Review: Guardian Heroes Warpath by BurnKing

[Hanzo]

This is the first review of the new year by looking to my buddy BurnKing's third mod.

Guardian Heroes Warpath is a spirtual remake of the original on the Saturn featuring multiple branching paths, five rideable creatures, 8 characters to choose from, and well developed story mode.

Story: 10/10 The story starts the heroes whose kingdom is being destroyed by vicious creatures and then you choose the path and the fate of of the heroes. I like the multiple branching paths which adds the replay value and give you sense of what actions you take and evolve from.

Controls: 10/10 The controls are simple and easy to use for any novice or veteran by learning unique combo moves to decimate the foes. The moves' control is responsive and quick to engage in a arcade fashion.

Design: 10/10 The backgrounds is probably the best I have seen from a mod. By using the BG's from Capcom's arcade fighters and other well known stages from other games to create a fantastic world of color and contrast.

Challenge/Difficulty 8/10 The challenge and the difficulty is something we seen in other beat em' ups. Cheap bosses, enemies keep knocking you down before you even get up, and the occasional fatigue of killing the same enemies over and over.

Overall: 9/10 Burnking's efforts is a huge step up of his previous works and leading to be a top modder.
The mod is a great fun arcade title that's demand to be play over and over to discover the multiple endings.

Reviewer and Tester: Hanzo

[BurnKing]

thanks brother im glad i finally have one of my works reviewed, thanks for taking the time.

[CyberSoulX]

This was definitely commercial quality work done on this one. Everything was top notch. 10/10

[bWWd]

I played it, i liked mulltiple paths , some gameplay aspects could be improved a bit, still no pause when you hit someone so it feels kinda like regular bor,you can do combos but still you dont feel them that much without pause in attacks , i like riding on the bear and huge stages so you can go up/forward not only forward.
For story ,its ok - 10
controls /gameplay - 6
design - 8
Overall ,ill give you seven ,mostly because gameplay is very important factor for me.

[BurnKing]

I played it, i liked mulltiple paths , some gameplay aspects could be improved a bit, still no pause when you hit someone so it feels kinda like regular bor

i put pause just not big ones because i wanted the combat to feel fast, thanks for playing though brother.

[bWWd]

Im used to capcom brawlers ,its hard to please me ,i tend to change hitpause myself in my  mods several times until i like it.
You put a lot of work there ,its appreciated.
I know it tough to read reviews sometimes   Its about your "child",something you put lots of time in and its always taken personal.
Its sometimes hard for me to read reviews but i know its not possible to please averyone and even i changing my own stuff after some time(so should i dislike myself for not liking my own choices? ).
I dont know but i think im enjoying making and modifying characters more sometimes than actual playing mods,wondering if anyone else have this feeling.

[DJGameFreakTheIguana]

I'm gonna keep this simple:
I just about agree with everything Hanzo has said in his review, and I really like just about all aspects of this game. The only real flaws I can point out is that:
1. Projectiles from players can hit other players. You should have make separate files for them so that wouldn't happen.

2. It's easy as hell to get killed in this game due to getting jump and knocked donw everytime you get up, with no real way to break free other then trying to hit the special button as soon as you get up, or just dying.

With that said. I would give this a 9.8.

Good job Burnking, You may a tight mod, gave me the feel of an awesome saturn game I otherwise wouldn't have even heard, and Spoiler

gave me materiel for Sega Brawlers Megamix(I just need to rip the advance sprite now) 

I dont know but i think im enjoying making and modifying characters more sometimes than actual playing mods,wondering if anyone else have this feeling.

It's hard to say. It's fun sometimes to change mods, but I get lazy sometimes. I don't even remember how long ago it was since I planned on editing BK's Marvel Heroes mod. 
But I do feel where your coming form though BWWD.

X)

[NickyP]

I know I'm late to the party, but I finally beat this mod. Now I can review it.

