OHR House: Heroes (Bonus Features)
A Review by Pepsi Ranger
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Last month we glimpsed an overview of OHR House: Heroes, where we examined its premise, its characters and backgrounds, and its technical achievements. And I think we learned a lot in the process.

But, I’m afraid we didn’t finish what we started then, and now we must pick up where we left off.

So, let’s get back to the fray.

The Bonus Games and Features

RedMaverickZero pulled a stunner on the community when he released the full season last fall. After forcing the community to wait several months for the final days of the show (where our victor was crowned and eventually sent to face his final opponent), he rewarded our patience with two new games, a bunch of artwork to play around with, and the original show that provided RMZ his framework. And this was after he graced us with a series of character profiles and a bonus episode starring the House Villains earlier in the year. Yes, he was kind enough to give us more to play with when the show was over, and even more considerate to make it fun.

But before I get into the games, I’d like to talk about that bonus episode.

OHR House: Villains

One of the staples of a classic OHR House game is to make the viewer wait at least six months or longer to find out what happened between certain episodes. OHR House 2: Hawaii did it when it hit a two-year stall between Episodes Six and Seven. OHR Kitty House (or House Kitty, or I don’t know) is still stalled after about a year-and-a-half. And OHR House: Heroes did it twice, the second time at the ending, but the first time after Week Five was released and RMZ made us wait six months. As an apology to the community for the wait, he released a bonus episode following the exploits of the House Villains after they had taken over the house.

Now, I need to disclaim the true authorship behind House Villains. While the episode was released as part of the House Heroes canon, RMZ only worked on the graphic and technical details. Paul Harrington (aka Surlaw, aka the moderator of this magazine you’re reading—slacker, I know you have more important things to do than to read a magazine about OHR games) was the one who wrote it. And, if you dig deep enough into this magazine’s archives, you might stumble upon the original script. But that’s where credit is due.

So, the story behind House Villains is simple. Dr. Mu grows suspicious of his housemates’ behavior and eventually comes to the conclusion that they’re trying to poison him. The reality is far worse, however; they are planning something much more sinister.

Yes, they are planning a birthday party. For shame.

The episode runs for the usual five days, following each of the four villains around the house (Joe has already vanished by this point), interviewing them with a cool new red background—slick—and exploring their neuroses with much satire and little restraint. And when it ends, the villains are left with damaged emotions, questionable futures, and bloodlust. It’s all in good fun, of course.

The presentation holds true to the rest of the show, using the same graphical techniques, the same special effects, and keeping to the continuity of the timeline presented in the regular series. The difference, though, comes down to the writing. While RMZ focused on lighthearted, though sometimes cliché characters throughout the regular season, Surlaw (aka Paul Harrington, aka...well, you can read my breakdown above) took the satirical approach and made the villains into total pansies. Dr. Mu thinks he’s “delicious” whenever he comes up with a maniacal idea (usually involving brain transplants and dinosaurs), Slither thinks his wool cap is the most stylish thing since Justin Timberlake, Vlad becomes a meathead, and Chluthlu, well, let’s just say he makes a glorious exit in this episode. Nothing about the episode takes itself seriously, and it really adds to the overall charm of the series. One of the show’s highlights for sure.

OHR World

Before RMZ decided to stick random heroes from the OHR universe in the same house, he stuck random heroes from his own game universe in the same house. That resulted in a short-lived, never-released-until-now game called OHR World: RMZ Edition.

The premise of OHR World was that several authors would adopt the OHR House format by using characters from his or her own games for viewers to practice their skills of voyeurism on. It was supposed to be a franchise, but I guess RMZ decided early in production that an idea like this would never work in a place like this. So, he never took the series beyond the pilot episode. Or, by his confession, he just lost the file for the second week and didn’t have the heart to restart. Either way, the show never happened.

But he did have a slightly unique twist on the voting concept in this game. Instead of viewers voting on which housemates had to leave the house, they voted on which housemates got to choose what object everyone had to live with. On the surface, it seemed like a confusing gimmick, and I’m not sure where RMZ would’ve gone with it. But it was different than what we’re used to, so I am curious how it would’ve gone.

The story probably would’ve killed its future, though. A couple interesting subplots surfaced, including one where Mr.Triangle gets lambasted for his attempt to cook everyone eggs for breakfast, and another when Rhudy floods the house one morning after having wet the bed. But beyond that, it’s the usual, “Hey, this room is cool,” first week boredom, and I found myself looking forward to the “End of Week 1” message.

Graphically, the game is excellent, especially with the walkabout sprites. I know Mamoru (aka VampiDucki) helped with the graphics, and I’m guessing that he did the sprites, since they don’t fit RMZ’s usual whimsical style. Each character animates nicely, too, which I think is always a bonus. For that alone, the game had potential.

If RMZ had continued the project, I’m sure it would’ve gotten better as he discovered his stride. But in the end, I’m happier with OHR House: Heroes, and I’m glad that he chose to put his focus there instead.

 
House Paranoids

The first playable game, House Paranoids, is accessible after Week Five is unlocked. The gameplay is simple: aim your banana bomb through speed and trajectory and hurl it over a bumpy landscape at your opponent. It’s essentially the OHR House: Heroes version of Gohrillas, which was the OHR version of the DOS classic Gorillas, and all three games are played identically.

