3D Dot Game Heroes Review

This games entire basis also happens to be its greatest downfall, satire in games is tough, and 3D Dot Game Heroes doesn’t pull it off brilliantly. As a rule if you’re referencing things that are older than 10 years old, you will struggle.

Its pastiche of games like Zelda is perfectly done, between the opening sequence and some of the gameplay mechanics, you could swear you were playing Zelda itself. The NES edition of Zelda that is. Not the shiny new versions but the beloved, and extremely old versions. But you loved those games, didn’t you?

Keep telling yourself that, as thankful as we should be to these games, for effectively being the ancestors of our industry, they had those really annoying problems. It’s fun until enough but then you realise everything you found annoying about these games, also returns.

The game is set in the kingdom of Dotnia, in which an evil King is about to be resurrected. You’re tasked to find powerful orbs hidden throughout the land, and stopping the evil King. That story in itself sounds familiar, it’s a nice story, but one that’s been told a million times.

The world was once 2D, and populated by cute little sprites, but one day the King decided to go 3D, as you do. This is where the whole pixelated look the game features, comes into play. This game is beautiful looking, the colours are vivid. This, combined with the pixel effect makes the game look like a painting. This is where the novelty of the pixel look wears off. Even the bad guys are made of ‘pixels,’ being essentially Lego blocks, they blur all into one and you end up fighting a some strange block of colour. Not good, not clever and most definitely not fun.




In true old school style you are tasked with finding orbs that are hidden deep with temples, each temple has its own style, with its own bosses and other adventure game staples. In true archaic fashion at each temple you will receive an item that allows you to progress. Just like Zelda. These items make for controlled progression, the games open world is deceptive. You’re more constricted than you think. However, you’ll be blasting through the game so fast you won’t notice; much.

Combat is set in a classic and tortured paradigm. You simply assign items to the X and O buttons. The sword is upgradeable, becoming bigger and stronger. Not that it matters, pretty much all standard enemies are one shot kill.



The only fun part of this game is the progression, it happens way too fast though. It’s fun to get a new item and use it a few times, to kill some enemies and to solve some puzzles. And then, like the rest of the game, it gets stale. It’s a very good job that before you get too bored with the game, you have a new item. This is without a doubt, this games only saving grace.

Another thing about the game is the annoying soundtrack. It’s overly repetitive and somewhat soul destroying, many times the ditsy music mocked me as I failed to complete a task. Seemingly torn from 8-bit games and then spliced onto our title. The entire game is like this, a poorly made Frankenstein of everything we used to love; and hate.

A refreshing aspect of the game was the character customisation, there’s a massive list of pre made characters to choose from, and they’re pretty fun too. There’s standards like a Samurai or a Warrior, there’s also the amusing options, like a Shark, which swims in the ground and comes up to attack; with a sword of course. You can also build your own characters, these too are made up of the pixelated blocks, no matter how creative you are they still end up looking like glorified Lego characters. But it’s nice to have the option, even if it is poor.

The game is fun, and at below average price for a game it’s only worth picking up of you’re a die hard fan of the olden days of gaming. 3D Dot Game Heroes is available now for the PS3. By all means buy it, but don’t come crying to me when you get mugged by a drug dealer on your trip down memory lane.