Guardian Heroes

The Good
Guardian Heroes was one of the most slept-on games of the Sega Saturn, and eventually came to be regarded a cult classic fetching fairly high prices on eBay. It blended western fantasy conventions with oriental aesthetic sensibility, side-scrolling action with choose-your-own-path multiple endings, an RPG character-point system with classic beat'em-up fighting... It had a ridiculously enormous selection of characters, from useless villagers to god-like spirits... It had multiplayer for up to 6 simultaneous contenders... Well, it really was a good game. Now, to all that, add a 16:9 aspect ratio expansion, up-scaling filters and effects, tweaked and expanded gameplay (all optional), new game modes and multiplayer limit increased to 12... This, ladies and gentlemen, may very well be the epitome of well-deserved second chance.

The Bad
As a personal note, I do not care much for anime-style illustrations. Guardian Heroes, though, sometimes pushes this too far, with grossly incorrect anatomical perspectives on some of its characters (Han's arms, anyone?) although this usually seems to be in line with the game's over-the-top style, overall.

The Bottom Line
2 parts Golden Axe to 1 part Street Fighter and 1 part Dragon Ball Z, with a sprinkle of Dungeons & Dragons and a liberal dash of Japanese "funny-weird". You will most likely enjoy it if you have fond memories of ANY of these things above.