The story pits Mr.Triangle against the heroes remaining from Weeks 5-8, where he tries to dethrone them in waves of battle (each character sticking around one round longer than the last), just to confront two bonus characters who also don’t want to leave before the party is over. As wave after wave of attacks come and go, and characters introduce themselves, groan, and die according to whomever acted their voices, Mr.Triangle stands strong, unmoving in fact, proving that some heroes will stare a hurtling bomb down even unto death. This is what makes Mr.Triangle a hero, and, well, it’s what makes his competition heroes, too, for none of them move.

The appeal of the game is partially in the artwork, for the whole thing takes place in the computer world, and RMZ did a nice job turning everyone into TRON-like 8-bit creatures. But it also comes down to the scripting by Moogle1 (or Mogri), because the trajectory aiming device moves so fluidly and gets the angle of the attack just right, that it’s almost a marvel to see it in action, especially when considering the source engine’s capabilities. And I believe the terrain is randomly generated each round, so that makes things even more interesting (if not really affecting the challenge much).

Artificial intelligence, unfortunately, is not so easily found in House Paranoids. Sometimes the opponent will pick the right coordinates to launch its banana into death’s stratosphere. Housemaster is especially good at targeting Mr.Triangle. But most of the opponents, especially late in the game, pick a trajectory that sends the banana just a couple spaces too far to the left or right of Mr.Triangle, and hold to it until the moment they die. This means that once the player makes it past Housemaster, he or she can pretty much finish the game. The appeal then comes down to discovering who’s next on the roster and what kind of sounds they make when they grunt.

Super Surlaw Chef

This was the bigger, more interesting of the games brought to the OHR House: Heroes special features section, starring our favorite obese hover fish, his insatiable appetite, and his Rocky-esque rise to the top of the Walthrosian cooking wars.

The story is simple. Robots are coming to attack the castle and the heroes are preparing for the fight. But, not everyone can rest easily in the looming shadow upon them. A certain hero, a fish if you will, has received a terrible criticism about his extensive eating habits, and his inability to keep the house refrigerator stocked with other people’s food. The solution? Cook his own food. But with a master chef in the ranks pulling his every string, merely creating his own meals isn’t enough, oh no. No, a competition must happen and the fish must earn his right to be called a “master chef.”

The game is very easy to play. As Bob Surlaw, you wander around your room viewing sketches of your judges (the other heroes), and try to pinpoint which foods they’ll like and dislike. Once you think you know their tastes, you exit the room, where the game then thrusts you onto the main competition floor. There, Powerstick Man will transform his hosting duties to that of a master of ceremonies and introduce the panel of judges, the competition, and eventually announce the winner of each round. Surlaw’s job, of course, is to be the victor against three adversaries and declare himself a master chef.

Once the judges and opponents are brought onto the stage and the usual banter between characters plays out, the player will then be required to choose up to three ingredients for his dish. In the process, he will either create a known recipe (like a cheeseburger, for example), or a messy concoction of loosely-fitted ingredients. From there, the three judges will rate the food based on their preferences, and then the score will break down to an average. Once the scores are tabulated, a winner is determined. This happens three times, and by no surprise, gets a little more challenging each time.

Again, this is a very straightforward game requiring nothing more than knowledge of your judges’ tastes and finding the best group of ingredients to satisfy all three. Discovering a true recipe adds a bonus to your score, but until you face your final opponent, you probably won’t need to know that.

It’s a great way to kill a few minutes of your time, and an even better way to get to know the House Heroes characters. And like any good mini-game, it’s fun to see which OHR hero will make a cameo next (hint, there are three heroes that show up exclusively for this game, two relative new guys, and a hero from long ago). And for the short time you’ll spend with it, it is entertaining for sure.

But like anything worth playing in life, it does have its limitations, and it’s a shame that RMZ and Surlaw (Paul Harrington) didn’t have more time to make it better. For example, I think the notion of giving the player a “restart” from the beginning of the match after every tie or loss is a great way to keep him trying to win, which forcing the player a total restart could never accomplish (who would want to keep playing then?). However, I think an implementation of “lives,” perhaps three per game, would’ve made it more challenging without becoming frustrating. I figure, since it was designed like an old school NES or SNES game, it might as well have had the same lives formula. Eventually, the player would get good enough to progress to the later levels, but I think he should have to earn it without it becoming frustrating. I also would like to have seen anywhere from five to ten opponents to keep the player on his toes. And random judges would’ve been nice. And a greater variety of possible dishes would’ve been great, too. But I understand that they only had a week to make it, so I think it’s fine given what they had to work with. I do think a standalone remake would do it justice, as long as Surlaw designed it as a game worth playing by itself. I suppose walking around a supermarket with a “grocery list” and limited funds would make it even more challenging.

It’s worth checking out, though. I mean, you already have it with the show. Might was well play it.

Fun Facts and Art

Finally, we have fun facts and art work. Now, while I can’t very well review either of these without sounding pompous or misinformed, I can say, at least, that the game offers fun facts and art. You should check both of them out. The art is nicely drawn, and the facts, well, they’re fun.

So give them both a peek. RMZ worked hard on them.

So, that covers everything there is to know about OHR House: Heroes. Hope you give it a try. According to RMZ, the sequel, if it comes out, will probably happen sometime in the fall. He gave me a snippet of what to expect, and I must say that it is ingenious. Do not expect a rehashing of the same old crap (not that this was crap, but still, don’t expect an OHR House style repeat); the sequel will take the series in an exciting new direction, and I am certainly looking forward to it. If I were you, start bugging RMZ to ready the graphics for it now. That way he’ll have no excuse but to make this thing happen. You’re gonna want to check it out. I repeat, this will not be your typical sequel series. And that’s all I can say until RMZ decides to tease us with a preview.

You’ve been warned.