Thank you Parallel Circles for sending us this game to review!

Flat Heroes was originally released on Steam in 2016 and has “Very Positive” reviews. Despite the simplistic visuals, the gameplay is quite exceptional and goes to show that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. I have complained about the Switch’s performance with other game ports, but that’s not an issue with Flat Heroes.

While there are three game modes - campaign, survival, and versus - you only have the first campaign available in the beginning. Other campaign levels become available as you progress in the first set of ten worlds. Each world has fifteen levels with a boss battle in the final one. In total, there are over three hundred hand-crafted levels and ten different bosses to conquer.

To complete a level you must simply survive the challenges thrown your way. Some levels have rows of projectiles to dodge while others have homing missiles. In some levels, there are deadly lasers that must be avoided or sections that will kill your cube-like character if they stay in it too long.

Your character is not completely defenseless as it has some nifty abilities. As long as the wall isn’t deadly to the touch, they can usually stick to it like a magnet. My biggest complaint about the simplistic visuals is that it’s hard to notice that the walls are deadly until it’s too late. Another cool ability is to deflect (most) attacks by pressing the Y button. While the shield will protect your character from explosions and some projectiles, it won’t do squat against deadly walls or lasers. This deflect ability is the only way to attack some of the bosses.

Most levels and bosses have a pattern to them. The bosses have randomized attacks, but even those have a way to avoid impact if you’re paying attention. There are a handful of levels that don’t have a pattern and require luck and quick reflexes to survive them. These levels in particular benefit from multiple players as it only requires one person to survive to finish it. If a level is getting on your nerves, you can skip it and proceed to the next. However, any unlockables will not become available until all of the levels and the boss are defeated.

Some of the unlockables include color palette changes, but the biggest by far are the new game modes and levels. There are four versus levels (zones, battle, runner, and catch), and seven survival modes including a daily challenge. If you want to play the daily challenge or see the current winner, you’ll need to have your Switch online.

There is plenty to do and unlock in Flat Heroes. This game is best enjoyed with friends, especially if you get stuck or die a lot. Thankfully, this title is perfectly clean and can be enjoyed by gamers of all ages. The visuals and sound effects are simple, but the gameplay is exquisite. The asking price is a reasonable $9.99 on the Switch and the Steam version is $7.99.