1000 Heroz Review

1000 Heroz is another entry in the large population of running games in the App Store, though this one does things to the beat of its own drummer. Players control a variety of people throughout human history, trying to race to the end of levels in as little time as possible. Why? Perhaps they fear deep down that their enlarged heads would kill them, and human evolution proves their fears to be correct. The player must try to race over and through tricky obstacles and debris that line the various paths. The game features vastly different physics from most other games; in particular, short jumps and trying to use the momentum of gravity is key to success in this game, especially as beating the silver star time is the only way to unlock a character's relic.

1000 Heroz's selling point is that one new level is unlocked each day, with a different character (with varying physics from the other characters) available to play as. The beauty of the daily play mechanic is that it means that the game can be played in short stints, as each level is designed to be played in typically a half-minute at most. It also encourages coming back to the game regularly as new content unlocks daily. All the previous content is available as well. Plus, it means the game becomes a better value over time, especially if the game eventually gets the full thousand heroes that the title promises.

Those who don't really care much about high scores won't find the daily play mechanic to be very important, as the only thing that is lost by not playing daily is the ability to post high scores. The game never quite explains clearly what's going on with the relics that are collected, or the gold in each level, though the latter appears to just be a stat to track forleaderboards. The worst part about the game? It's hard to type 1000 Heroz without a small bit of disgust. Replacing the letter 's' with a 'z'? Come on, RedLynx, you're better than that!

1000 Heroz's daily task mechanic is what really makes this game stand out, and encourages the kind of long-term play that the strongest iOS games have. While the backlog of heroes' levels to play gives it plenty of raw replay value for those looking for a massive game, this is one that is content with being played for just a few minutes each day. Trying to do multiple runs, trying to shave off microseconds just to get that gold star, is that blend of frustrating and rewarding that the most fun iOS games have. While the difficult physics make this one a little harder to get into than most running and/or time trial games, the sheer amount of present and future content makes this a worthy $0.99 investment.