This comic was finished last night but I've spent all morning trying to assemble a worthwhile writeup to associate with it. Put simply Half-Minute Hero is a game that I'm having a rough time defining. There seems to be some differences between the Japanese and North American releases. The official website doesn't seem to completely gel with the wealth of reviews out there. So let me tell you what I know.

The premise is simple. The main bad guy is about to destroy everything you know you have 30 seconds to save the world. But even that isn't exactly true. The game has four main "modes". Hero 30 is a compressed RPG, Evil Lord 30 is RTS-esque, Princess 30 is a kind of shooter, and Knight 30 is an action/adventure/escort type deal. Each mode is made up of 30 stages. Each Stage is 30 seconds. BUT... you can use the gold coins you've collected in a stage to buy more time from the Time Goddess. There is also Hero Ad-Hoc mode which lets you play with 2-4 people in a competitive race to see who can beat the main boss first. Anyone can go to the Time Goddess, but everyone benefits from the purchase of more time. All that being said, reviewers are claiming about 15 hours of overall gameplay, while the official website claims 20. I'm not certain if this includes the Ad-Hoc mode.

Half-Minute Hero is a PSP exclusive title. And thus far it's getting good reviews bringing in a Metacritic score of 87. [more info]

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Yes, that's all of a comic I could get done in 30 seconds. But, being completely honest here, I had to try several times to figure out what bits I needed to sketch to make it at least resemble something from the game.

Thanks everyone who stopped in to watch me work live!

Being lazy never looked so good!

JK comic made me laugh 2 days in a row, you are on a roll

"Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman" seems to have unleashed a torrent of "Well The PSP is going down the crapper so we might as well try to profit as much as we can"

Then again I'm just speculating, who knows: maybe the PspGO will bring some life into the system, but I'm not counting on it, oh no, not after losing 100+ hours of Monster Hunting and Armor crafting, and I'm probably not the only person to feel gypped.

Hmm... *looks at the comic with the practiced eye of a fake art critic*

*high and mighty french accent* A 30 second sketch, about a game you play in 30 second intervals.

*normal voice*
That... That is absolutely briliant!!!!

You know when I first envisioned the comic, I pretty much thought there was going to be a couple of blue lines starting the circle basis for a head.

half minute hero... that title could be misconstrued in so many ways. sounds like what a very displeased woman would call her horribly...well you get the idea.

I love the idea of the comic, btw.

Absolutely love the comic, love the idea behind behind it too. Also love all the inuendo you could make from it...

Semper Fi, Carry on.

I want this game now, mainly to find out why the zombie wants a spoon.



[ Post moderated. Pointless negativity removed. ]

wow, that music just kinda explodes at you when you get to the game's site. Still deciding if it's annoying or catchy.

Originally Posted by KaiTenSatsuma:

"Holy Invasion of Privacy Badman" seems to have unleashed a torrent of "Well The PSP is going down the crapper so we might as well try to profit as much as we can"

Then again I'm just speculating, who knows: maybe the PspGO will bring some life into the system, but I'm not counting on it, oh no, not after losing 100+ hours of Monster Hunting and Armor crafting, and I'm probably not the only person to feel gypped.

Seeing as how they basically made it a "download only" console, I highly doubt it'll actually succeed. I personally prefer to have a physical copy of the game. That way, I can just plug it in and play immediately without having to wait for my internet connection to finish downloading the game. I also find that physical game disks are lost less often than digital downloads. I've had this Command and Conquer (the original) game for about a decade now, and it still works (on older computers. Can't get it to work on the newer OS's :P) It's also kinda fun to see how much physical space my collection takes up xD. Finally, there's the renting/sharing aspect. How will I rent that latest game at Gamefly if it's digital? It's not like every company is going to trust every gamer to delete the game after the time period is up. They could put a time limit in the file itself...but why pay for a trial? I guess that's kinda the same thing as paying to rent it but...somehow...it feels totally different :|