When I first started playing HEROish, I immediately thought ‘this is a single-player MOBA game’, but it is much more than that. HEROish also has aspects of tower defense and deckbuilding. This is the debut title for developers and publishers Sunblink and it’s a great game to debut with. Starting its life out on the Apple Arcade back in July of 2022, Sunblink quickly geared up and released HEROish to PC and consoles in December 2022, and now finally out on Nintendo Switch.

The cursed have risen with Queen Lavinia stealing an ancient relic from a tournament our warrior, Flynn Diamond, just won. With this guitar in hand, she summons the powerful demon Lord Marduke to raise hell and spew corruption across the land. Flynn, Vega, and Ajax must stop the demon assault but require help from the Feral tribes.

The feral tribes, however, want nothing to do with what’s going on, wish everyone would keep the racket down, and only want to live in peace in the forests and mountains. Each Campaign is linear, to get the full story you have to complete all three parts. The storytelling isn’t amazing but it’s pretty standard stuff.

HEROish has three separate campaigns (one for each faction). Although relatively short, these campaigns can be played with either hero from that faction. Once the hero has been picked, they are locked into being used. You can replay the mission with the other hero and relive that story with different abilities and dialogue.

HEROish features 6 playable heroes across 3 different factions. The imperial forces are host to Flynn Diamond, a hammer-wielding egotistical warrior, think Zapp Brannigan (Futurama) crossed with Thor. His abilities are almost derived from the God of Thunder himself, throwing an electrified hammer across the battlefield and stunning all in its wake, and using a lightning charge to chase down and be fortunate enough to escape.

He also has the ability to grant armor to himself and nearby units. Vega, the stern ranger, and Ajax, her trusty wolf companion, are the other Hero team for the Imperials. Vega can rain down a storm of arrows slowing and dealing massive AoE damage. Vega can also command Ajax to charge through the enemy lines causing bleeding damage and if Ajax gets too wounded, she can call him back for pats to boost his damage and health/armor.

For the Cursed faction, we see Queen Lavinia, a dark magic expert who raises the dead and gains power from draining her enemies. Her abilities include ‘Wake the Dead’ where she summons a pit of skeletal hands from beyond to damage and slow enemies. Lavinia will fire dark magic at enemies with ‘Grave Curse’ damaging and cursing them if the enemy dies while cursed they will be resurrected as a skeleton to fight for Lavinia.

Queen Lavinia’s final ability card is ‘Grim Shield’ which increases any nearby allies’ armor. Lord Marduke is the ultimate rockstar from the depths. This shredding demon is able to hurl fireballs, open rifts to summon demons to aid his battle, and even make them explode with some mind-melting riffs!

The Feral faction is home to King Bulvi, a hulking bear who is fueled by rage. He has the ability to multiply his size and power through his rage, a relentless flurry of blows from swinging his claws, and a roar so mighty it sends any enemy troops running for the hills. Finally, we have Spiderbait, a stealthy rogue who travels upon her trusty mount Tiki. Spiderbait uses the art of stealth to blind enemies with smoke bombs so they will stumble into her bear traps. She can also use her poison daggers to strike from the shadows and cripple the enemy’s advance.

Gameplay is very easy to understand, and the controls were simple to pick up and remember, which makes it an excellent title for all ages. Units and Heros auto-fight when in close enough proximity to enemy troops and most battlefields are single-lane; this takes the stress of running around like a lost chicken and being able to focus on what cards to play and strategize. Units are summoned via playing cards. All cards have a mana cost, and each hero has a different mana regeneration rate so keep this in mind when crafting your deck of units. If you have a hero with slow regeneration maybe lay off on only using high-cost cards.

Charging across the battlefield you will run into defense towers; these towers attack the first unit they target just like in ‘League of Legends’. At the end of the battlefield lies the enemy’s gem. Every time a Hero dies, their gem takes damage, destroying the opposing gem to win the battle. During your ventures and battles, your Hero gains XP and levels up. Each level they gain stats to make them decimate whatever stands in their way. You also need to level up your cards to stand a chance. These can be done at a card crafting outpost found scattered around the world. Cards are leveled with coins; coins are gained by completing quests and eradicating hostile threats.

Aside from the campaign, HEROish also features online multiplayer. You can either play in 1v1, 2v2 or play with friends against AI. In multiplayer, cards and the other heroes are locked and can be acquired through a leveling system much like a battle pass. Starting off with Flynn Diamond, one of the most balanced characters for people to learn the ropes. Don’t worry though, Flynn packs a punch, and with a basic deck, I was able to run circles around some of the online matches I played.

I do believe that every faction and hero has been thoroughly tested and thought through as every class I played felt balanced. In multiplayer you are also given daily quests to complete which grant additional EXP to level up. I found that these weren’t being tracked for me however and although they reset each day, no matter how much I played, I couldn’t complete any.

HEROish has a very cartoony art style, and every faction has its own atmospheric presence. Imperial levels and troops are based around fantasy medieval settings, Cursed levels and troops are dark and occult, while the Feral is based around tribal settings. The color palette varies immensely with vibrant contrasting colors, every piece within the HEROish world is identifiable to the faction they belong to. The audio with the game also varies depending on the faction which builds in intensity throughout the battles.

Everything within the game meshes together extremely smoothly and works well. For a debut title, HEROish is a standout indie game.

Written by: Bigfoot