NOT A HERO Review Summary

Excellent pixel art, crisp gameplay, and a diverse roster are undermined by unfair difficulty spikes, repetitive bland levels, and character balance issues.

Excellent pixel art style: Reviewers consistently praise the high-quality pixel art, noting it is well-drawn, stylish, and cleaner than most pixel games. The character and level designs are particularly highlighted.

Crisp and smooth gameplay: Many players describe the gameplay as exceedingly crisp, tight, and smooth, often calling it perfect or impeccable. This is a core strength frequently mentioned.

Diverse playable character roster: The game offers a large variety of playable characters, each with unique weapons, abilities, and special traits that significantly alter gameplay. This diversity is a major selling point.

Great soundtrack: The soundtrack is widely praised as a banger, amazing, and brilliant. Players particularly enjoy the chiptune music and find it matches the game well.

Quirky and funny characters: Characters are described as super cool, funny, and weird, with distinctive voice lines, accents, and personalities. Their quirky designs and dialogue add charm to the game.

Difficulty spikes unfair: The game has abrupt difficulty spikes, especially in the final third, with one-hit-kill enemies and unfair spawning. This causes frustration and restarting.

Levels repetitive and bland: Level design is often criticized as bland, repetitive, and lacking variety, with environments feeling like copy-paste scenes. This leads to boredom and reduced replayability.

Character balance issues: Many characters feel unbalanced, with later unlocks being much stronger and some early characters nearly useless. This reduces strategic variety.

Too short overall: Many players find the game too short, even with DLC, and lacking content relative to its price. The experience can be finished in a few hours.

Keyboard controls unrebindable: Many players report that keyboard controls are awkward and cannot be remapped. Default keys are often described as deadly or unplayable without a controller.

Diverse Roster of Characters: The game features a large roster of playable characters, each with unique weapons, abilities, and playstyles. Characters also have distinct strengths and weaknesses, such as speed, accuracy, and special maneuvers.

Side-Scrolling Action Shooter: The game is a side-scrolling action shooter with cover-based combat, pixel-art visuals, and fast-paced run-and-gun gameplay. It features a mix of shooting, platforming, and tactical cover mechanics.

Unlockable Characters via Objectives: Players start with one character and unlock the rest by completing specific objectives, such as mission sub-goals and performance-based challenges. Unlocking new characters often requires achieving high scores or completing extra tasks within levels.

Level Challenges and Objectives: Each level has a main objective and multiple side objectives or challenges, such as time limits, collecting items, or limiting shots. Completing these challenges often unlocks new characters or rewards.

Character Personalities and Traits: Playable characters have unique personalities and distinct traits, making each feel different. Their abilities and playstyles reflect these characteristics.

Stuttering causes critical deaths: Stuttering often occurs during critical moments, leading to unfair deaths and frustration. This performance issue directly impacts gameplay and player success.

Launch issues fixed with safe mode: Some players encounter technical issues when starting the game that are resolved by using the 'safe mode (legacy)' launch option. This provides a workaround but indicates underlying compatibility problems.

Level restart loading delays: Every time a level is restarted, there is a few seconds of loading time. While not game-breaking, this delay can interrupt the flow of play.

Framerate drops with browser open: Framerate drops occur when playing with a browser open in the background. This suggests resource contention and can degrade performance during multitasking.

Some players never crash: A minority of players report never experiencing crashes, indicating that the issues may be system-specific or intermittent. This highlights inconsistencies in stability across different setups.

Appeals to specific niche tastes: The game is frequently recommended for fans of fast-paced action, 2D platformers, gore, absurd humor, and Devolver Digital titles. Several reviewers compare it favorably to Hotline Miami or Broforce.

Mixed feelings on overall quality: Some reviewers find the game adequate but not exceptional, while others cannot recommend it due to difficulty spikes or lack of polish. A few wish for a neutral rating option and find it hard to decide.

Highly recommended overall: A large number of reviewers strongly recommend the game, often describing it as a must-buy or an easy recommendation. The enthusiasm is consistent across many short positive reviews.

Worth buying at a discount: Many reviewers suggest purchasing the game during a sale, with recommendations ranging from 50-75% off to specific low price points. A few even say it is worth full price.

Not for everyone: Several reviewers note that the game may not appeal to all players, especially those who dislike repetitive levels or crude humor. It is often recommended with caveats.

Community fair range: $9.99 - $14.99.

Game completion: 10.0h.

Story completion: 4.5h.

Endgame: 37.0h.

Reported as fun immediately after the tutorial drops players into fast-paced action, but enjoyment often fades because gameplay becomes repetitive and short on content.

Friction: Incorrect button prompts during the tutorial.

Fast-Paced Arcade Shooter Fan: Aggressive run-and-gun, speed-focused retries, and learning enemy patterns. Motivation: Fast, hard-but-fair 2D action with short retry loops and mastery. Stance: buy.

Absurdist Indie Humor and Story Tourist: Play through the campaign for jokes, character reactions, and over-the-top narrative moments. Motivation: Absurdist humor, memorable characters, and Devolver-style weird story beats. Stance: buy.

Completionist Objective Chaser: Replays missions, hunts optional objectives, and chases 100 percent completion. Motivation: Full completion, achievements, all missions, and unlocking every character. Stance: buy.

Steam Deck: The filtered reviews show a seamless Linux experience and accessible controls. One user reports no issues running the game on Ubuntu Linux with a controller, and another appreciates the added Linux support. Translated feedback describes simple controls and a clear tutorial. No technical barriers such as external launchers, Proton Experimental requirements, unreadable text, battery drain, or crashes appear in the evidence.

Frequent Hotline Miami comparisons: Players often compare the game to Hotline Miami, noting fast-paced, skill-based combat in a side-scrolling view. Some say it is more lenient and comical than Hotline Miami.

BunnyLord story and premise: The story revolves around BunnyLord, a time-traveling anthropomorphic rabbit from the future who runs for mayor to save the world from an alien invasion. The narrative is intentionally absurd and humorous.

DLC and additional content: The game has DLC that adds achievements, missions, and an extra campaign where you play as BunnyLord. The DLC content is generally well-received and is included in newer editions.

Compared to Broforce: Several reviewers liken the game to Broforce, often in combination with Hotline Miami, for its tone, difficulty, and action-packed gameplay.

Game is quite short: Many reviewers note that the game is short, taking only a few hours to complete the main story. Even with secrets and extra missions, it remains brief.