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Medieval Heroes
June 10, 2003
Medieval Heroes is a strategy game for Palm OS devices that is somewhat reminiscent of Warcraft for the PC, though on a simplified level, of course. It starts out with you determining the difficulty, which nation you want to play, and which hero you choose, based on the varying skill levels. If you play a normal game with Frederick the Lion and the Germans, for example, you will start with three units in your army and a castle in the south central portion of the game map. As you progress through the game, you will have the chance each turn to scout, conquer new territory, attack the territory or home castles of your enemies, or rob their treasuries, recruit new units, and more. It’s all about the strategy though— build up a large army and you can quickly conquer new territory, but don’t leave your home castle undefended or you will be taken out of the game.
While Medieval Heroes can’t possibly have the depth of an actual PC game, I was pleasantly surprised. You can recruit different types of units, such as foot soldiers, archers, and light and heavy cavalry. The graphics are nice, even on my low res Kyocera 7135, and there is also a high res version available. I particularly like the battle animations, which show the units maneuvering around the field for the best position. The ability to scout new territories before you attack is a nice touch, as is the ability to rob your opponents. There’s even a “battle training” mode so that you can get some practice in the fimer points of unit combat before you take on the larger issues of recruiting and expansion.
I’m looking forward to future versions of this game with even more enhancements, but I’m still enjoying it immensely. I’ve tried several RPGs for the Palm OS platform, but this is my first experience with a strategy game. I don’t typically like playing strategy games in other contexts, such as PC or PS2, because I generally find them to be just too complicated and involved to be fun. But Medieval Heroes strikes a nice balance between simplicity and depth that I really appreciate. It requires 472K on your Palm OS device, and as I mentioned earlier, there are low and high res versions available. While it takes up quite a lot of room, it’s great for older/slower devices. Since there aren’t a lot of really graphics-intensive portions of the game (though it does look really nice) and because it’s turn-based instead of real time, you can more easily enjoy it on almost any Palm OS device. You’ll understand what I mean about this if you’ve ever tried Bejeweled on a Tungsten T and then tried to play it on an older device—it’s almost painful after the blazing speed of a faster processor. Medieval Heroes doesn’t fall prey to that sort of problem at all, and it’s quite refreshing.
You can get a trial copy at the developer’s website or you can get a full version for $15 at either PalmGear or Handango. The full version includes hi res support, the ability to pick your hero and home castle, and much more.
PocketGoddess rating for Medieval Heroes: 
