There’s an insane amount of independent games being released on a multitude of platforms nowadays. With all that volume, there are some games that are missed or overlooked. Every month I will be discussing a game that never got the attention it deserved considering the quality that it brings to the table.
Developed by Parallel Circles
The Game
I have a strange infatuation with games that use squares as primary “characters”. At some point, I even plan to dedicate an entire article to them. I think I enjoy them because when you create a game who’s design revolves around the most basic geometry, there has to be that other special thing going on in order for the game to be interesting. There needs to be something to keep the player intrigued and keep them going aside from the looks. Thomas Was Alone created an emotional bond through it’s storytelling. Death Squared is riddled with humor, both in it’s party gameplay mechanics, and narration. Flat Heroes is fast paced and damn fun.
Flat Heroes is a game that looks simple and has a simple premise: stay alive. You control a single square placed in a map, and need to dodge bullets and enemies in order to come out unscathed and unharmed. It has a campaign that consists of ten worlds and each world contains fifteen stages. Each stage ramps up the difficulty incrementally, and each world seems to have their own feel. A lot of worlds will introduce a new type of enemy in the early stages and, as you progress, finds new and creative ways to throw that enemy after you.
The gameplay is pretty similar to games that we’ve seen before. When you die, you pop back in immediately and are ready to go again. You can jump, double jump, and stick to walls. Eventually there are other mechanics that come, like a shield boost, but the core of the gameplay is primarily in the platforming. The actual shape of the hero is the part of the game that takes the most getting used to. You’re a square. You don’t slide, and you don’t stay upright as you jump, but rather, you roll and you spin. There is a reason that wheels and balls are round and not square. Squares are terrible rollers. There is little grace that comes with blundering about and less grace that comes with trying to land your flat surface to the wall in order to get a good stick, only to slam your corner instead, and bounce to an untimely death. It takes time to acquire a comfortableness with being a square and the game really starts to click once you get the hang of it.
Early worlds of the campaign start with bullets raining down from top to bottom in a straight line. Once you figure out the order and direction they are coming from, it’s easy enough to find the spot you need to get to in order to stay protected. Later, little wrinkles get added that display the importance of precision, such as walls or floors that destroy you if you touch them. This leads to a harsh punishment for any misjump or improper timing. Eventually arrows that home in on your fragile little square come into play. This requires less of you trying to get from point A to point B, and rather more frantic running and dodging so that they will run into walls and meet their fate. Later game sees turrets firing missiles, who’s splash damage can destroy you through the same walls that you’ve grown so dependent on for protection. All of these enemies, plus a variety of others I didn’t even mention, lead to a gradual increase in difficulty. Once they all start to come at you at once, though, is when things start to get… stressful.
Keeping it Fresh
Now, one hundred and fifty stages is a lot of levels to complete. When the aesthetic is dominated by simple shapes, it would be easy to think that the game quickly grows stale. Flat Heroes, though, doesn’t ever suffer from feeling too samey. You can really tell that they worked to make sure that didn’t happen, by doing simple, yet effective things. Each world gives you its own color palette to make it feel new. It’s a small change, but really makes you feel like you’ve progressed. There is that solid amount of variation of enemies I spoke about earlier that helps to keep things new and ever changing. The biggest factor, though, to help with keeping the freshness alive, happens on the fifteenth and final stage of each world.
A new boss appears at the end of each world. Each has their own unique abilities and strategy requirements. Rather than trying to survive for a certain duration of time, you are instead trying to land three hits on the boss in order to destroy them. You are essentially avoiding all of the henchmen for fourteen levels in over to take down the big bad at the end. They add uniqueness by sometimes even adding new mechanics specifically for that fight. One giant behemoth required using the shield in order to deflect blocks back at itself, after it had been hurling them down at you. It literally felt like you were throwing meteors back at the Sun. The final boss fight gives you a freaking gun! It turns into a high intensity survival game mixed with a twin stick shooter. These mechanics don’t always last, but they help to keep you on your toes at all times.
The bosses get difficult. Some of the more relieving feelings of victory I’ve had in games from the last few years have come from Flat Heroes. Triumph seems next to impossible, but then you notice one little thing that you didn’t quite notice before. It’s small, but it’s enough to make you try your run just a tiny bit different from the previous attempt. If you get a little farther, then you expand on the idea that came to you, and see if it is the secret to exploiting the boss’s weakness. It goes from seeming impossible, before letting you in on the little secret of this particular fight. Then it’s on, and it’s a battle between your own skill and the enemy’s.
The loop of trying and dying is one I’ve always enjoyed, because the sense of finally coming out on top after so many attempts is some of the best feelings I’ve had with games. In Flat Heroes, though, I hit a point where I couldn’t carry on any longer alone. I needed some help.
Party Time
I went over to a friend’s place for a little game night. We started talking about what we had been playing recently, I told them about Flat Heroes and how I was hitting a wall of difficulty. I knew there was some local multiplayer, so I threw it on to see if I could talk them into giving the game a try. I threw on a few of the early campaign levels to let them figure out the controls and the movement, and before going to battle mode, I wanted to show them the stage I was stuck on. I wanted them to see how tough it gets later on to give them a reason to take it seriously. As it turns out, even with them lumbering around cluelessly, we were able to complete the stage. If we could beat this one, then how far could we go?
This then led to roughly 40 stages in a row that we cleared together. Some, were noticeably easier than they would have been had I continued on alone. A lot of enemies past the midpoint of the game are those that home in on you. They are either trying to go on a suicide bombing mission, or fire rockets to take me out. With more bodies out there, regardless of the skill level, it splits the enemy’s focus and buys some time in a game where time is immensely valuable.
At the same time, there were those stages, where I could have done without the crew. In co-op mode, you will mostly start off right next to each other with a clear view of where you need to go. Do you know what happens when four squares try to jump and land on a small platform at the same time? Dumb things. Dumb things happen. Dumb, but at the same time, incredibly amusing. We spent a lot of time reveling in the fall from glory that comes from someone making a quick and perfect landing, only to be shoved to their doom by the three late arriving morons who finally figured it out. It’s chaotic and beautiful to be a part of, and has been one of the more fun couch co-op experiences I’ve had in the recent years.
This made us eager to jump into the battle mode, which brings us the chaos we enjoyed from the cooperative play, while kicking to the curb the uniting goal we once had. Where we used to be together as one in victory or defeat, we now watched as someone rose while the others fell. I like a good unified victory from time to time, but it doesn’t beat the feeling that comes with besting your friends while they scream in anguish. That’s what comes with the Flat Heroes party mode: the wild thrill of victory, and the frustrating agony of defeat.
I enjoyed just about every moment I had with Flat Heroes. It’s the type of game that is perfect on Switch. It lets you easily jump on for five minutes if that’s all the time you have, or you can spend hours busting through worlds and defeating bosses. It’s a game that I’m guessing gets overlooked because of the simplicity of the style, but if you gave it more than a quick glance, then you’d be able to see that the style is there, and it works. The game is a little hidden gem tucked away in the vast wasteland of the Switch library, and it deserves better than that.
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