Flat Heroes (Nintendo Switch) Second Opinion Review

For a genre placement, Flat Heroes is difficult to pinpoint with certainty. Descriptively, a simple-looking puzzler on the surface, it contains many other staple elements, platforming action and timed survival being chief among them. Its primary concept revolves around a small, 2D square of a chosen colour, within a large grid of varying size. Set to a countdown clock, the objective is to avoid all hazards by any means possible.

The square is incredibly agile and skilled, able to grip to walls, double jump, and make use of a Burst attack later on to clear obstacles. It is also absurdly easy and satisfying to guide around no matter the control setup, be it Docked or Portable, sideways Joy-Con, or Pro Controller, and any one-hit death leads to an instant restart, making for an ideal on-the-go quickplay experience.

Though the visual identity of Flat Heroes is one of utmost simplicity being coloured shapes and lines, and the musical content consisting of one looped track, the effective use of luminescence design between Campaign worlds, and the earworm nature of that single melody prevents any sense of debilitating repetition. Adding onto that is the surprising number of varying concepts introduced in later levels of the main campaign mode that do far more than most would expect from a simple premise, adding new enemy and hazard types in succession.

'Perfect For The Switch' is a phrase very commonly heard for most games, but Flat Heroes' strong Multiplayer aspects undoubtedly compliment this thought process. Every mode in the game is playable with one-to-four players on the same machine, be it the main Campaign with its 10 Worlds to cooperate through, Survival which offers a daily challenging level to try and the goal of being last square standing, and the aptly-named Versus that can make use of AI blocks, and offers an array of competitive options. The simple art-style for the game goes a long way for following the action on screen regardless of participant numbers. Though the main campaign levels are reasonably lengthy, it'll be the Multiplayer support that will keep buyers coming back for more.