Strike Force Heroes

Strike Force Heroes sold me on its trailer. From incredibly fun animated sequences, to its wild multiplayer modes, any shortcomings the game may have felt almost secondary to the experience. Still, Strike Force Heroes, which is a remake of sorts to its 2012 Flash-based browser origins, with additional levels and content, is an experience that is fun during your time with it, but not something you'll really be returning to too often.

Strike Force Heroes is a 2D shoot'em up built around Smash Bros-like stages. You'll have a few classes to wield, each a specialist in particular weaponry, and take on foes with a variety of different rule sets and objectives. Occasionally, you fight bosses, digest more of its wonderful cutscenes, and repeat the loop all over again. 

As you outfit your Tank, Assassin, Commando, Ninja, and Medic, you can customize them with passive skills, hero abilities, gadgets, and weapons, either earned through leveling up, or via a slot machine mechanic that worked out more than once in my favor. That said, you do earn a ton of loot as you push through the pretty beefy campaign, completing feats achieved through plenty of missions and a ton of sub missions that are more bite-size than the standard objectives. 

Each class has a few skins to change up the look of your soldier. However, it is those skills and abilities I mentioned that can make a huge difference in how you actually play. Hero abilities range from guns not requiring ammo, tossing out landmines, to having an assault drone, the latter unlocking at level 20. Passive skills; however, have lower level requirements and range from increased spare ammo, the lack of needing to reload, to dropping three grenades upon your death. Now, those particular skills and abilities are just for the Commando, as each class has their own set. From the self revive skill of the medic, to the ninja taking on the form of a dragon, there is a ton to unlock here, should you invest the time.

The whole package offers up over a dozen main missions with each mission having at least two or three sub-missions to tackle after you have completed the mission. These missions have a more flexible ruleset and often have you just competing against bots to gather items or reach a kill count. Regardless of their simplicity, they are fun, and give you a bit more time in each level. 

The main story is centered around a virus that begins to infect an island you are shot down over. Your team, which is composed of a few characters the story is built around, plus you tagging along, will need to stop a company called Globex from spreading the virus around the world. There are plenty of fun twists, a nod to one of the endings of a certain Metal Gear Solid game, and plenty of great moments for the characters.

Riggs, Bull, Toad, and Shadow, make up the central cast, and each have some great moments. Riggs, the leader, has a Zapp Brannigan-like attitude and voice, with Bull having an obsession with hamburgers. Toad reminds me of Terrence Sweetwater from Battlefield Bad Company due to just how the character vibed with me. Shadow is basically the typical ninja, but serves his purpose.

I will say that some loose threads are left by the time the story ends and I do wish the main villain had a bit more screentime, as he basically comes out of nowhere and then you just sort of beat him. There is an assassin that shows up, but then you never see them again. These are minor gripes, but as I've never played the other games that followed, it could be that they were saved for a return there. Still, the post credits scene was pretty interesting as well. 

While the art style and look of the game may feel cheap, or feel dated, the game is a remake of the original flash game and keeps its roots firmly planted in that camp. Personally, I dug the aesthetics, the level design, and the character models, as it all comes across as fairly charming. However, the game really overuses the “When Johnny comes marching home.” remixed tune far far too much, despite the fairly decent soundtrack otherwise.

If I had to knock the design on anything substantial, it would be the menus are not terribly controller friendly and unmistakably designed around a mouse. B cannot be used to back out, and you are forced to drag a cursor over to a back arrow when attempting to swap between missions or accessing most menus. 

Strike Force Heroes is fun, and the multiplayer mode can be very impressive when you have either a close group of friends taking part, complete randoms, or several dozen players just filling the screen. It's a remake of a beloved flash-game, and that's perfectly fine, as games like Alien Hominid, which originally started its life the same way, made Behemoth a widely known studio, for a time. 

If you take Strike Force Heroes as an arcade experience, with minimal depth to its systems, there is a solid shooter here that feels like the perfect marriage of something like Contra meets Smash Bros. With a robust multiplayer suite, a fun campaign, and some decent customization to your soldier, Strike Force Heroes is fun, while it lasts.

Developer -Sky9 Games. Publisher - IndieArk. Released - November 6th, 2025. Available On - Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Windows. Rated - (T) Blood, Violence. Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.