Next Up Hero

The game was developed in Unity. Digital Continue was founded by 5th Cell alumnus, Joe Tringali and describes Next Up Hero as an “asynchronous co-op, 2D/3D orthographic projection with isometric angle twin-stick arcade game played on server-hosted sessions".^[4]

Next Up Hero was announced at RTX in Austin, TX on July 14, 2017.^[5]

A closed beta was available until January 10, 2018 on Steam for Windows. The game launched in Early Access on January 11, 2018 on Steam for Windows.^[6]

Next Up Hero received generally mixed reviews from critics.^{[9][10][11][12]}

Nintendo Life similarly gave it 5 stars out of 10, stating, "Turning death into an applicable AI co-op mechanic is a neat spin on a game with a high death turnover, and its cartoon art style complements an impressively large menagerie of monsters to kill. Unfortunately, there are inherent problems with balancing and some disastrous technical problems."^[7] Push Square gave the game 6 stars out of 10, writing, "Online-only play taints Next Up Hero and obviously puts off potential players, but this bright and colourful world can be enjoyable at times. Repetitive gameplay prevents the release from becoming a standout indie title, but it may have enough charm to entice a few aspiring heroes for at least a few hours."^[8]