Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero?

Prinny is the story of well.....the prinnys. A bunch of push over penguin looking "doods" who essentially serve a bitch princess. Apparently her Ultimate Dessert was stolen and she expects all of the Prinnys to retrieve the ingredients in about 9 hours or she'll execute them all. Not exactly the lightest of subject matter but you'd never know by looking at some of the screen shots.

Prinny has the overall appearance of an SNES cutsie pie Japanese platformer but underneath its squeaky clean appearance is a game will kick the snot of your punk your ass. You start off with 1000 lives. You get hit four times and you blow up. You're then replaced by another Prinny. This was the cranky biotch Master Etnas plan. Send em all out and replace them when they die. You're given a special scarf that allows you to get hit four times without exploding. Prinnys are known for their feebleness and ability to explode on contact. The Prinny characters came from the strategy series Disgaea: Hour of Darkness which was released for the PS2. They were splashed in for comic relief and must have left a good enough impression to sport their very own game now.

I guess the game designers could have taken a couple of approaches with this title and I'm glad they decided to go hard core. If you're a sore loser I promise you this game will piss you off. If you like to tackle a challenge and have your video game skills and patience pushed to the edge, this is one game that will not let you down. You start off with 1000 lives for a reason, trust me. The levels can be very brutal and unforgiving. Get hit four times and it's curtains kid. The story is pretty lame and isn't really the focal point so just pretend it isn't there. You'll want to focus all your energy on the level progression because towards the end of the game, the difficulty level actually increases. The first level is a breeze, the remaining 5 will gradually increase in difficulty so you can select any level at any time and experience it in a different way then your buddies may have. At the end of each level is a excruciating boss fight (depending on what order you select the level of course) that will take several attempts to memorize their actions and the best tactical approach to taking them down. It's been a while since I last performed the old fist pump followed by "fuck yeah bitch!" after defeating a boss. Very satisfying and keeps you coming back for more punishment.

The voice acting in Prinny is top notch but pretty stupid on that same token. The word "dood" (as in dude) is tossed around more frequently then bailout money. It gets pretty annoying to say the least. There is a level of humour involved but it's not exactly my type. I didn't hear one dick or fart joke so my funny bone was left un-tickled throughout. The soundtrack is normally associated with the level you are currently playing. Tropical environments provide an upbeat track and others for example will be composed of heavy guitar riffs to make you feel like the bad ass ninja penguin deal that you truly are. The graphics are great and provide nice colourful sprites with a slight 3D touch when floating in the air, dishing out waves of ninja knife pain. The controls work great but the hard core plaforming can pose difficult. This is mainly because you can't adjust your direction mid flight. Once you commit to any direction that's it. You'll find you will over shoot or land in the wrong spot which adds to the difficulty level that is so predominant in this game.

Prinny: Can I be the hero? offers some super bad ass challenges that make you feel like a video game god once you've completed the game. It required ubber amounts of patience, memorization and trail and error. It's nice to look at and is fun even when you die over and over again. It's lasting appeal is just to say that you weren't beat by this incredibly unforgiving game and that you had the patience and learn-ability to over come what at first seems practically impossible. Lots of unlockables and the ability to save or trade your recorded game via Ad Hoc to show off your bad ass skills. Highly recommended for anyone who loves a good challenge or for fans of traditional retro Platforming action. Enjoy dood!