There’s something noble about developers who still believe in local multiplayer in this day and age. The amount of bigger titles with local multiplayer included in the package decreases at an alarming pace year after year. Games like Rocket League and Overcooked are a few examples of excellent local multiplayer powerhouses from this current generation. Brazilian developers Mad Mimic are the newest heroes to join the team with the Switch port of their previously PC-exclusive No Heroes Here.

No Heroes Here is a cooperative-focused game in which a bunch of medieval nobodies (there are no heroes here, remember? Wink wink) need to continuously craft gunpowder and cannonballs in order to defend their bases from a nearly unyielding onslaught of invading enemies. Think of it as Overcooked, but instead of cooking delicious meals, you’re cooking delicious weaponry in order to mindlessly murder millions. It’s fun and lighthearted, by the way!

The gameplay is simple; you need to constantly go to an endless fountain of raw materials and craft gunpowder and shells from their respective crafting stations. You load up a cannon with these materials, shoot the nearest bad guy, and then repeat it all over again. It’s a very simple gameplay scheme and it can even be enjoyed in only one joycon, making local multiplayer the ideal way to play this game. To be fair, the only main hindrance in the gameplay lies on whether or not the level design is obnoxious enough to make the entire crafting cycle a tremendous nuisance to everyone involved.

There’s little to say about No Heroes Here when it comes to its graphical and sound departments. They’re… decent. Both the graphics and the soundtrack do their part but they’re nothing special or remarkable. When it comes to the visuals, however, I found that the game was best enjoyed when playing it on tabletop mode. The pixels felt less stretched and even though the scenery might look too small at times, everything felt pretty natural.

The thing with No Heroes Here is that the game is purely dependent on multiplayer gameplay in order to function properly, be it local (the recommended setup) or online. You can, in theory, play the game by yourself, but you’ll not going to go far. You’ll need to craft everything on your own, meaning you’ll have less reaction times. Not even the fastest speedrunner on Earth would be able to survive a round for a long period of time on his/her own.

To sum it up, while I did enjoy my time with No Heroes Here, I only did so whenever I had people nearby to share my joycons with. Playing the game by myself was nearly impossible and playing it online was okay, but far from exciting. I love the fact there are still lots of developers out there keeping the flame of local multiplayer alive, but I would have liked for the game to be equally enjoyable on my own as well. If you have a sibling or special someone to constantly play games with you by your side, then go for it. You could do a lot worse.

 

Graphics: 6.0 Cute pixel visuals might look a bit too stretched on a big TV screen, but ideal on tabletop mode.	Gameplay: 7.5 The cooperative-driven gameplay is decent and the controls are responsive. The gameplay is highly dependent on the level design, though.
Sound: 6.0 No Heroes Here features a decent soundtrack, but none of the tunes are going to stick to your head after turning the Switch off.	Fun Factor: 7.0 No Heroes Here targets a very specific Switch demographic: multiplayer enthusiasts. If you’re one of them, you’re in for a treat. If not, you’ll really hate this game.
Final Verdict: 7.0

Reviewed on Switch.
Also available on: PS4, PC.
A copy of No Heroes Here was provided by the publisher.