Gaming has the widest range of unique characters to fill the role of the hero. We have hot heroines in the form of Lara Croft; steroid using soldiers named Marcus Phoenix, cloned super soldiers like Solid Snake, and, finally, sack people in LittleBigPlanet. Aside from sack people, all these characters have the reputation of being world class heroes. Well, the world of heroes is about to be turned around, because the unlikeliest form of a hero is about to appear in the form of a Prinny. What's a Prinny? A Prinny is a demonic penguin that has two knives and can self detonate. Sounds deadly, but they are the peons of the demonic world. Can a self detonating worthless penguin really be a hero of a game? You're about to find out in Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero?.

Disgaea fans know all about the worthless Prinny. They are the peons of the series and all around meaningless foot soldier of the demonic realm. Despite how useless they may seem to the demonic world, the Prinny is just too cute to not fall in love with. Who doesn't love penguins? Unlike in Disgaea, the Prinny will serve a much higher purpose this time around. Etna is pissed because her dessert is gone and decides she'll take out her anger on all the Prinny under her control. Typical woman, right? This is where the Prinny get to show their stuff. Etna sends the unfortunate demon penguins on a quest to seek out the Ultra Dessert. How hard can it be to find a tasty dessert?


This is an amazing looking PSP game. Sure, it doesn't push the 3D boundaries for the handheld, but the 2D sprites are miraculous. Everything is crisp, clean, bright, colorful, and sharp. These sprites put to shame the low-res Disgaea sprites from Disgaea 3. You'll be hard-pressed to find a sharper looking 2D game on the PSP or any system for that matter.

Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? is truly a unique experience. Essentially, the game plays out like your typical 2D side-scroller with an emphasis on combo usage, strategy, cleverness, and difficulty -- I can't stress difficulty enough. The Prinny are limited in their amount of abilities. They have a basic slash attack, butt stomp, a special air attack -- which is the most effective attack --, and finally a dash, which is activated by having the Prinny doing a little spinning dance. You'll have to master these basic techniques to make your way through the rough terrain that hinders your path to the Ultra Dessert, to defeat the bothersome demon enemies that block your progress, and then beat the level ending boss. The levels are full of obstacles you must overcome to progress and many of them feature some platforming like most 2D side-scrollers do. Thankfully, after each major section of a level, you're greeted with a save point. Trust me; these will become your best friend.

Prior to starting the game you are given two options: Standard Mode and Hell's Finest. The difficulty of the game is exactly the same between the two; however, the difference comes in the amount of damage you can take. In Standard Mode -- which they deem as 'Just right for "casual" gamers' allows you to be hit 3 times before dying. Whereas Hell's Finest will have you dead in one hit. Your best option is to start the game on Standard and if you think you are going through it too easily, change the difficulty to Hell's Finest during your game time. On the plus side, you are given 1,000 lives to beat the game with.


It's not so much the level design that will get you killed, as much as the enemies and their placement in the levels. The enemies will spawn at the top of ledge where you need to jump and they'll inflict damage to you if you jump just a hair to high. To help you overcome some of the cumbersome nuisances, you'll equip yourself with a vehicle of sorts to blast your way through the demons and reach new heights. Each vehicle has a time limit in which you have control over it. So blast away as many enemies as you can. Once you get through the level, you are presented with a boss battle. Each boss as a certain strategy you must figure out to beat it. This basically boils down to you knocking the boss out for a few moments to deal enough damage to defeat them. The boss battles can be long and very difficult.

Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? is looking to be the PSP's early big hitter for '09. With gameplay reminiscent of Metal Slug and Ghost n' Goblins, Prinny has all the makings of a cult classic. Disgaea faithful will surely hop onboard this ship and 2D gaming enthusiasts should follow suit. Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero is set to launch February 17. We'll have a full review as the release date nears.