Platforming, a commodity known to be dying in today’s age of gaming, is something that Unruly Heroes excels at, greatly. I’ll be honest it takes a lot for me to enjoy a platformer, whether it is creative scenery, a golden soundtrack, or completionist opportunities. Unruly Heroes might not excel in completionist moments, euphonious music, or story, but it does have satisfying platforming and a variety of captivating environments.

The Unruly Flaming Mtn.

Unruly Heroes has you playing as four different characters: Sandmonk, Kihong, Sanzang, and Wukong. The game is set during one of China’s most precious folk-tales, The Legend of the Monkey King. As you go on your expedition through the beloved folk-tale you will experience a dull, unmeaningful story, which is a shame for a game surrounding a tale. Luckily, Heroes’ platforming made up for where its story did not.

Its platforming is a unique twist between brain teasers and combat. As you proceed through the beautifully hand-drawn domain there will be enemies that you have to fight and puzzles to solve.

The puzzles are a perfect middle ground between difficult and relaxing; It requires you to take a moment to really think but nothing too ground shattering that will stop you from proceeding. I found the puzzles to be a nice shake of gameplay because it added that “extra something” without disturbing the game’s platforming nature. Albeit a task that is very hard to accomplish.

Combat-wise you have unique abilities for each character… Whilst I wish there were more, it is hard to argue satisfying combat, especially when every ability was perfect.

Unruly Heroes Combat

In terms of audio, well, don’t expect much if that’s what you came for – I put in headphones five minutes into the game – as like the story, the music is just as ordinary and dull.

Whilst the platforming is fun, it is important that we can get some replay value out of that too. Unruly Heroes has the potential to shine in the replay value, but ultimately fails. The completionist essentials are in place, but in a way that makes it feel like an add-on due to extra development time remaining. There are collectable art scrolls and skins to be purchased with coins gathered in the levels… although I can’t help but feel like there is something missing. Not to mention there are only four skins per character available for purchase. There’s a decent amount of scrolls, but it just does not make up for the fact that it feels like an extra thrown in effortlessly.

Unruly Heroes is far from a bad game. In fact, it has some of my favorite platforming of recent memory, at least in terms of pure gameplay. It just lacks the polish needed for platformer completionists like me, and it’s uncompelling story and music did not help. At least the developers are supporting it with content still, despite it being months after launch. If you are looking for an affordable platformer, this game is a must, but don’t expect to be putting in the same hours as Yoshi’s Crafted World.