OMGJeremy

Humpday Gaming: Herc’s Adventures (PSX)

There is obscure, and then there is obscure. I think today’s game qualifies as the latter, as I am the only known person to have ever played it as far as I know. Over the course of a decade, I have literally never met another living soul that has played Herc’s Adventures. Occasionally, someone will think they’ve played it, only to quickly realize they are confusing it with Disney’s Hercules, or some bastard game port of The Amazing Adventures Of Hercules/Xena TV show. And wondering how more people have played those two games, yet never heard of Herc’s Adventures just makes me want to mumble to myself on a park bench at 3AM in the morning. It’s their loss, though. They missed out on one of the best action RPGs of the PSX era that still holds up pretty well over a decade later.

Herc’s Adventures is a pretty basic 3/4 overhead action RPG that set itself apart with its great art style and humor. You play as Herc through his various adventures in ancient Greece that will have you meeting and beating just about everything associated with that time period, IE: Medusa, Gods of all sorts, Minotaurs, etc. It even kept its quests closely tied with the ancient stories, while skewering them with the game’s great sense of humor and parody. After all, these were essentially the same developers that made the all time classic Zombies Ate My Neighbors, so it comes as no surprise that these guys did right with the classic stereotypical Greek imagery/history available to them. Adding in the game’s awesome cartoon design, and first rate animation, and it was the perfect backdrop for every setting you traversed. Amazingly enough, it still looks damn good to this day:

That’s not a compliment too many PSX games can receive in present day.

Thankfully the game played just as good as it looked. The controls were tight, killing dudes was awesome, and it even had some great co-op to go along with it, which was a rarity for the time. The only negatives that could be said for it is that it may have been just a bit too sprawling for its own good. Requiring a lot of unnecessary roaming and downtime for some of the less obvious quests. Speaking of quests, for everything they do right, they occasionally suffer from Tomba-itus, in that it doesn’t do a good job of letting you know what you need to do or where you need to go to finish something. Fortunately, it’s not as bad as Tomba, and most can be figured out without dozens of trips backtracking everywhere. The game can also get mad hard, too, so bring your big boy britches if you want to finish it.

Beyond those things, the game is great in my book. I can’t really declare it a classic, as it may just be my rotted brain that really enjoys it. I wouldn’t know though, as no one else has ever been there to disprove me. At the very least, Herc’s Adventures is an enjoyable action RPG, and should be checked out if you ever happen onto it in some alternate reality where it may actually exist beyond the copy I played. It holds up great, and still has enough humor and style to push you through it.

Then maybe everyone will stop looking at me like a confused dog whenever I mention it in public.