Developer: Headbang Club
Publisher: Headbang Club
Platform: PC, XB1, Switch, Mac
Tested on: Switch
Double Kick Heroes – Review
It has already been two years since we last encountered the grungy zombie-fighting heroes of Double Kick Heroes. This Guitar Hero-Esque game put us at the wheel of a nifty ride, with an entire metal band in the back, fending off zombie attackers. The preview build was quite solid, and we are happy to see that the game has been ported to console as well now, albeit with the lack of the editor in which you could make your own tracks. We were eager to see how this game would perform on the Switch.
Story
The game situates itself in the midst of a zombie apocalypse scenario. You’ll be at the helm of a Metal band, that is completely oblivious that there’s an apocalypse is going on. You’ll start making your way towards new cities, new encounters, and so on. The game does have a proper story, in terms of having some meat to hold onto, but this was not necessary per se. It’s nice that the game does have something to explore and entice you to keep going.
Graphics
Graphically Double Kick Heroes sports a pixelated style. The game is fairly detailed and the overall appearance is quite appealing. Your valiant iron steed looks quite crisp, all the band members look their unique selves, and the animations are quite fluid. The backdrops change a bit per stage, making sure there’s a certain variation when playing through the many stages the game has to offer. Other than that, the enemies that are chasing you also come in different shapes and sizes, and the bosses also look quite amazing.
Sound
The Switch port of this game does not allow for creative freedom as with the PC version, but it does have an expansive soundtrack. While most songs could be considered Metal or even Heavy Metal, there are a few nice Rock tunes as well. Overall, we were quite surprised by the tracklist and we hope more songs get added in the future, especially for the challenge modes. The sound effects also go well with all the button mashing going on at all times.
Gameplay
Double Kick Heroes is a proper rhythm game with a few twists and turns along the way. The game will throw you in many different stages where zombies, or other ghoulies, will chase you, trying to demolish your car. The game follows the standard mechanics of the genre, but as you choose higher difficulties, you’ll also have to navigate your car as to which lane you’ll be driving in, and the basic rhythm inputs also determine which canon you’re firing.
The game has different modes you can try, ranging from a normal Arcade mode in which you pick songs, to the Story Mode, or the Challenges. They all boil down to the same, however. You will always pick your difficulty, and then blast zombies to smithereens. The difficulties depend on how many button inputs you want to game to have, how many new weapons and attacks are added, and if you have to navigate your car into different lanes to align your shooting with the oncoming horde.
We did notice that sometimes the game throws a bit too much in your path, in terms of what you have to input. Sometimes it feels annoying or very tiresome when it comes to how many buttons you have to press, or how fast you have to press them. While the command prompts are tailored to the songs you’re playing, it sometimes feels like a bit ‘too much’.
Sadly, unlike the PC version, the mobile Switch version does not come with its own editor. This means you cannot upload your own songs, and then create your own zombie-infested track. While we can understand this is hard to do on platforms such as the Switch, we still miss having no editor. It would have been nice still to be able to tinker with certain tracks.
Conclusion
Double Kick Heroes is still a very interesting entry in the rhythm genre, and will certainly entice Rock and Metal fans. The game is nicely built, the story mode is somewhat alluring and the overall soundtrack is quite interesting, to say the least. We do have to say that certain songs feel a bit ‘spammy’ when it comes to mashing the buttons and that things can get a bit chaotic at times, without a proper learning curve. Nonetheless, if you’re interested in Rock/Metal, zombies and proper rhythm-game mechanics, this one should become a part of your games library.
Double Kick Heroes – Review,
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