Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero?

Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? for the Sony PSP (check out the review here) is one of the most difficult platform games in recent memory, and the boss battles can be some of the hardest parts. Like many old-school games in this genre, the major fights in Prinny will be against enemies that follow a set pattern. Figuring out that pattern and adjusting to it is quite often the difference between victory and defeat. The difference with Prinny, though, is that the patterns are often fairly complex, and the fast-paced action and occasionally unresponsive controls can make executing a plan of attack next to impossible.

The first stage on the level select list, the Nethergrass, is home to the Gourmet Ogre. This is a good first opponent for newbies to cut their teeth on. He has a couple of different attacks, but he tends to telegraph them so you should be able to see them coming and get out of the way. On top of that, he's rather slow moving, which means you should be able to get the jump on him. What you need to do it ground-pound him twice to stun him, then let loose with regular attacks and/or air slashes. Do this a few times and he should fall pretty easily. As a reward for your efforts, you'll get the all-important first ingredient for Etna's Ultimate Dessert.

Continuing to work our way down the list, the second stage is High Tome Forest. If you go here second, you'll have to square off against the twins, Kim and Che, though there is an alternate boss that sometimes does appear here instead. Anyway, this dastardly duo is much tougher than the Ogre was. Each one has both a sword-based attack and a magic-based one. If you were fighting one-on-one, these attacks wouldn't be too hard to dodge, but as is you can often find yourself engaged with one twin while the other hits you unexpectedly.

Each twin can be stunned with a single ground-pound, and ideally the trick is to stun both of them at the same time, though this is easier said than done. Once stunned, you can work on them using primarily air slash attacks. Each time you stun one, they'll come at you with a jumping attack that you'll need to dash underneath--be wary of the other twin while you're doing so, though, lest you be the victim of a surprise attack. It took me many, many attempts to try and get past these two, so be prepared to lose a considerable amount of your 1000 Prinnies on this stage.

Of course, while the boss fights in Prinny can be quite challenging, there are plenty of items to collect and secrets to be found throughout the course of the game. For one thing, there are four different endings that can be earned--one by beating the game normally, one by losing all 1000 Prinnies, one by escaping with the help of a ninja, and one by completing the game's alternate storyline. How do you unlock that alternate storyline? By collecting all of the torn letters in the game. Likewise, by earning the "bad ending" by dying 1000 times, you unlock a new skill called Prinny Raid. Finally, if you collect enough Lucky Coins, you can open up a new dungeon level and even square off against Etna in battle.