Boot Hill Heroes (Switch) Review
Release Date: December 15, 2020
Publisher/Developer: Experimental Gamer Studios
Platform: Nintendo Switch (reviewed)
Price: $9.99
Out now for the Nintendo Switch, Boot Hill Heroes is actually the first in a series that has already been on Switch. It’s sequel, Boot Hill Bounties, has been on the system since April 14, 2020, for $14.99. The original release of Boot Hill Heroes was on the Vita (PlayStation Mobile in general), PC, and Xbox 360 in 2014, while the sequel has been out on PC since 2017. My online research didn’t reveal why the sequel got a Switch port prior to the original (given it’s a continuation of the original storyline—perhaps it was the general decline of Vita and PlayStation Mobile and the need for another system for the sequel), but now players are able to enjoy both titles on the go with the Switch edition.
Boot Hill Heroes is a love letter to classic RPGs such as EarthBound or earlier Final Fantasies. Much how the former took RPGs into unique new territory, the Boot Hill games take RPGs into a classic spaghetti Western theme. As the Kid, players start the game smacking varmints in the barn at Ma’s request instead of taking a quest to take rats out of the cellar. Instead of toppling the Evil Wizard, you’re tracking down the famous outlaw and his posse. It’s a wonderful breath of fresh air in a retro-style RPG. It fits the themes of Earthbound with it’s flat/angled 2D/3D backgrounds and first-person RPG combat.
What makes Boot Hill Heroes fun to play is the Final Fantasy-ish Active Time Battle system. Each ability you do takes a certain amount of charge time, as do the enemy attacks, and certain status effects last for specific amounts of time, so it becomes a balancing act. Hit an enemy with a well-timed attack to reset his attack meter and prevent the damage from even happening, or add a short-lived dodge status just in time to avoid all incoming pain. The game becomes more fun once you unlock a second party member and start juggling multiple team members’ active charge bars all at once. If it gets too much for you, you can hand off control of extra players to a friend for couch co-op, a rarity in an RPG.
The game has a few hiccups that probably relate to it’s PS Mobile origins. Menus are small and don’t give a lot of information, whilst clicking the info button lets a scrolling bar pop up along the bottom of the screen that disappears after a few seconds. There is no “run” button, despite there being plenty of buttons open for use. You have to progress far enough in the story to get a horse to move any faster, and you have to be standing still outside in order to use it. No running in houses, or quick dashes away from enemy encounters. A little polish on these areas would have made it feel more like a full-fledged console experience.
Another thing you have to unlock: multiplayer. Starting the game as The Kid, you have to get through a good deal of gameplay before even the second character joins your party. I love the idea of a multiplayer RPG, but am not sure that friends would be keen on sitting around through the first few hours of gameplay before you even get that second, let alone fourth character unlocked.
The storyline is well-written for a 16-bit adventure, with a few surprising twists outside of the traditional spaghetti Western tropes. While Kid is a blank slate, the other party members are fun and full of character, as are the main villain posse. I had a couple annoying glitches, such as a couple autosaves in areas where I was underleveled and locked in until I beat a few particular enemies (with no saves between), one point where I accidentally hit “new game” and it overwrote my autosave, losing a lot of time (manual saves happen at particular points), and another where a scripted event simply didn’t happen, so I was forced to reset.
Despite these hiccups though, Boot Hill Heroes has been a pleasing experience. The world is populated with colorful characters and evokes a time-twisted Earthbound feel. I wish they had updated some of the menus and controls to a more modern standard, as they really feel like accommodations were made for mobile gamers, but if you go into Boot Hill Heroes with the mentality that it really came out on those classic systems, you won’t be disappointed.
Pros:
-Colorful characters and simple but interesting storyline
-Earthbound meets Final Fantasy in the Wild Wild West
-Origin story to a sequel ready for purchase on Switch already
-Very unique four-player RPG
Cons:
-Really feels like it’s optimized for mobile with some odd control limitations
-Small menus that could stand to be stretched to fully utilize the Switch
-Have to work for unlocking simple things like moving faster or the lauded multiplayer
Special thanks to Experimental Gamer Studios for providing a code for review!