PixlBit

Insert obvious “dual zeroes” pun

The Nintendo 64 wasn't really known for fighting games. Just as well, I don't really like them and am particularly rubbish at them as a result. There were a decent number of them released, unfortunately for me, as I will have the (dis)pleasure of trying them all. Dual Heroes advertises a couple of gimmicks such as training a robot to battle virtual gamers, maybe that will make this one more interesting...

The back of the box reads “Virtual Gamers Challenge You In a Hot Battle!” with the next line “Train Your Own Robot!” It then goes on to say “Cool Heroes battle it out using Combo attacks in 3D space! Excited battle against the CPU Gamers with personality! Train your Robot and have it fight in the auto-battle! Give it all you got to win a Medal!” Oy, look at all those grammatical errors. This can't possibly bode well for the actual game. Sure enough, upon booting it up, the text in the game is also riddled with grammatical errors such as using “it's” when the game means “its.” Grammar aside, the concept actually sounded like it may be something interesting.

The character selection is composed of what look like rejections of more edgy Power Rangers designs. Each wear suits and helmets with a single color scheme, such as red, blue, green, etc. The moves for the characters consist mostly of punches and kicks, and there don't appear to be any sort of projectiles or other types of special attacks. The punches and kicks aren't even unique to each character, and it sounds like there are only two different voices total used for the entire cast, one male voice and one female voice.

Unfortunately, the concept isn't what I was hoping it would be. In the mode where the robot can be trained, it takes the form of the player's chosen character, and battle commences in a one vs. one match. At first all it does is stand still, but as moves are used on it, it slowly learns them. A bar on the bottom of the screen shows its balance between the six types of moves, so it is important to use a variety of techniques on it or else it will have the tendency to use just one type. The robot learns the moves of one character at a time, so each character must be used against it in order for it to develop a playstyle for each one. It takes a long time to train it to the point where it's competent, which is a boring process.

Once the robot is trained though, there isn't much to do with it. The story mode is just the basic series of one vs. one matches typical of fighting games and doesn't involve the trained robot at all. The story itself is trite post-apocalyptic nonsense, told through scrolling white text on a plain black background, and involves major shifting of the earth, a continent forming out of the ocean, and fighting over the last remaining power source. There are no scenes in between matches and each character has the same exact ending, which shows them standing on top of a cliff with more white text scrolling up. There is also a regular practice mode that displays the buttons pressed, as an aide to help learn moves.

The Virtual Gamers option is basically the game's single match mode. One of several gamers is chosen as the opponent, who each have their own little backstory about why they play this game, and also have their own playstyles. In this mode, there is an option to allow the trained robot to control the player character, which essentially makes for a computer vs. computer match. During matches with them, their little portrait is displayed by their character's health bar, and changes facial expression based on how their character is performing. Surprisingly, they also have a voice, and will utter such comments as “Take that” when they land an attack and things like “Cheater!” when they are hit. It seems entirely pointless to attach a CPU gamer to a CPU player, and it almost feels like it serves to mock people for not finding an actual human to play the vs. mode.

With the title, box art, and description, I foolishly expected more from this game. With all this effort put into training the robot, it should have been possible to fight alongside it in two vs. two matches, which would have made for an interesting twist on an otherwise completely unspectacular fighting game. It has me suspecting that the title was actually meant to be Duel Heroes. Not that such a title would be particularly correct in terms of grammar, and yet that somehow makes it fitting and would also better represent what the game actually is.

Dual Heroes won't teach someone how to construct a sentence, but the concept of training a robot might have appeal to fighting game fans despite its limited use. I really have no idea what people look for in a fighting game, but I can't imagine much of it is here. With the limited movesets and bland characters, it doesn't seem likely that the game offered “excited battle” for players of the N64 era, and it's doubtful that it would today either.