Ever wanted to know how your Xbox Live Avatar would handle super powers? Well, now you can experience this firsthand, because PowerUp Heroes transforms your Avatar into a sick looking superhero that has super-strength, super-speed and a whole range of other super moves. Clemens and I have been excited about the concept of PowerUp Heroes since it was announced and now we were able to play it at Gamescom! We were so excited that this was actually the very first game we played. I took on Clemens in an epic superhero dual and this is how it went!

PowerUp Heroes

The person that was supposed to present and explain the game disappeared so we didn’t get the usual tour of all the options, customizations and modes in the game. Instead, we both just kind of hopped in the game and started playing. That’s also why I don’t really know if there is a lot of customization, or if you can set up different rules or something. We just immediately went into the game and started fighting.

If you want to know approximately how PowerUp Heroes plays then get to your Xbox, pop in Kinect Sports (I assume pretty much everyone has this game by now) and start up a boxing match. This is pretty much how PowerUp Heroes plays: the screen is also vertically split in two and you will have to use gestures to beat the living crap out of your opponent.

Gameplay

In Kinect Sports Boxing you have only a few different moves available, while in PowerUp Heroes you have a whole range of divers moves. We didn’t really know what was possible but fortunately the game shows some suggestions for moves at the right of the screen. For example, while I was standing away from Clemens the game gave me a kind of flash card with a move on it that would bring be closer to my opponent. So what I did for the first few minutes of the game was just perform the moves that the flash cards were recommending me to do. Even though I had absolutely no idea what I was doing I was totally and utterly beating Clemens by doing this, and that was fun!

We didn’t really play any further than this (presentations were about to start), but I can see that when you get the hang of the game and actually know what you are doing the experience will become a very tactical one. For now I think the game looks great and is fun to play. I hope it will hold up for longer and repeating play sessions because I can see how this game might become quickly very boring. We’ll have to find out when the game releases in October!