Heroes of Mana

"A failed attempt at a RTS. Had so much potential."

A RTS for DS that isn't Shogun Empires? Sweet! Heroes of Mana is certainly an improvement over Shogun Empires, but there are still so many things that are lacking in the game.

Game Play: 4

There are too words to accurately describe the game play: slow and frustrating. Everything moves slow. Agonizingly slow. Even on the small maps, every unit takes way too long to get from one point to the other. Which brings me to my next complaint about the game play. The movement AI in this game is terrible. Even using the grid system, units occasionally (common enough to make the played want to immolate his or her DS) go far out of their way to get to wherever they're ordered to go. Possibly the single most frustrating thing in the game, beside the incredibly slow pace. The unit production and mothership layout is nice if you don't like planning where buildings are to be built, though a minor annoyance is only having the ability to park the mother ship at a few spots on the map.

Another big weak spot is the actual units used to fight with. This is more a personal opinion, but when I play a RTS, I like when the units I'm using are guys with guns and swords or crazy aliens. Not mushrooms and weird flying things. That's just me though, so I'm not really gonna hold that against the game.

The resource planning in this game is another thing I had a problem with. There are no resources! The resources get depleted so quickly that not everything can be built, and only a small amount of units can be built.

Controls: 8

Possibly the best part of the game. It utilizes the stylus really well. Almost better then using a mouse because of the lasso effect. The automatic game pausing when picking units is kind of nice too. It was very easy to get used to.

Story: 7

Kind of average. A bunch of soldiers are betrayed by their country for helping the apparent enemy. Sinister plotting behind their home countries actions. Mystical artifacts. Elemental gods. That sort of thing.

Graphics: 7

The in-game graphics are basic sprites. Not particularly eye catching. Kind of average. The actual maps are very basic 3D maps. Again, not particularly eye catching.

The anime sequences are nice, if very short and spread apart.

Sound: 7

I don't care too much about song, but it was pleasant.

Overall: 5 (not an average)

The problems with game play seriously bring this game down. The slow pace is almost torture to play through and the movement AI is incredibly annoying. The resource management issues are annoying as well. If these were fixed, it would've have been an excellent game. It's a shame, really. The game is fun at points, but it's mostly frustrating. Definitely rent it or borrow it if you can. Or if you do hate yourself enough to buy it, buy it used, I can imagine there will be lots of used copies out there.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/04/07

Game Release: Heroes of Mana (US, 08/14/07)