Smalltown is enjoying the glories of a sun-filled day, when suddenly evildoers descend upon the campus library. What mischievous mayhem is this? Frat boys gone mad? Or perhaps it is the foul tendrils of a larger evil! Whatever the case, only one person can cure this malady of crime – and that person is you!

Hero X, a PC release from Amazing Games and Infogrames, is a comic book come to life. There are numerous perpetrators of dastardly deeds, vile villains and mimes gone mad – enough to keep the normal superhero hopping.

But you aren’t a normal superhero. You were once a sidekick, promoted to the position of superhero and given a small town to defend. And you’ve even been given a sidekick (of sorts) or your own – a professor who will help you with his various machinations and advice.

This game will drawn inevitable comparisons to Freedom Force, an EA Games release back in late March. When stacked up against that title, Hero X is relegated back to the role of sidekick. Not that it is a bad game. On the contrary, if not for the stability problems (several crashes when accessing the ‘watch’ interface required hard restarts of the host system), Hero X would be a pleasant foray into the world of the comic book superhero.

The interface is intuitive and has to be – the game comes without a manual. But that shouldn’t hinder any who seek adventure of the caped crime fighting variety. You begin by creating your own hero (there are several stock ones to choose from) and picking your superpowers. As you level up, you can add to your array of powers, both of the offensive and defensive variety.

Once you have all that in place, it is off to Smalltown to save its citizens from a crime wave taking place. You will discover that the incidents are not random, but part of a larger, more nefarious scheme.

A map helps you move from one location to another within the town, and in a nudge-nudge-wink-wink to the game player, telephone booths are the mode of transportation. The game also has demonstrates its sense of humor with its difficulty levels. There are three and they are ‘Don’t hurt me,’ ‘I am ready,’ and ‘Bring it on.’

The graphics also have a few breakdowns in terms of environments, but overall this game is lush and colorful, as though it has jumped off the pages of a comic book. The newspaper delivery boy, named “News,” is fresh-faced and wide-eyed as well as a good source of information. The game uses a comic-like frame to advance the typed dialogue, and people you meet on the street have the dialogue bubbles over their heads when you talk to them. The sound of this program is average, and does not exceed what one would expect.

Hero X is bright, colorful and harmless entertainment. It does have challenge, and will take time to play through. It is too bad that the program crashes and graphical errors interrupt what is a nice program.

This game is rated for Everyone.

Gameplay: 6.8
The game has some stability problems. The environments are expansive and while bordered, there are a number of buildings and areas to explore, as well as a lot of people to talk to.

Graphics: 7
The stability problems extend to the graphics. One area of the map, the zone in the upper left corner, has a lake. There are two blocks of another scene in the lake.

Sound: 6.5
The music, while giving the game an air of camp, gets old in a hurry.

Difficulty: Easy
This game is designed so that anyone can jump in and play. Unfortunately, there are some crashing problems that render all of that frustrating.

Concept: 7.5
This game does a nice job of bringing comic-book heroism to life.

Overall: 6.9
Not the best superhero game every created, Hero X still has its own charm. The action is well done, and the game has bright, lush graphics and a large gaming world. Stability problems are its bane.