In Guardian Heroes, you play one of 4 adventurers who have found a mystical sword that the evil royal family is after for mysterious reasons. Soon, you learn that it belonged to a powerful warrior who is now undead and under your control to help overthrow the kingdom. The story itself isn’t anything particularly unique, but what really helps extend the game beyond the life of your average brawler is your ability to affect the story. For example, you can choose to sympathize with a major villain, or call him nuts and beat the snot out of him.

Guardian Heroes was released in both the US and Japan, but aside from a couple of name changes and some instances of “Engrish” within the translation, there’s virtually no difference between the two games. That said, you’d have a hard time following the plot in the Japanese version unless you were fairly fluent.

The characters are a charming bunch that balances out really nicely in multi-player. Availbale are your standard brawler, speedy-type, magic user and healer. The characters are whimsically drawn and animated. It’s shame the personalities and backstories aren’t fleshed out more during the game.

The fighting system is refreshing in a genre rife with mindless button-mashers. Though it appears to be just your standard 2D side-scrolling brawler, you actually have three planes you can fight in (near, middle and far), which not only allows for a lot of simultaneous action, but a lot of strategy. The game also includes RPG elements as you gain experience from every hit.

Guardian Heroes features a fairly complex combo and magic system. You can just button-mash your way through the game like most brawlers, but to really experience Guardian Heroes, you’ll need to learn how to efficiently chain moves together. An interesting feature of the game is that you often have A.I. partners fighting beside you, whether they are key story characters, random soldiers, or the nearly invincible skeleton warrior that accompanies you throughout most of the game.

Guradian Heroes is one of the few Saturn titles to really take advantage of the multi-tap, as you can use it to play with up to three others in story mode and up to five others in Arena mode. Arena mode is sort of like your standard fighting game, but includes the different planes used in story modes, and you can unlock just about everyone you encounter in the game. Many are woefully unbalanced, but the matches can be quite entertaining and it adds a lot of replay value keeping the game fresh long after most others in the genre have expired.

In closing, this is simply one of the deepest but fun brawlers available. It’s probably the best since River City Ransom. It’s great for a quick burst or an all night party game, and the multiple paths and arena mode will keep you and your friends partying for a long time. If you have a Saturn and you enjoy a good brawler, also consider Dungeons and Dragons Collection, which is a AAA classic from Japan.