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Posted 10/11/2018

Jettomero: Hero of the Universe

Overview
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Imagine being a giant robot.

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Imagine being humanities’ hero.

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Imagine being the universe’s last hope.

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…

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Now imagine being so incredibly clumsy that you can’t help but destroy the occasional city.

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Who you have imagined is Jettomero; the protagonist of Jettomero: Hero of the Universe.

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In this story-driven adventure, developed by GhostTimeGames, you’ll explore a procedurally generated universe as Jettomero; a helplessly uncoordinated giant robot with a goal.

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Find out why you were created and save humanity, one planet at a time.

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With a visually striking cel-shaded art style, low-fi instrumental beats, a story wrapped in mystery that unfolds via logs reminiscent to classic comics in the 70s and 80s, plenty of parts to collect and customize Jettomero, and even a couple of secrets hidden within, Jettomero: Hero of the Universe will quickly find its way into your heart.

Story
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Jettomero: Hero of the Universe begins with you, as the titular giant red robot, waking up on an abandoned moon.

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Not knowing why you exist, and left to wonder if you are the only being in the universe, you set off in search of answers.

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After traveling through a wormhole, you will eventually crash land on a distant planet, come into contact with humanity, and meet another giant being.

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With a failed attempt at communication, the giant beast attacks, and you are forced to fight back.

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When the battle is over something sparks your memory banks, and you learn humanity once faced an alien invasion that resulted in the loss of billions of lives.

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Although this raises more questions, a sudden realization occurs due to this memory.

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You must protect humanity at all cost.

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Now with the goal to save the human race, you set off once again, hoping each new part of the universe you save will jolt another memory bank, and help you understand what happened to humanity all those years ago.

Gameplay
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The controls in this game are simple to understand, and that’s kind of the point.

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You’ll navigate the universe and all the planets, all of which are generated randomly so you never visit any two planets that are similar, using the joysticks.

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The left joystick will control Jettomero and the right joystick will control the camera.

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You blast off from planets with the use of the ZR shoulder button, which also allows you to fly around while navigating the solar system.

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The L/R shoulder buttons will zoom the camera in and out for different viewpoints, the ZL shoulder button will make Jettomero do a skipping motion while moving if held down, and the face buttons will make Jettomero do different actions depending on if you are on a planet or floating in space.

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The difficulty comes in attempting to do your best to cause no harm to the different cities scattered along the surface of planets you explore.

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This is made much more challenging by the tiny tanks, UFOs, laser turrets, harpoon cannons, and a plethora of other tiny forces the people of the planets you explore use to defend themselves from you.

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Occasionally you will come across a monster wreaking havoc on the planet, and as the hero of the universe and savior of humanity, it is your job to defeat them.

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You do this through combat sequences which require you to input different button combinations to set up an attack with Jettomero’s eye beam that is immediately followed by a button mashing segment to decide how much ground you gain on your foe.

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After defeating the monster you’ll unlock a puzzle sequence that, when solved, will unravel more of the story.

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These puzzle sequences are solved by decoding an encrypted cipher through the use of the left joystick to unscramble the words.

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At this point you can decide if you want to move on to the next solar system or explore the other planets in your current system.

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While exploring planets you’ll spend your time trying to expertly navigate the mazes of procedurally generated civilizations to collect jet fuel that you need to use your rockets to blast off, as well as any flashing red beacons that symbolize different parts you can collect to customize Jettomero to your liking.

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After all, the Hero of the Universe has to look good.

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And look good you shall.

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With over 80 parts to collect, many of which reference characters from pop culture, you can make the perfect giant robot for yourself.

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This comes in handy when you make use of the photo mode, which features plenty of filters and customizable options to make your pictures look like a work of art.

Audio & Visuals
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The visuals in Jettomero: Hero of the Universe are quite stunning.

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Featuring a cel-shaded art style, beautiful particle effects, and a neon color palette, I often found myself just looking around the solar system while drifting through space.

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Each system is home to a giant sun that provides light to the surrounding planets, which causes every planet to have a dark and light side surface, highlighting both their color and structure.

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There is even a secret challenge you can complete that will unlock a way to customize Jettomero’s base color.

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All of this is backed wonderfully by a low-fi techno-based soundtrack that puts you into a calm and relaxed mood.

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Each beat has a purpose and every sound sparks the imagination.

Final Thoughts
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This game is truly a unique experience.

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It’s such a different game that there really is nothing quite like it.

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My only real complaint, if you could consider it that, is the length of the game.

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Priced at $13 on the eShop as of this review’s posting date, you get your monies worth.

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However, I found that my journey came to an end rather abruptly, and even though I could experience more of the gameplay, I felt no drive to do so once the credits rolled.

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But I will never forget my time with Jettomero, and the journey I went on to become “Hero of the Universe”.

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