Monday Sep 26, 2011
Guardian Heroes is coming to XBLA on October 12th, and to get you ready, we’re sharing character bios and exclusive character art until the big day!
This week, as you may have guessed already, we’re focusing on Nicole. (Last week, we focused on Ginjirou.)
A young cleric and hero in Treasure’s Guardian Heroes game. Whether by accident or design, probably the most formidable playable character in story mode.
Nicole comes across as a fairly ditzy, lighthearted and fun-loving character, if somewhat grumpy at times. She appears to be quite clumsy too, given that she falls over at random, and that the effects of her spells are somewhat randomized.
While players first trying out Nicole might be forgiven for thinking that she mostly just functions as a support character, given her healing magic, barrier and lack of any obviously powerful attacks, she is the best character in story mode when it comes to both attacking and defense. Her most lethal tactic is to sandwich an enemy between the edge of the screen and her barrier move, as neither the target nor Nicole will be knocked out of range of one another. This technique is probably the most damaging in the game.
In addition to this, Nicole is the only playable character in Story Mode who can restore her own health, a major advantage given that unlike most beat-em-ups, Guardian Heroes doesn’t include health-restoring power ups.
Get ready, because Guardian Heroes is hitting XBLA on October 12th!
Posted by Kellie in
Guardian Heroes,
SEGA on 3:27:00PM Sep 26, 2011
Comment # 1
Will this be released on the PSN as well? Please say yes!!!!
Posted by Victor on September 26th, 2011 at 3:38 pm
Comment # 2
pink hair reminds me of amy
Posted by unknown on September 26th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
Comment # 3
Victor – no, this game is only being released on XBLA.
Posted by Kellie on September 26th, 2011 at 3:56 pm
Comment # 4
Reminds me of Phantasy Star, the original Master System/Gensis(Mega Drive) games…
Posted by Renko on September 26th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
Comment # 5
Can’t wait! How much will the game be?
Posted by Jix Hedgehog on September 26th, 2011 at 4:03 pm
Comment # 6
Kellie – It is a shame that it isn’t being released on PSN. I hope that Sega changes their mind. I am really happy to see Sega re-releasing classics like this, though. Next stop, Panzer Dragoon Saga, right?
Posted by Narles on September 26th, 2011 at 4:19 pm
Comment # 7
She is very cute! I love this game!
Posted by Sega_Portuguese on September 26th, 2011 at 4:20 pm
Comment # 8
Please, please PLEASE consider a PSN release.. Games like this get overlooked on XBLA with their shooter majority crowd
All the niche gamers are on PSN…
Posted by Brandon on September 26th, 2011 at 4:31 pm
Comment # 9
I really like this art style (seeing as it was also used for Radiant Silvergun and Mischief Makers). Maybe we can see new drawings by the same artist?
& despite being a 360 owner, I do hope this gets released on PSN so more people can play it and the fact that they’re considering a sequel to the game is sales are good enough (like what happened with Sin & Punishment).
Posted by Zonic505 on September 26th, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Comment # 10
It is so nice to see Saturn releases getting the love and attention they deserve
Posted by DJ Fob Fresh on September 26th, 2011 at 5:08 pm
Comment # 11
@Brandon
That is not true, games like Call of Duty and Battlefield do just as good on PlayStation 3, and there are more exclusive shooters on Sony platforms now lately too. Guardian Heroes is also far from a niche release.
Castle Crashers was a major hit on XBLA and did not do too well on PSN as far as I know, it makes sense I guess, also considering Treasure Co’s history with Microsoft. Radiant Silvergun is an amazing conversion.
Either way, I would prefer it come to both, but I am glad this is coming at all. Really excited for this, and I am really happy people like Kellie and Clumsy are making write ups of the characters like this.
Posted by Sega Uranus on September 26th, 2011 at 6:03 pm
Comment # 12
It’s a shame that people keep spreading the wrong impression that xbox only shooter fans.
Castle Crashers, Braid, Trials HD, Limbo, Bastion, they all did well on XBLA.
And don’t forget the casual gamer base newly built-up this year by Kinect’s success.
(OK, I know GH is a rather hardcore game)
Posted by Henry on September 26th, 2011 at 7:42 pm
Comment # 13
Typo Correction:
It’s a shame that people keep spreading the wrong impression that xbox only ***has*** shooter fans.
