3D Dot Game Heroes

First published on 3 Jun 2010. Updated on 4 Jan 2011.

3D Dot Game Heroes I love homage, pastiche and parody. I love mash ups and covers. I love movies like Flying High, Spaceballs, most things by Tarantino, Family Guy and the Simpsons. I love the sophistication that goes into bringing together disparate cultural knowledge and then twisting it to make it humorous and poignant.

So why don't I love 3D Dot Game Heroes? After all, it is an unashamed homage to Legend of Zelda, the original 2D game that came out on the Nintendo NES back in the early 90s. It's cute as a button with its little 2D world made 3D. It contains not only Zelda's exploration, experience and puzzle systems, but lots of little nods to the history of classic Japanese gaming (one solution to a puzzle is "Up, Right, Up, Left, Left, Down, Left, Up, Up", otherwise known as the famous "Konami Code").

It's even got one of the funniest gags I've seen in a Japanese game – your sword is HUGE. Forget the huge swords in Final Fantasy and Dynasty Warriors: this sword takes up the entire screen when it's fully levelled up. One hit wipes everything off screen. It's a well-executed gameplay mechanic, and a tremendously funny joke in the context of the history of gaming.

However, for all of the cleverness of 3D Dot Game Heroes, it does nothing with the format. In-jokes and huge swords don't disguise the fact this is simply Legend of Zelda rendered in 3D. The gameplay is simply the 2D stuff we knew and loved... and that's it. They even do the age-old "fight all the bosses again" at the end of the game!

The designers have done nothing with the 3D aspect of the game: I felt like I should have been holding a Wiimote, not a PS3 controller. There are no special abilities which play with the notion of a 3D environment. There weren't even any really fancy 3D effects like explosions or what have you, when there was ample opportunity to do so. In this respect, the designers missed a golden opportunity, leading to a distinctly underwhelming game.