Review: Prinny Can I Really Be The Hero?

Prinny debuted in his own game on November 20, 2008 on Sony’s first handheld, the PSP. In March of this year NIS America announced that both titles would be freed from the PSP and would be landing on Nintendo’s Switch. Before my editor allowed me to review this game I was looking for copies to play on my PSP. I’m trying to broaden my gaming horizons during these lockdowns.

NIS America has become one of my favorite publishers in recent years. Their games are gorgeous, funny, quirky, have great soundtracks and are overall just fun to play. Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero is one of those enjoyable games. I’m glad that people will be able to experience this on the Switch since the PSP really didn’t take off. 

Story

Oddly enough most NIS America published games are wrought with an amazing and endearing story. Prinny doesn’t fall to close to the tree with this one. You play as one of the thousands of Prinny’s that Etna has turned you into. I say thousand because that is how many lives you have in this game, you actually ARE expendable in this title.

One of your Prinny compadres has eaten Etna’s Ultra Dessert and she is furious because she was looking very much forward to consuming it. She gives her Prinny’s ten hours to find all the ingredients or she will murder them all. That’s where the tale begins, you set off to traverse six different worlds seeking six different ingredients. Not really a story that Peter Faulk would read to you when you’re ill.

Controls

Since the game is a platformer, the controls are very simple to grasp and execute. To Jump you press B, to attack you press Y and to pick items up and throw them you press X. You can move your Prinny using either the D-Pad or the control stick, certain parts of the game required a bit more precision so I would use the D-Pad now and then. To stun more powerful enemies and then lay the smack down you press B then Down and B and you’ll wallop them in the head like Mario. Once stunned you can unleash attack that will help you defeat them quicker. At first I didn’t understand what A did. My Prinny would spin around, then get dizzy and be vulnerable for a bit. What I found out what that you can spin by enemies like that and take no damage. 

The final and most powerful attack is jumping with B and pressing Y. This is how you take down those bosses you stun them multiple times and then use your special attack to trim down their health bars! It is hard though, even on the easiest setting you only get 4 hits, then you die and go back to some pretty liberal checkpoints.

Look and Sound

All the NIS America’s games that I’ve ever played or have seen have an amazing art style. Prinny is no different. The title looks like you are playing a painting, I’ve loved the look of NIS games since the first one I ever played. One of their first games I ever reviewed was The Witch and the Hundred Knight and I simply fell in love with everything NIS published. 

The sprites, animations and levels are all so gorgeous. Even when you complete a level you want to go back just to see all the sites you missed. In addition to the great levels and sprite work, the voice-over work is also stellar. It seems to me that NIS America keeps their voice over staff on speed dial. I remember most of these voices from other NIS America games that I have played. This isn’t detrimental to the game, these actors and actresses completely understand their lines and characters. This whole game is one big bowl of awesome.

Overall

I enjoyed my time as a Prinny and I’m glad that I got to experience for the first time on the Switch. Even though the game was built for the PSP, it looks great in both docked mode and hand-held mode. I spent most of my time in hand held because I was sitting at my computer taking notes for this review as I played.

Fans of NIS America and challenging platformers will enjoy this title. I’m not big on platformers and the first Sly Cooper is almost impossible for me to beat, but I had a blast being a Prinny. The difficulty is tweaked at some points, but if you keep attempting you will overcome the bosses that seem impossible on the first go around. 

This review is based on final code product provided by the publisher