Knight Force: Big Helmet Heroes
Give the enemy a royal thumping in this epic arcade brawler.
‣ Big Helmet Heroes
From: Exalted Studio, Dear Villagers
Platforms: PC
Release: 06 Feb 2025
Steam Page • Demo Video • Developer Site
Making the fine art of the rumble feel fresh and new.
Oh no! An evil horde has trashed the kingdom and kidnapped the Princess! Fortunately, she has a legion of loyal knights who are determined to rescue her and restore order. These brawlers might look adorable, but they pack a big punch.
Side-scrolling brawlers are a gaming staple. Step up and whip waves of enemies as you charge forward to the other end of the stage to vanquish a boss and move on to harder fights. It's a well-trodden formula, but Big Helmet Heroes makes the fine art of the rumble feel fresh and new.
Big Helmet Heroes knows what's important. A typical brawler game requires several elements to be successful. It must have responsive controls and intuitive combos that placate button bashers yet still reward gamers who put in the effort to time their actions. The combat should deliver the thumps and blows in visceral fashion. Both the player characters and enemies need some variety in their designs.
You'll find these ingredients in the genre's best examples, such as those featuring mutant turtles, brothers with an affinity for dragons, or streets flowing with rage. Exalted Studio blends the best of these inspirations into a property they had previously launched as a turn-based auto-battler.
The result is a slick, real-time cinematic brawler with elaborate cartoon character designs, lavish levels, and over-the-top animations.
Ultimately, brawlers must have slick and accessible combat, which Big Helmet Heroes nails. You can bash your way through the enemy cohorts, but the fighting gets even better when you start mastering the combos. These are not hard: tap a fast attack three times, tap fast twice followed by a slow attack, jump into the air then hit attack.
When these combos land, they unleash powerful attacks, such as sword spins and ground slams. The effects also differ based on which character you control. Big Helmet Heroes will have over 20 knights to use (the demo features three), unlocked when you free them from captivity.
But you don't need to select just one hero. Instead, you dynamically switch between heroes, juggling different fighting styles. When you complete combos, you replenish the health of your reserve knights.
This gives the combat a very fluid dynamic and increases your ability to manage large hordes coming at you. The game also dishes out many temporary weapons that range from large hammers to ray guns (yup, you read right). You can even slap enemies with toasted marshmallow sticks to set them on fire or electrocute them with bug zappers.
📽 Demo Snapshot: You guys wanna fight?
Big Helmet Heroes is an incredibly ridiculous and quirky game. It's great fun on your own but also has couch co-op (and supports Steam's Remote Play Together). Whether you enjoy intuitive brawler games or have never tried this genre before, this one is worth trying.
Of course, these impressions are based on the demo. But as a fan of arcade beat ‘em ups, I’m confident the full release will deliver. The game expertly blends the best elements of beat 'em ups with satisfying combat that is neither overly easy nor painfully challenging. Even the demo's two boss fights are exciting and varied without being unfair or frustrating.
I hope this is the start of a franchise. The character designs look really slick, and I can see a future of animated shows, figurines—maybe a range of novelty mugs? I'd buy a Big Helmet Heroes mug, and I definitely recommend buying this game when it launches.
Big Helmet Heroes releases 6 February 2025 on Steam, Switch, PS5, and Xbox.
Explore The Game with Youtube Chapters:
📽 00:50 Move like a knight
📽 01:16 Let's fight!
📽 03:45 Some obstacles
📽 04:49 Special weapons
📽 05:25 Into the arena!
📽 06:21 Where's the Princess?!
📽 08:00 A new hero
📽 09:45 Special attack!
📽 11:16 A new perspective
📽 18:03 Boss fight!
📽 20:15 Into the caves
📽 21:20 Exploding guys!
📽 24:42 A third hero!
📽 27:55 Old Boy
📽 28:51 Metal dragon!
📽 34:00 Big trouble ahead...
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This looks so sick. It reminds me of Castle Crasher, especially considering they're the same genre. Looks like it has good humor, and dope combat. My gripe with these type of games is that the combat never feels like much, but it looks like this game is an exception.