Full Review: Classic Hack-and-Slash Action Returns in 'Code of Princess' for Nintendo 3DS

Like video did to radio, 3D killed the 2D star. As someone who inflicted blisters on top of blisters on my thumbs while playing games like “Gunstar Heroes” and “Double Dragon” in my youth, I lamented the passing of this beloved gaming medium. Once in a while, though, a game comes along that resurrects my love for old-school fare. The latest is “Code of Princess,” a 3DS game first released in American shores last October and now just recently became available for download on the Nintendo eShop.

In this game’s campaign, you start out as the brave and somewhat airheaded Solange, a powerful and brave warrior princess with heavily armored, uh, hands. Along the way, she’s joined by one of the biggest collections of anime-inspired misfits, including a lovestruck samurai, a musclebound animal lover and a warrior nun whose philosophy is more in line with “two eyes for an eye.” These misfits are only topped by the ensemble of enemy goofballs that populate the Distron army’s ranks -- made even more interesting by the excellent localization job for the English version. It's "deus ex magnifica," if I say so myself.

Now some folks have made the mistake of looking at this as an RPG with beat-em-up mechanics, which could potentially lead to disappointment. Instead, it’s actually the other way around -- Code of Princess is primarily a combo-heavy beat-em-up with RPG mechanics, just like Guardian Heroes. And as a beat-em-up, this game is actually quite good. In fact, I consider this a more worthy followup to Guardian Heroes than the latter’s sequel Advance Guardian Heroes, particularly in terms of the fun factor. Like Guardian Heroes, you can jump in between the foreground and background. Even Solange’s diving fire sword move looks like a straight-out tribute to Han from the original Guardian Heroes. Speaking of moves, this game heavily relies on combos as well, allowing players to chain regular moves and specials. Eventually, you’ll be able to deftly launch and juggle enemies, then launch them again. A lock on and burst mechanic also allows you to deal even more damage when stacked together, though it likely won’t compare to the damage you’ll do to your thumbs once you get your combos down pat.

Stat allocation via level up also adds another, uh, level of strategy and fun to the game. Throw in the fact that you can unlock more than 50 characters and its quite possible to get plenty of replay value from Code of Princess. Admittedly, the game can get repetitive even with all the different characters -- an issue pretty much for classic beat-em-up games in general. Like those titles of old, maintaining interest in this game is all about experimenting and pulling off tough combos as well as playing with other people either via online or co-op. This brings up another issue -- the fact that the online lobbies seem to be  dead at this point. You’ll basically have to rustle up some non-imaginary friends if you want to play co-op or versus modes.

Even with its issues, however, Code of Princess is a great representation of a classic genre that has fallen by the wayside with the advent of 3D action games and first-person shooters. I remember chuckling when I finally started feeling that long-lost yet familiar sensation of blisters forming on my thumbs as I made my way to the final boss fight after playing the game all the way through from the very first stage. All of a sudden, memories of Double Dragon, Streets of Rage and Gunstar Heroes started flooding in my head. That’s when I knew I that I was taking part in some old-school fun. This game certainly isn’t for everyone but if you like classic action games, then you’ll want to give this a look.