Fun times from the apocalypse.
Ground Zero Hero is the debut title from Developer Rowan Edmondson , adding to the ever-growing roster of bullet heaven games inspired by Vampire survivors. However, Ground Zero Hero adds its own unique twist to the genre, set in the post-apocalyptic near future you take control of our irradiated hero fending off hordes of mutated flora and fauna throughout a series of gloriously colourful and chaotic levels. While most bullet heaven games rely on finding equipment or items in slaying the rapidly swelling horde our hero must absorb the dropped radiation from slain enemies to gain mutations to help.
Hmmm shall I pick a new tentacle or spit fire?
The mutation upgrades are fantastic and fun, what’s not to love about gaining a third leg, sprouting an electric eel as a tail or gaining the bottom half of a chick so you can lay explosive eggs. occasionally your mutations will go “Bonkers” and go into overdrive exploding whatever is on the screen in a glorious rainbow coloured display showering you in radioactive the slime of whatever was in the vicinity at the time. the levels themselves also have a huge array of helpful residents such as hunters, alien ufo’s and a strange man in a chicken outfit who all lend you a hand from time to time and if that wasn’t enough there are random leftover atomic bombs or stashes of fireworks lying around to add to the carnage.
If you thought daytime was dangerous wait until night comes.
Whilst destroying the creatures that venture out in the daytime hours you have to be on your guard as when the sun falls and nighttime arrives you can either seek refuge in the numerous vaults scattered around, or you can take your chances with the super powerful monsters that spawn such as spooky vampires, werewolves or mummies all intend on tearing you limb from limb. It’s not all bad news as these also drop a lot more radiation so if you can survive you will emerge a lot stronger at the end of it.
Unlike most bullet heavens where you have a strict timer which ticks down giving you a limited time to get powered up before facing bosses and bigger swarming enemies, Ground Zero Hero has a kill timer it starts at 10000 and goes down every time you kill an enemy I really enjoyed this approach as you can plan your upgrades out while you stop killing and try to collect radiation blobs whilst keep an eye on exactly when the boss spawns.
However, the boss remains almost the same on every level with a slight variation of outfit and name but essentially, he’s the same guy. After each run win or lose you can permanently upgrade your mutant with more speed, health and explosive power among other things with bottle caps you find throughout the areas and in locked safes you have to crack.
The levels themselves are gorgeous and varied you will find yourself in an irradiated Australian wasteland, a frozen tundra with angry yeti’s or even one of Saturn’s moons all with new and more faster and dangerous residents, although I found it to be a shame there is only 5 maps the game does give you the option to run the maps on an endless timer which is fantastic personally one of my main gripes with the bullet heaven genre is they stop the fun just as it starts getting interesting and you are getting overpowered.
A feast for the eyes!
There are no denying Ground Zero Hero looks fantastic, the graphics are bold, colorful and have a nostalgic feel to them, it reminded me of the old Sega Megadrive game “Toejam and Earl” in a weird way. Whilst the game often devolves into utter carnage with all your mutations going bonkers at the same time, random aliens popping up whilst you ride across the wasteland on a mutated two headed cow trampling several hundred viscous mushroom men whilst random airhorn blasts are going off along with several nuclear explosions (yes really) the gameplay never slows down and maintains its frantic pace from start to finish. I also enjoyed the fact your character visually becomes mutated with whatever you select so in no time at all you go from a “normal” human into a shambling horror with tentacles flaying everywhere with cow horns and one eye!
Mindless fun whats not to love?
If you are looking for a game to pick up and not have to put much thought into Ground Zero Hero is the perfect game for that, its such a fun take and refreshing on the bullet heaven genre I feel it would be the perfect game to take on a plane or to kill half an hour. it’s not deep but it doesn’t try to be, if you want to see how long you can survive the wasteland for you can try the game here.
