Back in 2018, I wonder to what extent people were seriously discussing the scalability of live service projects like Next Up Hero. I suppose there was an angel investor who was wooed enough by the idea of this humdrum roguelike's ability to capture an active playerbase, but with the benefit of hindsight it is quite clear this game never even had a chance.

Nothing about this strikes me as something that should require an online connection to play. The Epic Games Store client doesn't let you set a username or anything- it just calls you "PlayerConnection_1" which suggests there used to be some sort of account functionality that was abandoned by the devs with the rest of the game. Regardless, the online connection means that the game has noticeable loading times. Not something I want in a game with Flash-esque graphics and tiny procedurally generated arenas.

I have recently started to feel more reticent about posting negative reviews. It is easy to talk badly about games, and I know making them is hard. No doubt the team behind this game had grand ideas for what it could become, but it ultimately all feels like an ill-thought out decision. One that would have been much better served as an offline experience, or something with p2p connections. Next Up Hero feels worth discussing because of how sad the live service model is. In a few year's time, this server will be taken offline and Next Up Hero becomes digital ephemera outside of IGDB and MobyGames. Even if I don't personally find this game appealing, that pains the archivist within me.