Topic: Academy of Heroes: Impressions

Bought this game on the way home from work, I planned to play for an hour and then post my impressions. But one hour turned to two and two turned to, well you get the picture! Lets just say I'm loving this game up to now

Presentation: 10/10

As soon as you boot up the disc you can see a lot of effort has been put into this game, this is NOT just a cheap kids game or mini game collection. The intro movie is well directed and sets the scene for the game well. The art direction is very stylish (reminds me of good story book illustration mixed with a Saturday morning cartoon) and the intro screens, loading screens (loading is minimal) and everything else is very well done!

Gameplay: 10/10

Gameplay is fast frantic and fun, I found myself cheering when I scored and laughing and having all kinds of fun, the controls are simple and intuitive but there is a lot to master, one thing I particularly like is the way you're pointer moves when you shoot on goal both FIFA and P.E.S (both of which I love on the Wii) could learn from this.

What this game is:

This game is a fun, good looking football game suitable for all ages (I'm 25 and I this its great)
You can tell the developers (Ubisoft) had fun making this game.

What this game is not:

A serious sports simulation, a game for closed minded gamers without a sense of humour.

In Conclusion:

I can't recommend this game enough! Ignore the cartoony graphics and give this game a chance, you'll have a lot of fun. It is also notable that this game really shows off Ubisofts very impressive Wii engine and makes me very excited for Red Steel 2, Rabbids Go Home and Shaun White:World Tour. Shaun White:Road Trip is one of my favourite Wii games and now Ubisoft are tied with Capcom as my favourite Wii 3rd part developers.

Sorry for the long post, must get back to the Academy!!

PS I bought this game at the same time as Metroid Prime Trilogy and I haven't even been tempted to touch it yet, if that isn't proof this game rocks I don't no what is!

Dru192

Verdict: Buy it!!

I'm looking forward to getting Academy of Champions, myself. Do the characters have special abilities?

Would definitely recommend it, been playing it non-stop since yesterday and its still impressing me! Yeah all the characters have unique abilities (speed, power etc which you can upgrade ala RPG-lite) but they also have special "talents" that you can use when your talent meter fills up, some give you a power shot (gives you a better chance of scoring but it isn't cheap because its not a guaranteed goal) others give you a power tackle, dodge or invincibility for a short time.This game rocks, I'm just gutted its not getting the exposure it deserves

What are some of the abilities of Rayman and the Rabbids?
Also, how's Balance Board support?

Not had the opportunity to unlock them yet (you have to do this via Story mode which is looooong, but very fun) but there's and awesome mini game where you get to see how many rabbids you can take out with sliding tackles in a short period of time hehe. Also I hear Sam Fisher (Splinter Cell) is an unlockable character who can turn screen night-vision so the other characters can't see him I don't have a balance board but motion plus support gives you a nice alternate control scheme to use

How's Motion Plus?

I'm really excited for this game especially given that Mario Strikers Charged is still one of my favourite Wii games.

The motion plus is pretty good, to be honest it doesn't add much to the game other than an alternate control scheme (I think this is so M+ players aren't at an advantage in multiplayer). I feel that the Ubisoft team have made a HUGE effort to keep this game balance and that's why its so fun you have to earn every goal and the player A.I. is good 2. If you like Mario Strikers you'll love this its a lot deeper and in my opinion a bit more fun, the only thing that's missing is online play, maybe in the sequel (I hope it sells enough to get one)

Even without online play, I consider this game to be rather promising and I'm so happy to hear it delivers.
So what gameplay aspects does Wii Motion Plus impact?

Yeah it doesn't really need it because multiplayer is good and the A.I. is pretty smart and challenging that was the only thing I could think of that I would add otherwise the this games pretty much perfect. Motion plus allows you to choose between a high or low pass depending on the angle you hold the wiimote you can also do more accurate dodges with m+. It doesn't really make much of a difference and I prefer the normal control scheme (you tap A for a low pass and hold it for high) but I think its nice they attempted to do something with it

Oh, I see. Thanks for explaining. In the story mode, is there an open world? Are you able to go around the Academy or is it strictly menu-based?

The best way I describe it is like a mini-calendar menu thingy (lol) where everyday you do different things for +exp, like interact with other students, do tests, play mini games, recruit other players and play matches. Its hard to describe but its done so well I think you'll enjoy it, the character voices can be a bit annoying though (they speak nonsense speak with subtitles), there are 4 terms (like in a real school year) I'm just starting the third term.

Sweet. You mentioned something about pointer movement when shooting a goal in your first post. Could you explain a bit more on that?

Yeah, the shooting mechanic is really cool, something I've never really noticed in other football games, as you approach the net a crosshair appears in the goals which you move around with the nunchuck stick, this allows you to have full control of where your shot goes, goal keepers are pretty good and so are defenders, so even though you have full control and placement its still not too easy

A team with Rayman and the Rabbids?! And better than Strikers!? I'm dubious, yet interested. Ty for the info.

Yeah Ubisoft are really pushing the Rabbids as there mascot, but I think they are used really well and suit the game, whether its better than Strikers, in my opinion I definitely enjoy it more and I'd definitely recommend it. I'm still playing and loving it so feel free to ask anymore questions

I'd never heard of this game and I was just skimming this topic at first... That makes for some weird reading...

Anyway, I don't generally have any interest in sports in general (just about the only ones I have played are Tiger 07 and 10 on Wii and Harry Potter Quidditch on GC), but that may be a plus in this case. (Hell, I'm perfectly fine with the idea of cartoony graphics as well.)

Looking up the game and looking at a few screenshots, I'm actually reminded a bit of the movie Shaolin Soccer (but less over the top than that).