you head out in the wild, you must make a party. Out of 8 characters recognizable from classical RPG protagonists, such as rogue or priest, you need to choose 4 companions before the adventure starts. It’s important to note that while you will begin with a choice of only 4 companions, you will be able to unlock 4 more with the help of purple coins earned through playing.
You start on a beach where creatures such as crabs or frogs will attack in attempt to kill your party. Swap Heroes will only attack once they switch places. Not at of them at the same time, like a game of musical chairs, but rather you must swap 2 of them before the attack is launched.
While 3 of your characters are facing the enemies, the fourth one will be in the back, healing. You must swap the positions of two of your characters to start your turn. This will cause all characters in the front to attack, and then the enemies will respond. You activate special skills by bringing the character from the back into the action.
After each completed level, you have access to the upgrade shop where you will be able to increase your characters life, or even their attack. The upgrade shop gives you 4 options each time you access it and they seem to be random.
After you successfully defeat your foes and spend your hard-earned gold coins, you will move to another area. Thankfully you auto-heal back to full health after each level, because let me tell you, this cute game is tougher than it looks! It is a strategic puzzle because you constantly have to mind how you move your pieces.
That being said, when one of your character dies, you all die and it’s game over. Depending on how well you’ve done, you will earn a certain amount of purple coins. I personally always seem to die on the 3rd level, so I hope you will be luckier than me in your venture!
While the pixel art on this game is well done and quite attractive, the music is a bit repetitive at time, which puts a dampers on the experience. But don’t let that stop you: I still ended up playing for the better part of a rainy afternoon and I certainly enjoyed myself. We are told that the pixel art was done by Tori Sang, who was also behind Scribblenauts.
For the price, a real steal, you’d be silly not to pick up this title when it get released.
