Ask someone that used to (or still) owns a Sega Saturn what some of his or her favorite games for the system are, and one of the titles that's likely to crop up near the top of the list is Guardian Heroes--a medieval-themed action game developed by Treasure, the same group of coders responsible for numerous timeless greats like Gunstar Heroes, Radiant Silvergun, Sin and Punishment, Ikaruga, and Astro Boy: Omega Factor. Now, Treasure has developed a sequel to its classic Saturn game in the form of Advance Guardian Heroes. The new game picks up where the original left off, it shares some of the same features and play aspects in common with its predecessor, and it is generally a good action game in its own right. However, prospective buyers should definitely think long and hard before taking the plunge, primarily because the changes that were made to the combat system and level structure may not please everyone. Also, buyers should take into consideration that certain aspects of the game demonstrate some minor yet glaring flaws that really should've been ironed out before it shipped, including some positively awful English dialogue localization.

Yes, that is the sequel to Guardian Heroes, on the GBA no less.

Don't misunderstand--the story itself is fine; it's just written poorly. The gist goes something like this: The old wizard Kanon and his effeminate sidekick, Zur, both from the original game, have returned from the heavens to a futuristic Earth, this time with the cursed souls of the ancient Guardian Heroes in tow. Their plan is to lure out a new sucker, er, hero, and get him to absorb the soul of the undead soldier along with the souls of the other guardians, in order to create a superbeing that they'll subsequently brainwash. That all makes sense, in a sci-fi kind of way, and you have to admit, it's simultaneously cool and innovative how Treasure has incorporated the heroes from the first game as villains into the sequel.

You'll probably end up skipping past most of the dialogue segments, though, what with comments like, "Hmm, they do better than I thought" and "Can't you fight that far to recognize my overwhelming power," popping up every minute or so. Publisher Ubisoft could've and should've let a native English speaker give the script a once-over before sending the game out for duplication. The dialogue in the original Guardian Heroes was funny in the ha-ha sort of way. Whatever humor was present in the Japanese version of Advance Guardian Heroes got lost in translation.

The butchered translation is the most egregious example of the rough edges that should have been smoothed over before the game was shipped. In addition to that, the controls don't always respond as fast as they should, the graphics tend to stutter and slow down when too many enemies are visible (which also leads to ignored command inputs), and the difficulty settings are poorly balanced.

Sadly, the undead soldier from the first game, mentioned here, isn't in the sequel.

And still, despite those embarrassing rough edges, Treasure has managed to put together a clever action game that some people are absolutely going to like. Fans of the first game will appreciate running into the eight "old" heroes, such as Ginjirou and Han, who make up roughly half of the sequel's corps of bosses. The levels are put together Final Fight-style, which means that you can move closer or farther away from the foreground in addition to going left and right. That pretty much allows a three-dimensional range of motion, especially when you factor in the jump button. Some levels require repetitive jumping across falling platforms or the execution of a series of diagonal wall jumps to reach an upper area. The developers have made it easy to perform these ninjalike jumps by simply making it so you just need to tap the jump button twice when a jump icon appears.

The fighting controls are also fairly easy to learn and they offer a good amount of depth. Each character has eight or nine basic attacks, which you can perform just by pressing the B button and the various directions on the control pad. If a character has magic attacks, you can choose between them by tapping the L button and cast them by holding the R button and pressing B. The R button by itself lets you put up a magic barrier, much like the block button did in the original Guardian Heroes, but here you also have the option of performing what's called a countermove. Casting spells and using the magic barrier eats up magic points, which gradually refill over time, but if you tap the R button the instant before an attack strikes you, the barrier will reflect the attack back at the enemy and will actually return magic points to you. Another method of regaining magic points involves what the game calls the anger gauge. Each time you hit an enemy or an enemy lands an attack on you, the anger gauge fills up a little more. When it's half full, you can put the character into his rage state, which, besides giving you a brief period of strength and quickness, also rapidly refills the magic gauge.