Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
On a whim, I raised my hand to cover the deckbuilding boss-battler Micro Hero: Hercules, a new release from Léandre Proust and Grammes Edition that is distributed by Hachette in the US. The prospects here looked modest: a single deck of cards used to provide a dozen bosses and an upgradable player deck, all tweaked in a humorous reimaging of the 12 Labor of Hercules.
Even after my first pass of the rules—printed with a font I will politely describe as “miniscule”—told me we had something here. If you like solo gameplay and anything in line with games like Regicide, Ace of Spades, or Balatro, Micro Hero: Hercules is worth a look.
Getting Stronger
Micro Hero: Hercules is a roguelike adventure game for one player, although the game does include rules for two players if you ever feel like dragging someone else to the table. (For this review, I did not.)
Setup is a breeze, and so is the teach. There’s a deck of 12 Trials, challenges that serve as bosses and, like the other games mentioned above, defeated bosses can later be added into a player’s deck to offer stronger and more effective ways to take down future Trials.
In each round, the goal is simple: beat the current Trial. Each Trial has a special rule that changes how that round will play out, along with a starting set of health, attack, and defense values.
Players begin each combat sequence with a hand of 10 cards, shuffled and then dealt out five cards at a time in each round. (Yes, this is deckbuilding 101.) However, Micro Hero: Hercules requires players to play each card into a single column, which builds up resources for the current round using an innovative mechanic: the card that is placed at the top of the column generates something, either attack, defense, or experience points (XP), then when the next card is placed on top, any cards below it trigger again.
That means the card you play first will give you five of something, once for itself then once for each card placed on top. That helps players math out the best part of the game: how to do exactly the right amount of damage or defense to navigate a turn. XP is used to upgrade cards in a player’s deck, or buy new ones from a small supply known as the reserve.
Individual turns are pretty quick in Micro Hero: Hercules. I liked the system, and I liked how each Trial’s rules did just enough to change things up. I also enjoyed finding ways to get around taking wound cards—the result of not having enough defense to stop a Trial’s attack value—by beefing up the right cards at just the right moment.
The major issue with Micro Hero: Hercules is the playtime. One Trial starts with a low health value but then uses a special power to heal itself by a point each round. Every Trial requires a player to revert upgraded cards to their non-upgraded side when a new Trial begins. And players don’t automatically receive the Trial that was just defeated; it has to be bought from the reserve as an XP action in a future round.
The side of the box says that the game could last anywhere from 20 minutes to 240 minutes…and that is ultimately what makes it a hard sell.
The Daily Challenge
Micro Hero: Hercules works best as a game that you take on once a day, by leaving it at the end of your kitchen table to play while waiting for the brownies to cool. That’s possible, in part, because the game’s footprint is so tiny. For my first play, I had it out in front of me while sitting off-camera at my desk during a status call, and I still had room for my notepad, mouse, and other accessories at my desk.
When taken on as a single-attack challenge, I enjoyed Micro Hero: Hercules, and it is easy to save your progress between rounds. 20 minutes to figure out a way to beat the Nemean Lion? No sweat. Spending 3-4 hours to take down the entire game in a single sit? Ain’t no way, and that exposes more about what I don’t love about the game even when playing a second Trial during the same seating. This is not a game that has a massive arc; playing it 12 times in a row exposes that reality.
It’s a little surprising that a player has to downgrade acquired cards between each challenge. That made my first few plays feel exceptionally grindy. Later, when players have bought enough of the Trial cards, banished some of the crappy starting cards, and began new fights with better goodies, Micro Hero: Hercules really flips. The game gets a little easier, a lot more interesting, and it accelerates if you have Trials left that fall into the advantages of your current deck.
A bit like surviving the first and second seasons of Breaking Bad to revel in the magic of its final three seasons, Micro Hero: Hercules doesn’t really sing as a single mission play the first time around. It gets there, and I wonder if I would have played even a second time if I didn’t have to do a review of the game.
For those on the fence, I encourage you to do at least three plays during your first playthrough before forming an opinion. Then, keep it out somewhere handy, maybe near your TV to play while working through season 87 of Survivor. It’s a better activity than a game, one that gets better as the campaign gets deeper.
For $12, Micro Hero: Hercules comes with a lot of game. And there are a couple of mini expansions in the box that change the ways player wounds and once-per-round bonuses work, amongst other options. I didn’t use those for my plays, in part because I didn’t feel the need to shake up the core game. I like what’s here, as long as I space out the plays.
