Let me start off by stating that Mystic Heroes grew to my attention by surprise. I did not know it was coming out when it did, but just recently it fell upon my doorstep, and it was begging me to review it. My first impression…fun. My second and third impression…even better. Mystic Heroes is a mindless experience, while at the same time an extremely fun single player or multiplayer session of button smashing goodness.

Mystic Heroes is considered the Dynasty Warriors for Gamecube. It follows the same basic structure of fighting countless enemies at one time, and then eventually making your way to the final boss. Mystic Heroes is much more oriented towards a younger audience than Dynasty Warriors, but frankly, it is better too.

In single player mode, you are able to choose from one of four characters: Lani, Naja, Tai, and Shinga, which are all differently balanced in terms of speed, magic, and power. The control scheme is as follows: A-button to attack, Y-button is long-range spells, and X-button is close range spells. At your disposal is the ability to perform huge ass combos, which adds much excitement to the already intense button smashing. Of course, just like Dynasty Warriors, are random power ups that will greatly help you along your journey. Each level is also huge in design, which of course means more space to find and kill the baddies.

Koei has implemented a co-op mode into the game. While this is my favorite aspect of Mystic Heroes, things such as not being able to play cooperatively in the story mode, but rather in different, specifically design levels where there is absolutely no store involved slightly disappointed my overall outlook on the title.

As far as graphics go, Mystic Heroes gets the job done. Nothing special in terms of polygon count or textures, but eye candy is definitely present. At any moment, there can be dozens of enemies on screen and moving at once, while containing a solid 60 FPS. The draw distance is horrible, but it sort of sets the atmosphere of you vs. everybody in one caged area after another. Maybe that is a bad reference, but it is one of those things that you need to experience for yourself. The magic spells, which plays an enormous role in the game, are attractive, especially when you unleash against a herd of enemies at one time, sending them flying in all directions.

The audio experience is nothing special what so ever. The music is decent, but you are quickly distracted by the annoying in game character sayings such as, "hey, leave some for me" which are repeated far to often. If you can get past the annoying character phrases, you'll be fine, and will appreciate the rest of the game much more.

As stated before, Mystic Heroes is a very fun game, especially when played with some friends in co-op mode. The magic spells are pretty, and the bosses are of gigantic proportions. You can expect 50-80 hit combos with large magic moves, and at least 15-20 enemies on screen at any given time. Button smashers and arcade gamers will really enjoy this title, but even then, I'd say rent it first before dishing out fifty dollars.