You could say MotoHeroz cuts a few corners.
Specifically, it cuts a consonant and a vowel, and one of the consonants it does have isnít
even the right one.
But the truth is spelling is the only area in which your assessment would be accurate.
Thatís because MotoHerozómisspellings and allóis one of the best WiiWare games...ever.
In fact, thatís one of the things that makes this such an interesting game.
Released to the WiiWare service in Sept. 2011, MotoHeroz arrived on Nintendoís digital distribution
platform to find its flow of content had mostly dried up.
The Wii Shop Channel was a pretty barren landscape at the time.
But what better to do on a barren landscape than flip a four-wheeler.
MotoHeroz comes from Red Lynx, a studio with a bit of experience tossing vehicles through
the air.
Their 2009 game Trials HD was a big hit on Xbox Live, and MotoHeroz follows in its tire
tracks.
This is a physics-based racer that has you soaring through the sky and driving upside-down,
but it takes a course all its own.
In fact, itís fitting that the Trials HD designóso inspired by Excitebikeówould end
up back on a Nintendo platform...and with such clear Nintendo twists.
Thereís a massive racing tournament taking place on the lush planet of Gema.
The rookie driver Gene McQuick is a long shot to win, but heís also the star of the game.
So that means...I mean, Iím no expert or anything, but based on prior experience...Iíd
think he probably has a pretty good chance.
Of course, that fate is entirely in your hands, and if youíre familiar with Trials HD, you
definitely have a leg up on the competition.
MotoHeroz has the same kind of emphasis on physics, and like Trials and even Excitebike
before it, your main objective is to keep your wheels on the ground.
That is to say, you want to land flat with all four tires to maintain your momentum.
Obviously, easier said than done when youíre **** upside-down.
The controls are sharp and simple, requiring just the d-pad and the gas button.
So the game is easy to get into.
But that said, the biggest obstacle in MotoHeroz is the physics.
The funny thing is, thatís also its greatest strength, but because those physics are so
accurate, the game demands the same accuracy from you.
The slightest mistakes can send you crashing down, toppling backward, throwing your controller.
So the game is already complex enough, but it throws even more craziness into the formula,
as well.
There are actually power-ups that give your vehicle special abilities.
You might find a rocket that gives you a speed boost or sticky tires that let you climb vertical
surfaces.
This kind of stuff plays into the platformer element of the game.
See, MotoHeroz may be a racer, but itís also basically a platforming speed run.
This contributes to that Nintendo feel we talked about earlier.
The levels arenít just a series of loops and obstacles.
Theyíre entire worlds with alternate routes and over-the-top characters, set in these
varied and gorgeous environments that are more befitting a game based on running and
jumping than driving and flipping.
Throw in fantastic multiplayer, online leaderboards, DLC...and all for 15 dollars.
Red Lynx deserves a lot of credit.
They have captured the essence of what makes a Nintendo title so distinctóthe color, the
imagination, the purityóand applied the same magic to their own product.
As a result, MotoHeroz fires on all cylinders as one of the very best WiiWare games to date.