Young Thor – Review

Young Thor is everything but mini, a 2.5D side scrolling beat’em up while leveling up for the PSP or the PS3 is just the tip of the iceberg for this game. I was actually surprised at the game for being such a small download, but packed with so much inside. Being that the game is a Playstation Mini, I thought it would be a quick play through with a moderate story to be told, but boy was I wrong. Frima Studios has put together a surprisingly fun game for a low price.

Norse mythology as if you didn’t know, is the basis of Young Thor, and for another no brainer the game is about, drum roll please… A Thor before he gets into all the trouble and great stories that follow as an adult. Throughout the game you learn bits and pieces of Norse mythology through unlockable content, things like the name of Thors hammer (Mjollnir), and the different articles of armor and equipment and what the names of each piece. Although the game follows a specific story line of Thor, one where he must save the three Norns from Hell, the daughter of Loki. The game doesn’t quite follow comic book lore where Loki is Thor’s half brother, nor is Loki young, since Hel is Loki’s daughter and all.

The RPG element in this game is very simple. Hammer down, hammer hard, and hammer quickly through seven different types of enemies to gain experience and level up, and the max level cap being 99. The game has only five different levels but between those levels you can replay the same level with a twist. Replaying the same level, such as 1-2, increases the difficulty and may even have hidden pieces of equipment for Thor to pick up. Other things that will help out with the harder levels are different rune power ups that are obtainable throughout the level. Levels are easy enough for little kids to play but that’s only if you don’t go beyond level 1-2. The artwork is very kid oriented, friendly but not too scary, colorful, and well cartoonish which isn’t a bad thing.

There are however a few glitches in the game that I ran into. Enemies either dying but still attacking, interactive on screen button pressing not disappearing, and enemies not reacting to a stun attack, but for a title being only $4.99 on PSN I’m not too surprised. It’s not great that there are glitches in the game but for such a low budget game glitches can be inevitable. Young Thor has been an enjoyable game to play. It has a lot of different levels of difficulty and a lot of areas to explore for each level. At times it can be frustrating trying to get through a level, but grinding like in all RPG’s will be a must to complete the game. Leveling up to level 99 most likely will not be required but, it could be fun doing it. If you’re looking for a mini game away from a FPS this may be one of the good ones to get.

[nggallery id=148]