Eat Sleep Geek

I don’t play my PSP as much as I would like, normally I only play it if I’m doing something on my computer where I have to wait for a while.  There is a little game I’ve been playing called Hammerin’ Hero, that revolves around a carpenter by the name of Gen who is after a man called Hyosuke Kuromoku.  Gen finds out that Mr. Kuromoku is trying to force people to sell their homes to the Kuromoku Company so they can set their “Subline Plan” in motion. As you move through the game you find out that Mr. Kurimoku is trying to take over the town for his own corporate greed and to prevent this Gen takes it upon himself to save the town.

The game itself isn’t very hard.  Sure their are various selections on how hard you want the game, but after playing with each of them I found no difference. The level has a few bad guys that take either one to two hits before they’re disposed of,  similar to games such as Super Mario.  Unlike Mario though, you can’t run which I find is a pain since you move at such a slow speed, this makes it a bit more challenging when trying to swim because you move a lot slower.

The levels are fairly short with some check points along the way just in-case you do need them, and trust me I think they might need more. When you die you automatically start out at your check point which is nice when you’re just playing the level normally, but when you battle a boss that gets so irritating. When you die while fighting a boss you might have to start off at the check point at the middle of the level instead of right before you face off against the boss.  I hate having to redo and recollect everything just so I could go back and try to figure out the boss’s pattern, only to get it wrong and be sent back to do it all OVER again.

Each time you start a level you are given a chance to see a girl named Kanna who will make bento boxes for you from the little bits of food you collect when you subdue any small time enemy in your way.  These little bento boxes will give you different abilities that will help you throughout the level. They can boost attributes such as strength or speed.  Sadly you can’t bank your bentos though,  each time you visit Kanna she makes a new one and anything she made before is now gone,  you can not have more than one bento per level.

The game features a few nice things such as the ability to play earlier levels to help collect things you may have over looked or missed while traveling through out the level, as well as allowing you to  unlock other jobs.  As a carpenter you run around with a big giant wooden hammer, but then you can unlock sushi chef, where you now only have a set of knives for attacking which makes the game a bit harder since you have to go in dangerously close to you enemy to destroy them.  My personal favorite is the DJ job, you get both a vinal record as your standard weapon which you can throw long distances and a giant ass boom box (which I’m sure you pull out your ass) to use as your closer more powerful weapon. As well what’s a game without a little bit of super powers, with each job you get , each super move will be different.

The game is great for kids and adults. It’s one of those fine games that you can pick up at anytime and start playing again similar to Mario. Sure it’ll never fill your blood lust, that’s what games like GTA are for, but this is one of those games that you can play when you don’t feel like playing anything else. Like a lot of great and interesting Japanese PSP games that never make it over seas, I’m glad that Atlus released it for the American market, I’m sure not a whole lot of people are willing to buy it, but if you don’t buy it I say at least give it a shot as a rental.

6.5 out of 10