Ground Zero Hero Review

Acclaim has had a long and eventful history in gaming, with plenty of ups and downs along the way. It's interesting to see the publisher stepping back into the spotlight by backing indie titles in today's gaming landscape, and one of the first games carrying its name is Ground Zero Hero, a game where you control a three-armed mutant who grows stronger the more radiation he consumes.

Ground Zero Hero is a survival title made by the single developer Rowan Edmondson from Australia, and if you get to try it for yourself on Switch 2, you'll see that the game wasn't just done in a genre, but the developer wanted to make fun of it.

The bullet heaven games have flooded the market, and something a little crazy is needed to attract players' attention, which Ground Zero Hero does quite well by focusing on the crazy post-apocalyptic vibe rather than being serious. Don't go in expecting much of a plot, because there really isn't one to speak of.

The setup skips a backstory entirely, and the game is better for it.

You're never given a clear explanation for how your character ended up covered in mutations, and honestly, it doesn't need one. Maybe he wandered near a testing site, maybe he fell into a barrel of toxic sludge, but the game doesn't bother slowing down to tell you.

All you really need to know is that you're the last line of defense against an endless wave of irradiated freaks, and the game trusts you to figure the rest out as you go. There's no dialogue-heavy setup, no cutscenes dragging things along, just a wasteland and a job to do. It works in the game's favor, since the whole appeal here is jumping straight into the chaos rather than sitting through exposition.

If you're the type who needs a strong narrative hook before you get invested in a game, that absence might stand out, but for a run-based survivors-style title, it's honestly the right call. The lack of story means nothing slows down the pace between runs, and you're back in the action within seconds of dying.

Once you're dropped into a stage, you'll spend your time running across a wasteland map while your attacks fire automatically. You're not aiming or pulling triggers so much as you're positioning yourself and dodging incoming enemies, since most of your damage output happens on its own once you've picked your abilities.

Defeating enemies fuels a leveling loop built around upgrade choices and quotas.

Killing enemies causes them to drop radioactive material, and scooping enough of it up levels you up, at which point you're offered a choice of three random upgrades. These can be brand-new mutations or improvements to abilities you already carry, and figuring out which combination suits your run becomes the core loop pretty quickly.

Instead of the usual survive-a-timer structure you'd expect from this genre, Ground Zero Hero sets you a kill quota of roughly ten thousand enemies before a boss shows up, and reaching that number is genuinely tough. You'll die a lot early on, but every failed run still earns you currency you can spend on permanent upgrades, so jumping back in never feels like starting from zero.

A day-night cycle also runs in the background, and once the sun sets, nastier enemies start crawling out, things like vampires and werewolves, depending on which stage you're on. You can duck into a bunker to sleep through the night and top up your health, though doing so wipes out any loot still sitting on the ground that you haven't grabbed yet, so there's a real trade-off between playing it safe and pushing your luck for more resources.

The combat itself is where Ground Zero Hero earns most of its personality. Your abilities range from a straightforward ground-pound that sends out a shockwave to fireballs, spikes that shoot from your spine, a laser-firing cyclops eye, and a radioactive aura that damages anything that gets close.

Combining these abilities unlocks supercharged 'bonkers' effects, though combat has flaws.

As you stack more of these on top of each other and upgrade the ones you like, your character starts to feel genuinely powerful, especially once you settle on a build that clicks with how you like to play. One of the standout mechanics is the chance for any of your abilities to trigger a "bonkers" version of itself, essentially a supercharged variant that hits far harder than normal.

That ground-pound can suddenly leave behind a mushroom cloud, or a fireball might turn into a sweeping laser beam that clears half the screen. When several of these bonkers effects line up at once, particularly at night when enemies are tougher and more plentiful, you can end up tearing through entire hordes while leveling up at a ridiculous pace.

It's genuinely satisfying, and it's the kind of moment that makes you want to jump straight into another run. That said, the combat isn't without its rough edges. There's no dodge button, which feels like a real oversight in a genre where positioning and evasion usually matter as much as your damage output.

You end up relying purely on movement and whatever range your abilities give you, and when the screen fills up with enemies, that can lead to deaths that feel more like bad luck than a fair loss. The auto-aim can also feel a little unreliable at times, with certain attacks only firing toward whatever direction you happen to be facing rather than tracking nearby threats, which gets frustrating once you're surrounded on all sides.

Builds don't evolve either, so the variety of mutations runs thin over time.

Ground Zero Hero also doesn't let your abilities merge or evolve into new forms the way some genre favorites do; what you pick is essentially what you're stuck with for the run, just stronger. There aren't many mutations available. You'll notice the same builds and combinations resurfacing across multiple sessions before too long.

