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3D Dot Game Heroes PlayStation 3
User Score
7.9 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 68 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 56 out of 68
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 68
  3. Negative: 5 out of 68

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  1. LBC
    Sep 8, 2010
    8
    While 3D Dot Game Heroes is not particularly innovative, it certainly makes its intentions clear and delivers on what it promises. 3D DGTH is a full length retro action / adventure game built for your HD television. The game is jam packed with secrets, dungeons, bosses, NPC dialogue events, and areas that you can't reach without getting a certain item (just like everyone's favorite, Legend of Zelda). Probably the most interesting feature of this game is the ability to make your own characters, which is really easy to do and is quite entertaining. I think i may have spent an equal amount of time building characters as I did playing the actual game.… Expand
  2. BDeyo01
    Sep 20, 2010
    10
    Only buy/rent this one if you're looking to play a Zelda-Clone. This game does nothing to further or detract from the Zelda design, except make a few alterations. The other reviewers of this site and the critics really said it best, "retro adventure game built for HD." That's really all it is. With that said, if you fully enjoy this genre and can see yourself playing it all the way through, then it is definitely worth renting (first), and buying (if you want 100% completion).… Expand
  3. zvenalot
    Dec 5, 2010
    10
    Excellent game that brings back memories from the past, zelda, final fantasy, those low bit games we liked so much. 10/10 flawless epic looking forward to some more blast from the past like this one
  4. Idontgetit
    Aug 24, 2010
    6
    I enjoyed this game, I did but my enjoyment was tarnished at just how much of a clone of Zelda it is. It was a game that after two dungeons I was tired of because the puzzles are all ones I've seen before. I really looked forward to this game but maybe it was too much nostalgia. The one bad thing with a retro game is that I've beaten them before. The graphics were cool. The combat is really old school I am used to God of War type combat and this is methodical and you have to think not just mash buttons. The game becomes way more difficult when you dont have full health. If you have never played zelda then get this game if you are a zelda fanatic get this game. It was a really good game I just thought it felt tired and I knew the game. Its strange I like the game but I was disapointed by it. I almost forgot the character creation is great it took me nearly three hours to tweak my character to what I wanted it to be.… Expand
  5. platguy4
    May 25, 2012
    9
    I suspect that this game will become a cult classic. Purely on its originality and what it aspires to give gamers it deserves a good score. Not only does it create a sense of nostalgia, but provides a good challenge with some great puzzles, side quests and dungeon crawling. That said, its not going to be for everyone - the game is directed at gamers who remember when RPG games were a mysterious brand of game that gave you very little idea of what you were supposed to be doing, or why. While you get tips along the way, its mostly up to the player to find out whats going on if they want to get the numerous power ups and bonuses that this game gives. If you want to relive those days with a modern twist then this game cannot be missed. On the down side, the character customisation element seemed a little pointless and the music, while trying to stick within the retro theme, did become a little irritating. Minor quibbles aside, inject your PS3 with some 8 bit nostalgia, theres no other game quite like it… Expand
  6. Shuriken
    Nov 4, 2011
    8
    Anyone who enjoyed the retro games of the past, the original The Legend of Zelda in particular, will have a deep appreciation for 3D Dot Game Heroes. The combat, exploration, and simple puzzle solving will hit you in a wave of nostalgia and take the player back to the days where a game's limitation made it fun through the use of creative game design. It takes the many aspects of retro games and places them in a more modern setting of graphics, concepts, and theme. Although the game boasts itself as homage to retro games, it still has a deep and innovative gameplay amongst its simple objectives. Those who didn't experience the days of retro games that others have will still find the opportunity to have a glimpse of what made gaming so fun in the past through 3D Dot Game Heroes. If you can find the game for under $20 and want something simple and fun to play, I'd recommend picking this game up. Read the rest of the review here: http://superpad.blogspot.com/2011/11/gamelight-review-3d-dot-game-heroes.html… Expand
  7. mojamojakumasan
    Jan 17, 2011
    7
