Heroes 4: Revolution

The logo of the game.

***Heroes 4: Revolution***, or simply just ***Heroes 4***, is a cancelled Metroidvania action-adventure platformer video game developed by Drinkbox Studios and was going to be published by Imaginate.

*Heroes 4* was marked as the 4th sequel and the 5th game of the *Heroes* side-scrolling saga. It is also marked as a sequel to *Heroes Universe* but as a direct sequel to *Heroes Rampage*. *Heroes 4*'s gameplay is back to the 2D side-scrolling platformer beat 'em up style genre like the first 3 games and *Heroes Rampage*. The gameplay and platforming were inspired by DrinkBox's *Guacamelee!*

The game follows Liberty, Jason and Roy as they must defeat a big band of odd and neutral but bad villains in a league called the United Parasite Force, whose objective is to conquer the world against the United Hero Franchise and the Villain Federation. The leader who is leading the team is Kubo. However, one of Jason's friends such as Vanessa joins the league due to being brainwashed and is forced to kill Jason. Eventually, Liberty has what it takes to protect those she loves and cares for and save the world from uninvited harm.

The game was going to be released in 2022 but was ultimately cancelled due to troublesome development.

## Plot

The game begins with Liberty as she is having her alone time and writes on her notebook to get more info about heroes and villains and their abilities, while Jason and Roy talks with each other. All of the sudden, a big explosion has been heard in the city of Michigan. With no time to waste, the triple big red superheroes dashes to the city of Antoon.

As a result, the citizens tells Liberty and the gang that it randomly happened out of nowhere and thus, a girl got hurt. She head up to the girl (whose name is Lilly) and tells her if she is alright. Lilly responds with a yes and presses a button behind her back, causing Liberty, Jason and Roy to be fooled and releasing the Big Colored Parasites. Those being Kubo, Vanessa, Jillian, Jayden, Masquerade, Mrs. Bonaka, Sampson and, worst of all, Chuck. Liberty, Jason and Roy tries to stop them but they were tranquilized by Kubo with his tranquilizer gun, causing the 3 Big Red Superheroes to sleep for 12 hours. With the 3 being asleep for hours, the United Parasite Force quickly took over the ARC and ended the United Hero Franchise and Villain Federation.

Trapped in the prison cell of the UPF, Liberty was the first to wake up before Jason and Roy woke up for the next hour. She found a sewer cap that makes her escape to the cannonball area. When she got inside one of the cannons and launched out of the UPF, she landed into the Lime Forest and rushes to get Asuka and Elliot to reassemble the United Hero Force.

With Jason and Roy being awaked later in the next hour, they were reported to Kubo's host room. They said they will be staying in their prison for the next month and might eventually give them their alliance back, including the Villain Federation, sometime later if they can serve them for a while. Refusing to do so will get them in punishment. Moments later while racing through Lime Forest, Liberty, Asuka and Elliot came across Lilly, who Liberty came across a day ago. She halted them to not venture to the United Parasite Force further. Liberty grows impatient and wants to get going to recuse Jason and Roy, only to cause Lilly to bring in her Parasite mech suit to fight with Liberty and her friends. After the battle, Liberty and friends wins and Asuka tells Lilly where the Parasite Force is. Lilly tells them they're at Magma Battlefield and Kubo is planning to kill everyone on Antoon leaving Lilly to disappear into sparkly ash. After that, they now race to Redtorium.

Once they are in Redtorium, they fought a few baddies that were holding hostage to the red-haired people of the republic. Eventually, the team found Reggie and recruits her again. It was revealed that Reggie was hiding for sometime was having a problem with another member of the UPF which is Jayden. With no time to waste, the crew race. After a few obstacles, they came across Jayden who is a outright annoying girl who likes fashion but with a bratty attitude. After Knight tells her to just shut up, she gets furious and unleashes her poison powers dubbed the Drama Queen. After the battle, The crew won, leaving Jayden to disappear into sparkly ash. After that, they then went to Snowground.

When they fought Rowan along the way, they encountered Sampson, who has identical powers to Romeo but twisted. After a few obstacles, they battle with Sampson with his reaper powers, which are tricky. After the battle, they won, leaving Sampson disappear into sparkly ash. Meanwhile back at the UPF, Kubo is getting upset that one of the first 3 special members of his force has been defeated by the W.I.P. United Hero Force. Mrs. Bonaka recommended him to bring in the bigger and badder special members.

Back to the heroes, they went to Emeraldtopia and saw Roy and Jason being tied up. Before they set them free to join with them, they encountered Masquerade, a member of the UPF with tricky powers. When they encountered with him after going through tricky obstacles, Masquerade pulls off magical jokingly trickster moves that some of the party members can't catch up with. However, Liberty can finish him off since she has the Handicap move. After defeating him, he disappears into sparkly ash. They freed Roy and Jason The crew then went to Royalopolis.

Mrs. Bonaka has had it and went to the bottom of this madness. When she encountered with the heroes, she pulls off some magical and sorcerer moves. The crew can't finish her off until Asuka does the Blaze Blast, making Mrs. Bonaka explode into white sparkly ash. After that, the crew now dashes to The Cloudy Temple.

When they saw Negaman, they're prepared to attack him until Chuck drops in. He is very furious about the heroes defeating the UPF's special members. Later on, they fought him again, only this time, Jason, Roy, Romeo and Knight are going deal with Chuck. After Chuck made them unconscious by seriously, ragingly demolish them, Liberty, Rowan and Reggie steps in to finish him off with their Super Special Spinel, leaving Chuck disappear into sparkly ash. They then ask Negaman why did he tell them to do this. Negaman says that not the case because his Force was disbanded too. Seconds later, he opens a portal with his Teleportal to unleash all the members who were members of both of the forces. Romeo appears in the portal and can't wait to go to Magma Battlefield to teach them a lesson that they will never forget.

