It’s the only firefighter game on the market but that does not mean that Real Heroes Firefighter deserves attention. Every now and then a developer steps forward in an attempt to do something different, you have to give these guys credit for even considering a fire fighting game let alone actually going ahead with it. Oddly the game ends up being more fun than it’s supposed to be though the quality of this 3DS port leaves much to be desired.
Real Heroes Firefighter on the 3DS is actually a port of a Wii game that appeared back in 2009, I’ve not played that game so I’m going into Real Heroes Firefighter 3D as a first time player. Real Heroes Firefighter sticks to the familiar concept of having the player learn the game at the same time as the in game character does meaning the game can teach you how to play without it feeling disjointed from the story. There’s an optional tutorial at the start of the game which I highly recommend you go through as it teaches you everything you need to know.
The action in Real Heroes Firefighter takes place from a first person view and it makes sense, the hose you use in the game to put out fires is basically your “gun” so why not. Problems quickly arise however the first time you move your character around, you’ll be blown away by just how stiff the controls are so naturally you’ll head into options to try to look for a fix. The game literally has one option and it’s the ability to choose whether you want subtitles on or off, it says options on the tab but as far as I’m concerned that’s a typo and should be renamed option.
Not being able to change the controls at all is a huge problem as you’re stuck with whatever the developer has decided was best, the circle pad is used to move & strafe while the touch screen is responsible for looking around. It’s not the worst set-up in the world but what about those who are left handed?, there’s no support for the bulky 3DS second analog add-on either. There’s no sensitivity options to speak of so you’re stuck with the stiffest controls I’ve experienced in years which is weird because there’s no reason why a stylus wouldn’t be just as as responsive as a Wii remote.
Eventually you learn to deal with and actually start to play Real Heroes Firefighter and be taken back by how awesome the dialogue is in the game. Your team in particular is great, everyone is voiced convincingly and they have a humorous side but also know when to get serious. The other NPCs however is straight up laughable and have some hilarious things to say, I don’t often laugh out loud at games but I did many times in Real Heroes Firefighter. One guy at a burning cinema straight up refuses to let you progress until you save his films, it means nothing to him that there’s other people at the cinema on the verge of dying.
For the task of putting out fires you have a decent range of equipment at your disposal with the obvious hose being the main one, you can switch between a strong stream of water or a lighter spread but you’ll want to stick with the stream as the spread is basically useless. Though you can’t visibly see it the hose does actually have a limit to it in terms of length, the deeper you go into building the more likely that little icon indicating your hose length limit has been reached will pop up. Scattered around the area are wall hoses so if you do run out there’s always another one nearby, it’s nice to see developers acknowledge the hose length issues that applies in real life.
Other fun stuff you get to play around with is an axe which is used to break windows to ventilate an area or smash wooden structures that may block your path, sometimes NPCs are trapped under them. No your can’t go around doing your best Jack Nicholson impersonation with and the halligan bar is used to force doors open, NOT pretending you’re Gordon Freeman. The last of the tools is a rotary saw which is used to cut holes and hydraulic spreader though both end up being a pain to use due to the game’s clunky controls which means you spend my time trying to get them to work rather than actually doing it.
I assume the main point of bringing Real Heroes Firefighter to the 3DS is the ability to run the game in 3D, it’s in the game title so I guess it’s a big deal. Well it’s not, in fact it’s not even bad as it does the usual “look into the screen” effect well with good depth but it does not add to the game in any meaningful way. At the very least it does not hurt the game either, the game runs the same no matter if the 3D is enabled on or off. Much like I mentioned in my Boulder Dash-XL review the best use of 3D comes from the title screen, there’s fire everywhere and it looks really cool in particular for owners of the 3DS XL. You could even say the title screen is a bit of a showcase for the 3DS’s 3D capabilities when showing it to your friends.
There’s one part one you wouldn’t dare show your friends and it’s the visuals, this is not a good looking game at all. The developers have taken an already weak looking Wii title and forced it upon the 3DS without any real consideration or thought of how they could change the visuals to better suit the 3DS. As mentioned Real Heroes Firefighter wasn’t a great looking Wii game but at the very least it ran smoothly, Real Heroes Firefighter on the 3DS has a frame rate that would make even Perfect Dark on N64 blush.
I wouldn’t mind a further drop in visual quality if it meant the game ran a little smoother, the game literally goes into slow motion during some sections. Porting console games to a handheld isn’t always the best idea but if you’re smart about it then sometimes the results can be impressive but not here. It feels like all the effort went into simply getting the Wii game to run on the 3DS, I can’t imagine much optimization happening with this game and if there was then I’d hate to imagine what it must of looked like before.
By know you’re thinking that I’ve not yet dived into how it plays and there’s a reason for that, it’s a firefighter game, you literally go round putting out fires and saving the odd NPC who all suffer for very bad AI. Some of these morons refuse to run through an area so long as a tiny hint of fire is still active but sometimes as I’m attempting to put out the fire they’ll just run right through. I saw one guy run right through fire, the man had no interest in waiting for me to get my aim sorted. I did the same and suffered some damage, in the world of Real Heroes Firefighter Polo Shirt > Fire Suit apparently.
Real Heroes Firefighter is a game that I wanted to like but couldn’t, as mentioned I’ve not played the Wii version yet I have seen it running and all this 3DS port has done is build my interest towards the Wii version. The dialogue in the game is extremely funny and I actually grew to like the characters on my team, if there’s a highlight to Real Heroes Firefighters it’s that. I understand that no one sets out to make a bad game but the lack of control options is inexcusable and really left me scratching my head, the horrible frame rate is also something that should of been smoothed out.
Unfortunately the score Real Heroes Firefighter gets is perhaps not reflective of the core game buried under this lacklustre effort on the 3DS. Is this a decent game? Maybe but you’ll never find out with this port. The title screen with it’s rocking music certainly gets you pumped in a silly “YEAH LET’S GO PUT OUT SOME FIRE” kind of way but sadly the only thing that needs to be put away is this game.
