• Price: $14.99
• Developers: Dumativa Game Studio, Castro Brothers
• Publisher: Dumativa Game Studio
• Release Date: July 8, 2021

A review code was kindly provided by Dumativa Game Studio. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

When I first saw the graphics for Songs for a Hero: Definitive Edition, I was interested right away. The art style is very appealing to me, and as soon as I found out that the game’s protagonist sings in response to the way you move him around in this platformer, I was even more sold on the concept. I’ve never seen a game like that before, and I consider myself a pretty musical person, so I feel pretty confident that I’ll enjoy this. According to the game’s website, Songs for a Hero attempts to pay tribute to a variety of games from the 8 and 16 bit era, including The Legend of Zelda and Wonder Boy in Monster Land.

I was previously unaware that Songs for a Hero apparently began as an animated series in January 2012; the four episodes in the series have over four million views! Marcos and Matheus Castro (the Castro Brothers) developed the concept, eventually turning the idea into a game funded by many backers on Catarse, a Brazilian crowdfunding website that appears similar to Kickstarter. The campaign for Songs for a Hero broke many records on Catarse, and successfully ended with the largest amount of backers ever on the platform: 6,112! Eventually, the Castro Brothers partnered with Dumativa Game Studios, and the rest was history!

The game offers English and Brazilian Portuguese as the language options. I speak Spanish, and I can understand bits and pieces of written content in Portuguese due to their status as Romance languages. I’m planning on at least trying out the Portuguese option for this game because I love languages and find the study of linguistics fascinating.

The moment I started the game, I was instantly impressed by the title theme song, which was very upbeat and played at a high tempo. There are options on the main menu in terms of the different skins you can choose – there are various human heads, but also a snake, a “Nekobot,” a wolf, a cactus, a dog, an eagle, and more!

The game opens with a princess begging for your help; you leave your house and begin your quest to become a hero and save the princess! Your character will sing his observations as he moves around the environment in the game. Every two lines he sings rhyme (I believe that’s known as a “couplet”?), and they’re silly and clever. I really enjoy wordplay and puns, so I’m really liking this so far. The cadence of the singing really appealed to me, and I found myself singing along when I replayed levels for collectibles I missed before.

Songs for a Hero has collectibles in each level; there are “medals” with the hero’s face on them – collecting three of them adds to the amount of lives you have. There are music notes hidden here and there (three per stage), and collecting large numbers of them will eventually help you access bonus stages. And finally, treasure chests will give you heart pieces and energy crystals, but will also occasionally provide you with a new ability to help you access different areas (some that you may not have been able to get to before in past stages).

I would wait for the lyrics to finish before advancing so I wouldn’t miss any of the lines. As I listened to the music, I defeated enemies, found hidden walls concealing pathways, and acquired each stage’s collectibles. I gained the ability to shoot fireballs with my sword pretty early on, which could be used on enemies as well as “puzzles.”

I really appreciate the cartoonish art style in Songs for a Hero. The colors are vibrant and I love the character designs of the protagonist and the enemies as well – I really dislike snakes in real life, but they did a good job making them cute as enemies in the game. Some of the snakes breathe fire to attack you; even the statues of snakes will shoot arrows at you! Another snake will throw barrels at you. Despite their cute appearance in game, snakes’ real life “personalities” certainly continue to leave something to be desired for me. 😂

The many obstacles will reduce your health piece by piece from your available hearts. Thankfully, if you fall into a pit, you don’t instantly die (unless it’s lava). You will instead lose a part of a heart and regenerate in about the same spot. A lot of things that can harm you can be blocked by using your shield; smaller fireballs, arrows, and barrels can be stopped in that way.

You will unlock a village area early on, which will allow you to purchase potions, extra lives, heart pieces, and more. I was initially quite confused, as you earn coins but I didn’t understand how to access the shop at first.

I realized when I returned to the village that the shop wasn’t just a part of the background, and you have to move your character in front of the shop and try to move him “in.” 😅 Eventually, you’ll get to see your character sing in the village and interact with the villagers a little bit and enter more buildings. You can upgrade your sword’s capabilities as well. I ended up returning to the previous stages to gather additional funds to purchase more items and upgrade your abilities.

Another area I got a bit stuck in was the Django Forest stage; I failed to realize that I could jump to some vines because the rest of the vines I used had to be “activated” for use first. So I was confused for quite a bit there. I also didn’t have any idea what I was supposed to do for a spider boss fight. Some parts of the platforming aren’t as intuitive as they could be. But I was able to figure out most of it pretty quickly.

After unlocking one of the game’s seven abilities, you’ll be able to jump across to the next section of the town’s bridge, which has an expanded shop, another swordsman who teaches you another ability, and a tavern. The upper level of the tavern has a door that allows you to access DLC levels that are already included in the game due to it being the “Definitive Edition.”

I really liked the extra levels – especially the samba stage! You can start the samba level by talking to a man near the tavern, but for the “Songs for the Dead” stages you need to talk to the bartender to access the door for those levels. The jaunty tunes we hear during the main stages of the game are replaced with samba themes (appropriate, given the Brazilian origins of the game) and heavy metal music for the individual DLC levels. They’re performed quite well and suit their respective stages.

I also really liked the inclusion of both English and Brazilian Portuguese. After I finished the game in English, I started another file just to see what the Portuguese songs were like. In my opinion, the singer came off as more serious than the English version, which felt a bit more whimsical? Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like we can mix and match the languages with subtitles, so I couldn’t try the Portuguese audio with English subtitles.

I examined a few of the lyrics from the first stage, comparing the English version with the Portuguese version. The brief comparison is below, so skip the green and yellow blocks if you’re not too interested in that part and want to finish reading the remainder of the review. But I was very impressed by the translated lyrics – the meaning is pretty much exactly the same word for word with a few exceptions to make the lyrics rhyme in each language. It was interesting to see the Portuguese from a Spanish speaking perspective – I could understand a lot of the subtitles based on similarities in some of the words (ie “canção” versus “canción” or “resgatar” versus “rescatar”). It can be fairly difficult to translate and localize games like this word for word, so I was really impressed with the quality of the game!

( Stage 1) Greenish Hill

Colinas Verdejantes

I’ll introduce myself ~~I’m the Hero of this song

Eu vou me apresentar: sou o Herói desta canção

I have to save the Princess ~~And I just can’t take too long

E a Princesa vou resgatar ~~ Do terrivel Vilão

In order to find the castle ~~I know the recipe

Para encontrar o castelo ~~ Eu já tenho a receita

Heading to the right ~~ is the only possibility

Eu sei que numa missão ~~ Preciso sempre seguir à direita

The ending of the game was really unexpected for me, but in an oddly good way. Songs for a Hero: Definitive Edition is one of the most creative games I’ve ever played. I absolutely adored the music in terms of the lyrics and instrumentals especially, and I found myself humming the songs around the house even after I was done playing for the day. The lyrics made me chuckle quite a bit, and even the loading screens provide amusement (“Enemies hate the Hero’s sword…they don’t even dare to speak its name…they call it “the s-word””). I loved learning new abilities that I could use in different ways, returning to past stages to access hidden areas. The many features of this game collectively make it great.

Switch it ON or Switch it OFF? This is absolutely one of my favorite games that I’ve played this year. I completed the game at 108%; I’d give it a 9/10, and I’m sure I’ll be “singing its praises” 😉 for quite some time!