Iro Hero
Iro Hero
Iro Hero, développé par Artax Games et édité par Eastasiasoft et Artax Games, est sorti le 7 juin 2018 sur PC, PlayStation 4, Mac, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One et Linux. Ce jeu de tir vertical au pixel art, mêlant les genres shooter, aventure, arcade et indépendant, se déroule en 2306, un siècle après que les Nyagu ont appris à l'humanité à produire de l'électricité à partir de son énergie intérieure, avant que des entreprises n'exploitent les humains comme sources d'énergie. Après la mort de sa mère dans l'une de ces fermes, le jeune Iro découvre qu'il pourrait être la clé de la liberté de l'humanité. Réparti sur neuf niveaux d'action, le titre propose un système de polarité quadricolore inédit avec éléments interactifs, énigmes, zones colorées, améliorations d'armes et compétences spéciales à débloquer, et oppose le joueur à dix types d'ennemis aux centaines de comportements ainsi qu'à dix boss finals. Commercialisé au prix de 9,99 euros, Iro Hero affiche une note agrégée de 48,00. La presse a salué certaines de ses audaces, comme IGN Spain qui y voit « un nouveau tournant pour un type de jeu qui ne pourrait être plus classique » grâce à l'inclusion d'éléments de puzzle, tandis que Vandal note qu'il emprunte des idées à d'autres shoot 'em ups tout en ajoutant sa propre saveur avec une approche de conception et de difficulté très singulière.
Médias
Avis des critiques et joueurs
Critiques de la Presse (Metacritic)
« A new twist fora type of game that couldn't be more classic. The inclusion of puzzle elements gives this shmup a new point of view over it’s competitors. Iro Hero tells you a story and makes you fly through it switching colors and avoiding enemies, making you think and act with speed and precision if you want to succeed. »
« Iro Hero borrows some ideas from other shoot ‘em ups, but also adds its own flavor. It has a very unique take on design/difficulty, so it might not be for every player, but if you understand it, we think you’ll enjoy it. »
« Iro Hero is a decent enough shooter that doesn’t want you to see how good it could be. The lack of continues or any aid in progression will leave newcomers to the genre feeling cold enough to probably put them off altogether. Unless you really want to put a great deal of effort into memorising levels that seem to take forever to complete, the chances are that you will quickly bore at the thought and disregard the idea completely. »
« Iro Hero ambitiously seeks to reinterpret polarity switching shooters. Baffling design choices render it alienating even to seasoned shoot ‘em up fans, however. The blueprint for a clever shooter is here and it’s possible the developers will rectify that base game with patches and updates, but the Iro Hero of today does not reflect that lofty potential. »
« Iro Hero takes solid idea and does some fun things with it but falls flat due to poor balance and a punishing difficulty. »
« If Iro Hero was updated to create a better balance, I would definitely want to play it again. The game has a lot of potential. There are great bosses with different fighting styles, the graphics are fun and non-distracting from the gameplay, and the music and sound effects all add to the overall action. However, throwing endless enemies and obstacles at a player all in the name of creating a difficult game does not inherently produce a rewarding challenge. Unfortunately this title sorely missed that mark. »
« Iro Hero is a decent game with a poorly thought-out execution. The game is difficult but almost unforgiving, as longer-than-usual levels and a high enemy count mean you'll start at the beginning of stages far more often than you'd like. The mechanics are barely explained in-game due to the ill-conceived layout, and the story suffers the same fate as well. With an inconsistent presentation to boot, Iro Hero is a game that's solely for hardcore genre fans, as everyone else will barely make it out of the first stage before deleting it in favor of other, better-executed shooters. »
« Iro Hero is certainly a very challenging and tough 2D shoot'em up whose similarities with other old-school classics of the genre will not go unnoticed. It's also a very hardcore experience, tailored mostly to players looking for a challenge of the kind, rather than for the general audience and this is where its biggest weakness lies. »
