Not a Hero

A ludicrously violent election campaign drives this fast, side-scrolling shooter, where a time-travelling rabbit politician hires criminals and misfits to make a city “safe” by any means necessary. The result is a frantic, darkly comic action game set across grimy urban districts packed with gangsters, heavily armed civilians, and escalating absurdity. Beneath the cartoonish premise sits a demanding arcade shooter with a sharp appetite for speed, precision, and collateral damage. Every mission feels like an aggressive campaign ad directed by an exploitation-film fanatic.

Players clear compact levels by racing between cover points, kicking through doors, rescuing hostages, eliminating targets, and surviving ambushes that can radically change a run. The key mechanic is a quick cover system: characters slide, dive, and roll into position before popping out to fire, reload, tackle enemies, or perform brutal close-range finishers. Nine playable antiheroes change the rhythm considerably, from shotgun-heavy bruisers who dominate tight rooms to agile fighters able to dash through threats with blades; each has limited ammunition, distinct weapons, and different special tricks. Missions layer mandatory goals with optional tasks and unpredictable interruptions, so a seemingly controlled assault can suddenly involve a helicopter, SWAT response, or another ridiculous obstacle.

Roll7 gives Not a Hero a striking slanted visual perspective that makes its pixel-art city look both retro and unusually dimensional, while the rapid animation sells every desperate dive and explosive hit. The campaign rewards replaying stages with different characters, pursuing better completion results, and adapting to harder objectives rather than simply spraying bullets from a safe corner. Its humor is deliberately crude, but the action is genuinely tight, closer to a cover-focused Hotline Miami crossed with a compact arcade run-and-gun than a casual twin-stick shooter. Fans of challenging score-chasing action, OlliOlli’s restless energy, and bizarre British comedy find plenty to enjoy, while newcomers should expect a steep learning curve and frequent, entertaining failure.