Next Up Hero is fun, but might be hamstrung by its online requirement

After the announcement this morning, I was interested by the ideas that Next Up Hero was tackling. Death really has become kind of pointless in modern gaming, so why not turn that into a game mechanic? That it was aiming at being a beat-'em-up is also gold for me, since I love the genre and its pick-up-and-play styling. Oddly, that isn’t the full story with Next Up Hero.

The game has an ambitious goal of incorporating online instances into level design that sees a community of people all working together to thwart enemies and bosses. Before I even got further into my playtime, I had to know if Next Up Hero was online-only. That is the biggest obstacle that will prevent a lot of people from becoming fans, and sadly, the game does require it.