I recently received a copy of Glory of Heracles to review and as a mother, this wasn’t the type of game I’d sit down to play myself (I’m still obsessed with Nintendogs) so I was thrilled when I found out I was heading to Upstate NY where I stay at my friends house.  Her son is ten years old and as my thanks for letting me spend the week there with my kids, I gave him the assignment of playing the game as much as possible and walking me though it.

In the world of RPG (Role Playing Games), the Glory of Heracles is the latest release for the Nintendo DS and I’m happy to say my little friend is thrilled with it.   Rated E (for everyone), I think this is a great game for a Mother to give her child to play.

Alex (my dutiful game tester) compares the Glory of Heracles to the Final Fantasy series because of the battle choices and magic involved.  If you choose to utilize the magic, you’re taken into a mini game that is beneficial because as you progress through the game they get more difficult.  

When you’re in a mini-game, the player can choose “auto” or choose to use the stylus that comes with the DSi to play the game.  Using auto, the player just selects to automatically complete the mini game (great for the younger kids, my son is five so that option would be best for him).  Using the stylus, the player has to use different strategies to get a score higher than the 100% you achieve in auto mode, making the game more of a challenge for the older and more skilled players.

If one chooses to battle instead of using magic,  the player has to face their enemy and has to choose their method of attack, learning the right combination’s of magic and battle skills to defeat a particular enemy.

Like most RPG’s, there is a lot of reading.  For a child Alex’s age this is great motivation to keep reading.  I know people always say we need to get our kids reading more and of course we all like books, but if we can keep our children motivated to read and have fun by playing a game, I’m all for it.

If you’re like me and have a younger child, you can play together by reading the story out loud and help him or her choose the battle options (which is where the auto magic function would come in handy).  If a player chooses to battle and loses, they have the option to back out to start the battle out all over again, giving the player a choice to change  weapons and formation, building on strategic skills.

You’re essentially reading an interactive electronic book, only your choices determine the way the book will go.  It reminds me of when I was younger and we had the “Which route would you like to take” books, only this is much more complex and you can’t be like I was and just read both endings to see what happens.

I asked Alex what flaws he found and he says he thinks the game is perfect.  His mother, however, did have one issue.  The game does not have an auto-save function, so you have to play to a specific point to be able to save your work.  Because of that, her son was up playing a bit longer than she would have liked, because he insisted he had to get to the next save point before he shut the game off or all of his efforts would be repeated.  Great for him, and a noteworthy aspect for us as parents.  Now his mother knows to see how much longer he has until he reaches a save point before determining if she’ll let him play after dinner.