    Capitalizing on nostalgia has always been a successful tactic of marketing and media. Now it's time for our generation (i.e. Children of the 80s) to experience it. All of our favorite comic books, TV shows, and games from the past are now being re-imagined for today's market. Sometimes we get something good (Star Trek the movie), and sometimes something abysmal (*retch* Transformers 2). 3D Dot Game Heroes...the love-letter3D Dot Game Heroes tries to capitalize on all of our nerd-stalgia from the 1980s by giving us a near cut-and-paste parody/homage to The Legend of Zelda, while sprinkling in a heavy dose of game-culture references to several Nintendo (and Famicom) games of yesteryear. The result is a funny and somewhat interesting experience through familiar territory which ultimately doesn't do anything new or endearing. The story is your typical 80s fantasy-adventure plot. A unspeakable evil that was once thought banished by your great ancestor is being resurrected by a dark wizard. As the descendant of the great hero, it's up to you to collect all of the orbs necessary to seal the great evil once and for all. How could this have happened? The king of Dotonia decides to move everything into 3D (to improve tourism), which ultimately sets things in motion for the great evil to be released. If you've played a Link to the Past (or any top-down Zelda-esque game), you'll have a good idea what your getting with 3D Dot Game Heroes. Once you get your sword, you'll move from one elemental(ly?) themed dungeon to the next, collecting orbs of *insert element here*...and you get the idea. In between dungeons are towns, where you can purchase useful items, help the locals with side-quests, and upgrade your sword to ridiculous proportions. You'll need to spend all your hard earned cash if you want to clear the game's seven dungeons, which can be pretty difficult at times. Speaking of difficulty, 3D Dot Game Heroes will net you a platinum...if you're willing to work for it. You'll need to play though the game several times to find all of the items, complete all side-quests (some which become unavailable after certain events), and finish the game on the one-hit-death "SPELUNKER" mode. Some of the trophies are easily attainable on your first play-through, but the really difficult ones are there for the hardcore only. The voxel style is interesting at first, but can get tiring after a while. Many of the characters and enemies look bland, and it can be a little difficult to discern what's an interactive part of the game world from just scenery. After a while, areas begin to look the same, and enemies don't put up much resistance (especially with a maxed out sword). Boss battles don't feel very epic either. It could have been the voxel graphics, or the feeling that bosses are copies of traditional boss-archtypes, but the battles amount to uninspired confrontations that are over pretty quickly. It would have made encounters more interesting if you had to find a weakness using your newly acquired tools, but that's the one thing from the Zelda series you won't find here. Fortunately one thing the game does well is parody, which really shows during it's several loading screens. By using NPCs from the game, the developers have cleverly recreated box art from famous Japanese and American Nintendo games of the past. It's always fun trying to guess which box art represented which game (and in some cases...it's really hard). The writing is also pretty funny and well localized. This game doesn't take itself too seriously and it's constantly coming out in the dialogue with pithy one-liners and references to other nostalgic games of past. Like, when the Dark Lord asks you if you would join him in conquering the world, and is actually surprised when you say "yes". To wrap this up, the game was decent, but felt like it tread too much on familiar ground and didn't introduce anything new. By the 3rd dungeon, everything looked and felt similar to the previous dungeons and I began to lose interest. Even though I played to the end (and I appreciated all the nostalgic homage), I was left unimpressed. I'd recommend this to a hardcore Zelda fan who's jonesing for a top-down adventure, but for everyone else...save this one for a weekend rental. ~Mojamojakumasan http://blogs.ign.com/mojamojakumasan/… Expand
  8. Kozlow2k
    May 31, 2011
    10
    "Excellent game that brings back memories from the past, zelda, final fantasy, those low bit games we liked so much. 10/10 flawless epic looking forward to some more blast from the past like this one." -nuff said
  9. Lieufa
    Jul 3, 2011
    6
    Oversimplifying this game and giving it obscenely high ratings simply because it evoked memories of Retro gaming experiences seems a little hasty. While I was pleasantly nostalgic upon beginning this game, I quickly tired of the dull game-play and the 'groan' humor. I agree that throwback games like this are necessary to keep a wealth of variety available on the system, but as we are in such an advanced age of gaming, I think we should expect a little more depth from games and their mechanics, even if they are intended to be somewhat simpler and retrospective in game-play. I finished this game to the end, but any speed with which I played toward the end can be attributed to the fact that I didn't want to drag it out any longer.… Expand
  10. LizTaylorsGhost
    Jul 11, 2011
    8