Once you've seen most of what the upgrade pool has to offer, later runs start to feel a little too familiar for their own good. The visuals can also work against you during the busiest fights, since hit indicators, enemy sprites, and effects all start blending together once the screen is packed, and the difference between the green splatter from enemies you've hit and the red flashes showing damage to you isn't always easy to catch in the moment.

On top of that, the boss fights don't change much from one stage to the next. You'll fight a visually different-looking creature each time, but the attack patterns and overall structure repeat closely enough that beating one boss makes the rest feel like a formality rather than a fresh challenge.

On the plus side, the wasteland itself is full of little distractions that break up the grind, from two-headed cows you can ride straight through a crowd, to a shotgun-toting NPC who'll mow down enemies alongside you, to a crocodile in a top hat handing out candy that restores your health. These extra touches give Ground Zero Hero a sense of personality that keeps runs feeling lively even when the core combat loop starts to repeat itself.

Beyond those wasteland quirks, a permanent progression system rewards every run.

Leveling up during a run only tells half the story because Ground Zero Hero also has a meta-progression layer that carries over between attempts. Every enemy you defeat, safe you crack open, or piñata-style container you smash has a chance to drop currency, and there are dozens of side challenges scattered around each map that reward you with even more for completing them.

That currency gets spent between runs on permanent stat boosts like extra pickup range, more health, or faster movement speed, all of which make your next attempt noticeably easier. This is the part of Ground Zero Hero that keeps failed runs from feeling wasted, since even a quick death still leaves you a little stronger for next time.

It also gates progress in a healthy way, since you can't simply max out your character on the very first map and steamroll everything after it; you have to keep pushing forward to unlock the upgrades that let you handle later stages. It's a familiar system if you've played anything in this genre before, but it's implemented well enough here that grinding never feels like a chore.

There's a decent amount to chase once you start digging into everything Ground Zero Hero has stashed away. Between the various stages, you're looking at more than eighty different upgrades. There are well over sixty distinct enemy types spread across the different biomes.

That progression system draws from a genuinely large pool of content.

On top of that, there's a running list of more than sixty side challenges tied to specific maps. These reward you for hitting odd little milestones, like cracking a set number of safes or surviving a certain stretch of the night. None of these challenges are especially deep on their own. But chasing them gives you a reason to revisit earlier stages even after you've technically cleared them.

It keeps the grind feeling purposeful instead of repetitive for repetition's sake. Visually, this is where Ground Zero Hero really sets itself apart from the pack. The character and enemy designs use detailed, cartoonish sprite work that evokes Matt Groening's art style crossed with Fallout's retro-apocalyptic aesthetic, and the whole thing is soaked in a distinctly Australian sense of humor that gives it a flavor most other survivors-style games lack.

Random gags pop up constantly, like an alien head that appears on screen looking disappointed in you whenever you accidentally set off a nuke. Your character also changes appearance as you pick up mutations, so a strength boost might leave his arms looking shredded, while a Medusa-style ability turns his hair into snakes.

Even losing has a bit of charm to it, since failing a run leaves behind a little statue on the end screen showing off your fallen hero and every mutation he picked up along the way. On the audio side, Ground Zero Hero pairs its chaos with an upbeat, funky soundtrack that matches the tone of everything happening on screen, keeping the energy high even during the most hectic stretches of a run. Performance on Switch 2 is a mixed bag.

That distinct charm can't fully mask some noticeable performance hiccups.

During the calmer stretches of a run, everything moves smoothly, but once the screen fills up with hundreds of enemies and multiple bonkers effects going off at once, you'll notice the frame rate dip and the occasional loading hitch creeping in. It's not enough to ruin a run, but it's noticeable if you're paying attention, and it seems to be a byproduct of just how much Ground Zero Hero throws at the screen during its busiest moments.

There aren't any official accessibility options built in either. If that's a concern for you, it's worth digging into that further before picking it up. The sheer amount of visual noise during combat could be a real barrier for some players. Taken as a whole, Ground Zero Hero doesn't try to reinvent the survivors-like formula, but it doesn't really need to.

What it lacks in ability variety and long-term depth, it makes up for with genuine personality, a killer art style, and a combat loop that's addictive even when you can see the seams. You'll finish the core five stages in a handful of hours if you're determined, but between the endless mode, the achievement list, and all the builds you haven't tried yet, there's a reasonable amount of reason to keep coming back.

At its budget-friendly price point, Ground Zero Hero also feels like an easy recommendation if you're just looking for something you can pick up for a quick session without a huge commitment attached.  It falls short of matching genre heavyweights in weapon evolution and long-term build complexity, but it isn't really chasing that same crown.

Instead, Ground Zero Hero carves out its own identity as a wonderfully absurd nuclear wasteland romp. It's something like Vampire Survivors filtered through Fallout, then handed over to The Simpsons for a rewrite. It's rough in a few places, but it's hard not to enjoy your time in this particular corner of the apocalypse.