The crew then went to Magma Battlefield and secretly went inside the United Parasite Force's and faces of against Jillian who spotted them from getting to Kubo. They defeated Jillian and encountered Vanessa, Jason's neutral friend. Vanessa wants Liberty and Jason to fight with her. They had a scuffle with Vanessa blowing her away while Jason fails to grab her in the back, making Vanessa furious and sticks Jack to the wall with her ice powers. Liberty wants to know why she's attacking Jason. She says that in the past, she can't stand Jason's jokes of her. Liberty then tells Vanessa that if she keeps staying in the past any longer, she'll be a horrible person. Vanessa then agrees and set Jason free.

After Kubo saw the reaction, she fights with Liberty with his Parasite Body Armor. After the riot, Liberty wins, leaving Kubo unleashing his biggest threat of all: the Super Parasite Battledroid 50.0 and the Parasite Ship Fleet, a gigantic robot that he stole from Negaman and the Villain Federation and a fleet that shoots cannons. Soon after introduced, Kubo now teleports back to the desolated Antoon. Every hero and villain teams up together to do a Teleportal back to Antoon and take on the big robot and Kubo once and for all, After that, Liberty takes on Kubo with her Unlimit form and uses her Super Special Smash to pound Kubo and his robot into a messy area of his robot's parts, along with his ships.

Kubo wants to known how Liberty found the thoughtful key to unlock True Heroness, by bringing back the colorfulness, the innocent people, the beloved things, her parents, her magical pupils and everything. Liberty says that staying in the past will not really change things better. Vanessa from the distance agrees with her as well. Roy then ask Kubo to choose what he'll be, whether he would be a hero or a innocent. Liberty asked the same thing while he chose to continue his role as a Parasite, surprisingly swings his daggers to Liberty, in which he missed.

He continues to battle with Liberty until she kicks him away. Liberty then flew in midair and landed under the body of the new Super Parasite Armor, with Kubo doing a midair spin attack with his daggers towards Liberty. She dodges the attack, leading Kubo cutting the wood pillars that is effortlessly holding onto the new Parasite Armor. Kubo, realizing that it's too late and as the heavy armor fell on him, closes his eyes and accepted his fate, resulting in a great explosion that sunk the main armor to the waters, of which Liberty barely managed to evade, with the single destroyed battlefield being sparkled to a grassy playfield

### Aftermath

A month later, it was Liberty's birthday and everyone celebrated it.

## Playable Character

* Liberty - The main protagonist of the game. She is currently the 3rd Big Red Superhero who succeeded after Jason and Roy and is currently the protector of the world and Michigan itself.

## Unlockable Characters

* Asuka - A main unlockable character.
* Elliot - A main unlockable character.
* Jason - The second main protagonist of the game. He is the 2nd Big Red Superhero who succeeded after Roy and is semi-retired of being a hero and being as the world's 2nd Big Red Superhero, as he passes his powers to Liberty so that she can protect the world from harm, unless she needs help from him.
* Roy - The third and final main protagonist of the game. He is the 1st Big Red Superhero to protect the world from danger. He almost died from the Red Faced Asteroid until he and his friends were saved into the future where Liberty and her friends uses the Mega Paradox Machine, due to the fact that Liberty wants all of the 3 Big Red Superheroes to live. With Roy in the future, he accepts Liberty's request and helps her and Jason out saving the day from Negaman and many other bad guys.
* Reggie - A main unlockable character. She is Roy's sister and a member for the United Hero Franchise and Liberty.
* Romeo - A main unlockable character. He is the opposite of Jason but as brother-like friends as they work together, along with Alphonse.
* Negaman - A unlockable character. He is Jason and Liberty's arch-nemesis. But since his forces has been disbanded by the UPF, he has no choice but to help the crew as a anti-villain.
* Vanessa - A anti-hero/boss and a unlockable character. She is a special member of the United Parasite Force until she later joins Liberty and the United Hero Force.

## Boss Characters

* Lilly (1st Boss)
* Jayden (2nd Boss)
* Sampson (3rd Boss)
* Masquerade (4th Boss)
* Mrs. Bonaka (5th Boss)
* Chuck (6th Boss)
* Jillian (7th Boss)
* Vanessa (8th Boss)
* Kubo (9th, Final Boss)

## Gameplay

The gameplay was inspired by Drinkbox's *Guacamelee!*. It is based around the exploration aspects of the Metroidvania genre, exploring large maps while unlocking access to new areas via new abilities. Combat is a blend of striking and brawling maneuvers and the player is rewarded for performing multi-hit combos. Drop in drop out co-operative play is also available.

## Stages

There are only 3 acts of stages through the 9 themed worlds. In the end of Act 3, a boss appears.

## Locations

Lime Forest; a recurring location of the *Heroes* series and the first world of this game. After being blasted out of a safe cannon from the United Parasite Force's HQ, Liberty has to get Sonic and Knight in a area on the forest.

## Cancellation

*Heroes 4* got cancelled due to a troublesome development. It was confirmed that the game felt very bare-boned other than the Metroidvania gameplay elements. The story and writing was underwhelming despite being a long tale, the villains were one-dimensional and lackluster.

## Trivia

* The gameplay was inspired by the beat 'em up and platforming elements from Drinkbox's *Guacamelee!*.
* Roy and Jason were going to escape than Liberty during the escape cutscene at the beginning of the game, but it was scrapped and the developers switched that idea to Liberty.
* The game's tone is set in the dark tone. The last time the *Heroes* series was set in a dark tone was *Heroes United* with their DLC story *Daughter & Slaughter*.