    How do you like your game reviews? Do you prefer it when a reviewer compares a game to similar titles, uses past works as an anchor point, or when they solely judge a game on only its merits alone? I've read a lot of differing opinions on 3D Dot Game Heroes and in the majority of them another game is used quite a bit: Zelda. Now there isn't anything wrong with using Zelda for comparison, after all it makes sense. In fact 3D Dot Game Heroes is almost a homage to the Zelda titles in the first place in both presentation and gameplay. But there's a danger in just using Zelda in a review to explain the merits of this title. You get lazy. You think that gamers are familiar enough with Zelda that they don't need you to explain further or to flush out your reasoning and that can be problematic. In fact it's why I asked what I did in the first place. So let's get this out of the way first. Have you played a Zelda game before? If yes than you'll understand the basic mechanics and layout of the world of 3D Dot Game Heroes easily. But for those of you that haven't played a Zelda title or who want a more hammered out review read on. This game can be summed up in two words: Cute and fun. Both fit the title perfectly and here's why. The first thing you'll notice about the game after its graphics, which by the way look phenomenal, is its atmosphere and characters. It's just simply adorable. I loved the world, the characters, the feeling of exploration and the scripting in this game. I found myself enjoying interacting with the characters in various towns and modeling my character to look the way I wanted. I know that sounds goofy as all hell but go look at some videos of gameplay and tell me it isn't cute. That look and feel help play into the fun of the game. It makes it enjoyable. It's bright and vibrant and helps enhance the solid combat and controls. The game has a large world with tons of screens and dungeons to explore with multiple tools that help to get around the different environments. Player actions and decisions help to influence events in the game that change outcomes and create and restrict different subquests. The game itself can be broken up into three segments: Towns, Dungeons, and Overworld. The main overworld is a large area comprised of various screens which encompass different biomes in the game (deserts, islands, grasslands, ect.). These biomes have enemies appropriate to their environments and helps to liven up the game and prevent it from feeling stagnant. As you explore these different areas you'll come across towns which have shops, people, and different structures to explore. It is in these areas that you'll come across subquests and other tasks to help you acquire items and progress in the game. Finally there are the dungeons which are tied to the games main quest and which you need to complete to progress to the ending confrontation. While at times finding the sages can be bothersome since not all of them are just waiting for you at the end of the dungeons it helps to create the feeling of an old school game that you would have played in the 8 to 16 bit era. The title has a good length to it and there are some very fun little secrets and Easter eggs for the players to find that you'll enjoy if you put the time into getting them. The one main issue I had with the game was that if you install it to your hard drive it can crash on you. If you look around on various forums and so on you'll find threads talking about this. The two ways to avoid it are to save often, which you can do anywhere, or to just play from the disk. Not a deal breaker by any means but an FYI should you pick up the title. Grab it if you like action adventures like you used to play back in the day or if you just want a fun and bright game that doesn't take itself too seriously.… Expand
  11. dbzfilife
    Mar 5, 2012
    10
    This game is simply amazing and, as stated on the backcover, indeed is a loveletter to retro gaming! It offers a long storymode, really challenging boss battles and alot of humour! People who love the old Zelda games like A Link To The Past will love this one!
  12. Dezuuu
    May 11, 2012
    7
    A great throwback to the classic Zelda and Final Fantasy games, it has a nice visual style but after extended play it gets a bit boring. Would've been better as a downloadable title.
  13. Davegamer
    Apr 29, 2012
    8
    3D Dot Game Heroes is an a Zelda-like game which should be on any Zelda fan shelf. From the very beginning you learn the basics of the game and the controls to solve the first puzzles which are also extremely similar to the first Zelda for NES. However the FROM team has introduced some of their essence that makes this game really tough in the second run or even worse in the third, in which you die if you get hit once. Really challenging if you are one of those people who like unlock every secret in a game. As for the plot, quite simple, but enough to enjoy the experience. I recommend it to any retro-game lover.… Expand
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Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
77 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 66 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 47 out of 66
  2. Mixed: 19 out of 66
  3. Negative: 0 out of 66
  1. Multiplayer.it
    Dec 15, 2011
    85
    3D Dot Game Heroes was clearly inspired by the old Zelda games. It takes the charm of the old school games, while at the same time updating the style and adding a plethora of new elements to keep gameplay fresh, all without losing the classic feel.
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  2. SpazioGames
    Jan 9, 2011
    80
    An interesting experiment: the classic gameplay makes it perfect for old school gaming lovers.
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  3. GameTrailers
    80
    Despite a few weaknesses, 3D Dot Game Heroes combines borrowed ideas with a novel presentation and a good sense of humor to rise above the level of shameless cash-in.
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