Publisher: XSEED Games
Developer: Marvelous Entertainment
Platform(s): Playstation Portable
Genre: RPG

ESRB Content Descriptors: Animated Blood, Language, Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes

The Scoop: You can do a lot in 30 seconds – tie your shoes, make a bowl of cereal, watch a commercial, or save the world.  Saving the world in 30 seconds  sounds more exciting, and that’s exactly what you must do in Half-Minute Hero.

The Setup:  All of the coverage that you’ve seen or read on Half-Minute Hero was most likely based around Hero 30, which is only one of portion of the game.  Half-Minute Hero is actually composed of the following four modes, each based around a different style:

• Hero 30 – Lead a Hero through a classic RPG adventure in an attempt to stop the evil lord from destroying the world
• Princess 30 – Take the Princess, who is carried around by soldiers, through shooter-style quests in an attempt to find items that will help heal her ill father
• Evil Lord 30 – Use the Evil Lord to summon monsters in this basic real time strategy, where  using rock-paper-scissors tactics is the key to victory
• Knight 30 – In this action game, it is your job as the Knight to protect the Sage while he casts his spell.  Yes, you are his meat shield
• Hero Ad Hoc – Play Hero 30 in Ad Hoc mode with up to 4 players

All five modes of game play are brought together not just by the story, but the awesome concept of defeating a boss or clearing a level within 30 seconds, sort of.  If you need more time, which you will, you can give some of your hard earned gold to the Time Goddess and she will reset your countdown clock back to 30 seconds.

What’s Hot:

• Simple and easy to follow gameplay.
• The graphics and presentation are a throw-back to the good’ol 8 bit gaming days, and it completely works in Half-Minute Hero.  There’s also gorgeous cut scenes thrown in for good measure.
• This is the perfect game to play if you can only play in small chunks of time.  Level grinding, exploring towns, and defeating the boss can all be done in 30 seconds, or a bit more if you pay up to the Time Goddess.
• 5 different game modes each offer a different style of gameplay
• Hero 30 is really the main campaign and offers the longest gameplay in terms of hours to complete.
• Battles in Hero 30 aren’t like the turn based battles you’ll find in traditional RPG’s and will only last a matter of seconds. When you encounter a random enemy your Hero and the bad guy(s) will run towards each other dish out hits until one side wins.  No long and drawn out battles here.
• Soundtrack is rocking

What’s Not:

• All of your equipment, stats, and gold get reset at the end of each level.
• You’ll actually die a lot in 30 seconds.  It may take you a minute or two to figure out the best strategy for each level.
• When you die in battle, your hero gets sent back to the starting point and the clock is still ticking.
• Other then using a herb to heal, the battles in Hero 30 don’t involve any input or tactics.
• The other game modes are a nice addition, but aren’t as addicting as Hero 30

Final Verdict: While Half-Minute Hero won’t be for everyone, those who do pick this game and know what to expect up won’t be disappointed.  The time mechanic is intuitive and it works really well – it’s great to see developers trying new things on the classic RPG genre.  If you have a touch of ADD but want to get in on some RPG action, Half-Minute Hero is the game for you.