--------------------
Presentation - Menu screens, icons, level backgrounds, character sprites... this is for the graphics of the game.
Story - Only if applicable (ie, if the mod has one). This is for... well, the story.
Gameplay - What's the gameplay style? Traditional BOR? Shooter? Heavy on combos? Simple "whack 'em" style? This is for that.
Music - How good was the music selection and was it fitting?
Overall Creativity - Just another BOR clone? Or a work of art?
Final Thoughts - No score for this. This is just my final thoughts of the review before tallying score.
Maximum Total Score is 25.
--------------------

Presentation: 5/5
It's practically commercial. Loading screens, cutscenes, and even the "GASE" intro... all of them are well done and well placed. The stages looked great and were pretty different from the typical BOR mod, but I'll get to that part later. BurnKing was also careful to use sprites that are visually consistent with eachother, and it shows.

Story: 3/5
I'm not going to knock BurnKing for his storytelling abilities. I don't want readers of this review to think that I'm expecting to read a novel when I play a BOR mod. That said, you have to admit this was a little cliche. City was attacked by monsters, go chase after them, etc etc. I really like the branching paths and alternate endings, but at the end of the day, it's still the same beat em up fare.

Gameplay: 4/5
The only reason I'm not giving this mod a perfect score in gameplay is because I think it could be improved in a few areas... Other than that, this is pretty damn good. Combos chain well, throws are made right, and the playable characters are all different from eachother. Now I know that you're thinking, "but Nick, don't MOST mods have different playable characters?" Yes, they do, but not like this. Most mods just have one real unique character, then 2-8 more characters that are semi-altered clones of said character. Like in Dragons of Rage, there's literally nothing different about the characters aside from their speed, damage, and freespecials*. Very few times do I play a mod and get the feeling that when I use a character, I'm using a whole different monster from the last guy I used; and in this mod, I feel it. Han's moves are slower and single striking, where as Genjirou is basically all over the place with his attacks (use him right and you'll know what I mean.)

Of course, with the good, there's also the bad. Boss difficulty wasn't so much hard as it was cheap (read: way too much HP and attack power). Likewise, certain enemies were pretty cheap too, to the point that you almost had to spam Special to take it down without losing a life.

* Mods aren't the only offenders of this though, many commercial beat em ups are known for this too. What's really different between the four turtles in most TMNT games, aside from sprites?

Music: 4/5
Guardian Heroes music rocks. It's a great mix of jazz, techno, lounge music, and rock. BurnKing however didn't just stick to GH's music for this mod, he used all sorts of music too. The only complaint I have in the music department is that a majority of the cutscenes used the same exact song, and that song did not match the situations happening in those cutscenes. Still, the ingame music is spot on and enjoyable.

Overall Creativity: 4/5
Different gameplay styles throughout the mod, branching levels, and unique characters... BurnKing did a good job here. While it has traits of your typical BOR mod, you could have easily fooled someone into thinking it's a commercial game. To all new modders; play this mod. Learn from it. This should be the new standard for BOR mods these days.

Final Thoughts
As the ending credits allude, I helped BurnKing with various gameplay elements throughout the development in this mod (you can thank me for the ability to chain out of the main combo string with the attack2 button). When we would talk about it, he would often tell me that this mod was going to be his best work... and honestly, I didn't really believe it. Then I played it. Needless to say, he was right. While it's not perfect and could use a few touches here and there, this mod is pretty damn good. And compared to everything else he's released thus far, this mod IS the best he's made.

Well done, my friend. 

Total Score: 20/25

[BurnKing]

thanks alot nick. yer one of the few people who know how much time i put into this, the only thing ill say is for the cutscenes i reused the songs because to put different songs in every cutscene is alot of space and ive heard people complain about some mods being way too big, and with all the actual material in this mod it was already shaping up to be a big download, so really it was just a size issue. think 1 song for every cutscene of every branch, it would be a huge chunk of space.

thanks to everyone who played this mod its my favorite of my works so far. 

[Plombo]

the only thing ill say is for the cutscenes i reused the songs because to put different songs in every cutscene is alot of space and ive heard people complain about some mods being way too big, and with all the actual material in this mod it was already shaping up to be a big download, so really it was just a size issue. think 1 song for every cutscene of every branch, it would be a huge chunk of space.

This could be worked around today by encoding the music in low-bitrate Vorbis so they don't take up nearly as much space.

[DJGameFreakTheIguana]

This could be worked around today by encoding the music in low-bitrate Vorbis so they don't take up nearly as much space.

Quick question: Will that effect the playback in anyway, or will the music come out as it usually does?

X)

[leprechaun]

i loved this game

[BurnKing]

i loved this game

thanks brother, i loved making it.