Every generation, they say, has a hero. Someone destined to save the world and slay the darkness that surrounds it. Someone with abilities and skills beyond that of mortal men and women. Someone willing to put their lives on the line and risk it all just to give the people hope. They will sing songs about them, remember their glorious contributions to history until the last sun sets and will rise no more.

Yeah. Vertical Drop Heroes HD is not about those remarkable people. It is about the ones who failed in their quest. So, you know, don’t get too attached. They won’t be around long.

Controlling these rejected, second-rate heroes might not sound like the kind of fun we’re used to in the rogue-like, randomly generated dungeons that have become so popular lately, but the chaotic, action-packed gameplay, high-quality retro music, and sharp character design will win you around in the end. Sure, your characters will die frequently and permanently in the beginning, but as you manage to secure enough money to buy upgrades for each subsequent generation of hero, you’ll soon find yourself able to traverse multiple levels of these dungeons before a goblin’s stray arrow manages to send you right back to the beginning of it all.

Vertical Drop Heroes HD is a remake of a online Flash game where you control a hero as he proceeds through a vertical drop shaped dungeon. The best way to describe it might be say that you fall with style, trying to avoid the goblins, ghouls, and spikey death that waits you as you approach the bottom. It was a fairly big hit in 2010 as far as Flash games go and can still be found uploaded to various sites that cater to that sort of thing. Each level is a randomly generated dungeon filled to the brim with spikey death and populated by the captured adventurers who can assist you by fighting, dropping items, or just randomly blowing up the scenery, provided you have the means to help them escape.

Just because this is based on a game that has been available for free on the internet for a few years, though, don’t dismiss this version as something inconsequential or simply an offline version of the original. They play like completely different games, with different objectives and gameplay styles. Music, graphics, and gameplay have all gotten a serious upgrade here, so don’t be afraid to give it a go just because of that. It is only the general concept that has remained from the original. Everything else has levelled up.

There is a lot going on as you play through Vertical Drop Heroes HD and, for the most part, it will be trying to kill you. The game provides ample opportunity for you to be killed by monsters, spikes and fire even before you reach the bottom and are faced with the plus-sized boss monsters that live at the bottom of each level. For the most part, you’ll die often and painfully, even as your hero levels up and gets ever so slightly more powerful as you begin to clear some of the levels. Each subsequent hero that you send to the slaughter will be equipped with any power ups and gold you’ve managed to scrape together, making the game slightly easier each time.

But only slightly. You’re still going to die a lot.

Vertical Drop Heroes HD is a very casual, “drop in/drop out” kind of game. There is little to no plot to speak of and the combat consists of jumping between blocks and standing close enough to the enemy to hit them with your chosen hero’s weapon. It probably won’t suck you and get you playing for hours and hours at a time, but if you’ve got a bit of time to kill on a train or before having to go to work, there are certainly worse ways to blow ten or fifteen minutes. You can find it on GoG.com as well as on the Humble Bundle store. For just £3.49, you too can send legions of brave adventurers to their painful, permanent deaths. The game is fun, even if you don’t get to be the true hero in it.

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