Castle Crashers, Braid, Trials HD, Limbo, Bastion, they all did well on XBLA.
And don’t forget the casual gamer base newly built-up this year by Kinect’s success.
(OK, I know GH is a rather hardcore game)
Posted by Henry on September 26th, 2011 at 7:51 pm
Comment # 14
This game was cool way back didn’t get to play it much but had loads of fun when we hired it out ^^ missing Battle Arena Toshinden my first fighting I like back in the day would like to have a copy redone with better graphics on steam with online versus ^^ or even this Guardian Heroes just a 5-15$ game of it would be cool
Posted by Jamie C L on September 26th, 2011 at 8:37 pm
Comment # 15
I dont exactly get logic behind this, it might be a fact that Castle crasher did not do well on PSN. But PSN users are demanding this game, so I think most demanded the game will buy the game. And I am sure, we as PSN users will prove Guardian Heroes will be a HUGE hit. Beside I don’t really like the Castle Crasher art style, but Guardian Heroes are different.
Posted by David Martian Wong on September 27th, 2011 at 8:34 am
Comment # 16
@Brandon: buy a 360 or just STFU. Buy consoles to play games, not the other way around.
Posted by TiredofPortBegging on October 5th, 2011 at 2:50 pm
Comment # 17
I have both systems and I will wait for a PSN version. The Xbox dpad is trash and as far as Castle Crashers doing better on the Xbox…let’s not forget it came out a full two years before the PS3 version. The only reason I had it on Xbox instead of PS3 was because I thought it was going to stay exclusive to the Xbox. But with Guardian Heroes, I plan on holding out. System bickering aside, this game is a CLASSIC that was overlooked in its day. For the sake of the gaming community in general, it should be given a release on as many formats as possible so everyone can get a chance to experience this incredible game.
Posted by Onama on October 12th, 2011 at 7:47 am
Comment # 18
I don’t exactly get the logic of only having this on XBox, for a start the X-Box is practically dead in the Japanese marketplace & i’m assuming that Treasure still have a fairly large Japanese fan base due to certain older titles like Radiant Silvergun not even getting a western release & the popularity of their shooter titles among arcade enthusiasts.. So i’ll assume there is a market there at least.
Also how come Gunstar Heroes warranted a release on Psn? I would have thought that would be even more obscure seeing as most of the teen-20 something age range of todays console users would barely remember the MegaDrive, let alone obscure Treasure run & guns.
Let alone releasing either of these titles on XBox, a console that almost revels in low-brow western macho aesthetics, the fact that you would even consider releasing a game featuring brightly colored anime-styled characters to an audience that revels in shooting prostitutes, realistically digitized warfare, & crashing expensive cars into walls all in glorious Michael Bay brown n’ bloom-o-vision seems frankly ridiculous.
Thirdly, the lack of success of Castle Crashers has very little to do with it, although i’m sure Castle Crashers is a nice game in it’s own right it’s no Guardian Heroes.. It’s like universal pictures saying that they’re not going to bother releasing E.T on Blu-Ray because of disappointing sales of Mac & Me.
I can’t really see what you’d have to lose by porting this, there are a lot of people waiting for it.
Posted by MaxwellHouse on December 26th, 2011 at 2:50 pm
Comment # 19
I hadn’t played it on the original Saturn (never really played the system), but I have a friend who loved this game and knew I was a fan of old school beat’em-ups like Streets of Rage and Fists of Fury, so he recommended it and we got it. I don’t care what the reviews say, Guardian Heroes is THE best 2-D brawler on the 360. The story is far stronger, the combat is deeper, the tier system is uniquely interesting (and makes it more fun to pull off ridiculous combos), and personally I enjoy the graphic style and soundtrack more. Even though it’s a shorter playthrough than Castle Crashers, it offers much more replayability imo.
If you’re a fan of brawlers, then you have to play this game. It redefined a genre that was practically dead when it came out. Unfortunately, it was too little to late, and we didn’t get to see those innovations revisited until recently… but Guardian Heroes still did it better in ’96 than Castle Crashers does it today. Castle Crashers is great for three or four players, but if there’s only two of us and we want some beat’em-up action, we go to Guardian Heroes.
C’mon, Treasure. We’re ready to throw money at you for a sequel. Make the damn thing already.
Posted by OckhamsFolly on January 17th, 2012 at 3:46 pm