PS5

Published on February 5th, 2025 | by Nay Clark

Big Helmet Heroes Review (PS5)

Grab your helmet and helm it into battle in this wacky medieval adventure! Big Helmet Heroes is an action adventure beat ’em up game developed by Exalted Studio, published by Dear Villagers, and released on February 6th of 2025. It’s not often that we get simple and fun beat ‘em games in 3D environments like this. Being very fond of titles like Fairytale Fights from 2009, Disney Universe from 2011, and Fat Princess Adventures from 2015, I was excited to give Big Helmet Heroes a spin since it shares a similar design. While Big Helmet Heroes definitely has some flaws, the game is still incredibly fun, especially with a co-op partner.

It’s just another ordinary day in the kingdom as sheep graze on grass and knights clash in the arena when a giant dragon sweeps in and kidnaps the princess. It is up to the heroes to rescue the princess and save the day. The story in Big Helmet Heroes is zany and nonsensical which fits the mood of the overall game perfectly. There is no dialogue and the story is pretty barebones, but the funny antics of the characters is enough to drive you forward through the levels as it gives you enough purpose to continue. The story seems pretty standard at first, but quickly takes a turn that sends you down another avenue which turns out to be a nice diversion from the norm.

The goal of the game is to fight and platform your way through each level. The environments and graphics are beautiful and the levels are incredibly varied. You’ll travel through some tent filled fairs, slide down the dunes of sand covered deserts, and run through valleys of flowers. Most of the levels are straightforward, but sometimes you’ll come across a maze to decipher or a rotating cylinder to dart across. Some levels are also riddled with traps like spikes that will jut out of the ground or spinning saw blades that can take a good chunk of your health away. Besides keeping an eye out for apples to refill your health or canisters to replenish your super power meter, there are flowers you can collect. Filling your flower meter up will summon a loot crate with useful goodies inside. I never paid much attention to this feature at first, but found out later on that collecting flowers is a life saver, so keep destroying parts of the environment and petting sheep to receive these impactful pink petals.

The gameplay is uncomplicated, but can get tricky at points with how easy you can get swarmed during combat. You start off with only a couple of big headed characters you can choose from and you unlock more by freeing them from their cages that they are trapped in during a level. You can dodge, pick up and throw, jump, and run and while that may not seem surprising or interesting, these skills are actually very useful in combat and while platforming through the levels. Each character has a normal attack, a heavy attack that you can charge into another attack, and a special attack. Each large domed character plays in a unique way. The Shepard has basic movements and attacks and his special ability is that he can summon a herd of sheep to run across the screen to damage opposing threats while Ray is a lot more nimble, can warp between opponents to damage them quickly, and can conjure a laser to cause some mild destruction. With 39 characters to find and unlock like the brute Giant who can grow huge and stomp on everything and Sandstorm who can…create sandstorms…there are a lot of ways to annihilate the other swelled skull dwellers of this magical world.

A big element in the gameplay is all of the cute weapons you can pick up and fight with. Strewn across the stages are a wide variety of weapons you can pick up and use for a little bit before they break and you go back to your default way of attacking. There are classic swords and crossbows, but there are some comical tools you can brandish as well like a broom or an electric fly swatter. It’s always exciting going to a new stage and finding the next hysterical thing you can smack someone with. Besides melee weapons and long ranged armaments, you can also pick up bombs. The ice bombs that freezes enemies are useful in hairy situations and acts as the perfect cooldown for you to get your bearings.

The game has a cool graphical style that fits in with the crazy time you’ll be having. I was impressed by the creative cutscenes that look as if they are drawings on papyrus. The dedicated cartoon aesthetic nicely rounds out the characters and different parts of the levels. Vibrant colors and exaggerated animations produce a jocular mood that happily carries you through the game. The audio design is just as good with great sounds when you whack, slam, and bump into others. The medieval tunes fit well, but the single melodic lines with little harmony or percussion get tiring after a while. While other melodies pop up to represent the current level a bit more, there is nothing here that is super catchy.

While the game feels good to play, the characters offer enough weight and feel hefty to use, and overall it’s easy to have a jolly time, I did run into an abundance of bugs and problems with the overall throughline of the levels. The audio for the game would randomly cut out at points and sometimes the absence of music or ambient sounds felt odd. I had a lot of issues with the camera, especially during co-op sessions. The camera had a lot of trouble trying to keep up with the two characters and would sometimes swing wildly out of control. At one point, the camera went through a rock wall and spawned my character into a completely different area. The crossbow would sometimes fire, but nothing would come out or it just wouldn’t hurt the enemies at all. Enemies would float up into the sky and spin around in a ragdoll fashion and environmental pieces in the foreground frequently obstructed my view in a bad way. Some levels don’t feel as connected or continuous like others and it’s peculiar constructively. At the beginning of some levels, you’ll start right off where the last one ended, but others randomly place you in a different domain with no explanation.

While I could complain about these problems, they never really bothered me while playing. They were extremely apparent and sometimes affected my performance playing the game, but Big Helmet Heroes has a quality to it that’s fun to see and be a part of. It has this certain confidence that really pulls you in and despite its flaws, it’s still a very enjoyable experience. If anything, the hiccups may add to the fun due to the silly nature of the game anyway. Giving credence to this fact will allow your playtime to run smoothly and make the game much more enjoyable.

Final Thoughts?

Big Helmet Heroes is a really fun game with a cool cartoon style. The action never lets up as you are either going to be involved in imaginative fights or undergoing puzzling platform trials. The game can prove to be quite the challenge on harder difficulties and playing with a buddy definitely proves to be more enjoyable and successful during strenuous moments. The healthy amount of glitches and unconventional design choices can be exasperating at times, but the assured way the game carries itself makes the water downed experience more palpable. Nonetheless, Big Helmet Heroes is a great addition to the genre that has distinctive mechanics and a quirky attitude that you don’t want to miss!

About the Author

Nay Clark Gaming holds a special place in my heart and I never stop talking about video games. I really love all types of games and have an interest in games that have complicated stories and lore because I enjoy untangling the mystery of it all. When I'm not gaming, I unsuccessfully try to control three amazing and incredibly bright kids.

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