Army Corps of Hell

Sony revealed a brand new Japanese launch title for the PlayStation Vita during their pre-TGS 2011 press conference a few days ago. While I didn’t know anything about the game then, I liked the idea of guiding a legion of goblins through hell. To my pleasant surprise, I was able to get my hands on the Square-Enix title today. After several minutes of flinging goblin henchmen at monsters and mastering the Vita’s dual analog sticks, I’m happy to report this heavy metal murderfest is a ton of fun.

The main character is the fallen ruler of the world. His domination and greed among mortals bred a lust to conquer the gods. Predictably, this goes awry. The tyrant is sent to hell, where he must rally goblin troops to regain his power and seek revenge on his banishers.

Army Corps of Hell reminds me a bit of Pikmin. The player must strafe around enemies with one analog stick while using the other to direct their goblin army. With a pull of the trigger button, waves of goblins fling themselves at cyclops creatures and other monstrosities. You can attack in one of three ways: a focused long range attack, a reliable medium range attack, and a broad multi-hit magic spell. Hitting the other trigger causes the goblins to form a defensive phalanx around you. If you select the spear attack formation while in defensive mode, the goblins form into the shape of an arrow, which you can then fire at your foe. After enemies fall, you can send the goblins out to feast on the remains and score materials that can be used to upgrade weapons and craft items.

If some of your goblins should fall in battle, you can try your luck at a health-replenishing minigame. If you use a potion you can drum on the Vita’s back touch panel to build a meter. Raise it high enough and you’ll gain some health. You can also craft a guitar and flute later on, so it’ll be interesting to see how the system’s touch capabilities work with these instruments.

Speaking of instruments, the soundtrack to Army Corps of Hell exclusively features heavy metal bands local to developer Entersphere’s studio in Shinjuku, Japan. For a metal head like me this fit the game’s demonic tone perfectly. Some gamers might end up substituting their own soundtrack.

My time with Army Corps of Hell ended with a fun boss fight against a giant minotaur creature. As I was circling the beast and targeting his weak spots, I realized how quickly I had grasped the game’s core mechanics. My 10 or so minutes with the launch Vita title left me feeling like I had played it before. Just ask the fallen boss, he’ll attest for the game’s fluid learning curve. I can’t wait to check out more features like four-player multiplayer and item crafting as we creep closer to the Vita’s Japanese launch. Cross your fingers the game stirs enough buzz to see a western launch.