What's not to love about the idea of a cute exploding penguin with two peg legs and a wicked knife it wields? Nothing, but I found my share of things to not like about the first game starring Disgaea's Prinnies. It's one of the most insanely frustrating games I've played since Ninja Gaiden, and if it weren't for the strap I had around my wrist, my PSP would literally be broken by now. True story.

Climb Prinny Climb

If you've played any of the three games in the Disgaea series, you should be familiar with how lighthearted and frankly stupid their stories can be sometimes. I can't think of a story from those games, however, that is as ludicrous and stupid as the one in Prinny (though that's not necessarily saying the game's story is bad). You play as the Prinnies – penguins that explode and who are serving a time in the Underworld to repent for their sins. Things are going as well as can be expected for an exploding penguin ruled over by a bossy demon, but then suddenly a shout is heard and said demon – Disgaea series regular Etna – has lost her dessert. Having heard rumors about an Ultra Dessert, it's up to the Prinnes – with the help of a special scarf that keeps them from exploding – to go and find the ingredients necessary to complete the dessert and appease Etna's anger.

Beyond cutscenes that usually happen before and after a boss battle, most of the story is presented at the beginning and end of the game. There's a beginning and end point, but very little in terms of middle. The gist is that you go and visit each level, conquer the boss, and then get one of the ingredients to help make the Ultra Dessert. You can get a few more story elements by chatting it up with the Prinnies between levels during the main HUB world and visiting Etna, but besides that there isn't much.

Despite the lack of story, the writing is still spot-on and just as hilarious as in the Disgaea games. The writing is topnotch and very funny, though the deliveries of the Prinny voice actors contribute a lot too. Of course, if you want to appreciate a lot of the humor, you've got to know what you're getting into given the history of the Prinnies in the past games, and expect a lot – and I mean A LOT – of sentences ending in the word dood. It's cute and endearing to begin with, but by the time you get to the end of the game, you'll want to punch anyone you run across whoever says dood to you again. And yes, that's the correct spelling, dood! I've heard and seen dood so many times I definitely know it's dood. So don't test me…dood!

Much like the original Super Mario Bros games and other such old school side-scrolling platformers, Prinny couldn't be simpler in terms of gameplay. You run, jump, slash, and avoid jumping to your death or getting hit too many times. Of course, once you really start playing the game, you'll be wondering how something so simple can be so freaking hard.

The game comes in two modes: normal and hard. Normal mode lets you take several hits before you finally lose a life. In the Hard mode, however, one hit from an enemy and you're instantly dead. Either way you go you're going to be tested and get frustrated. Luckily for you you've got 1,000 lives to use to help you beat the game. I know 1,000 sounds like a ludicrous amount and more a joke than anything else, but trust me when I say you'll be using those up fast. After I finally finished the game on the Normal difficulty setting, I was nearing having only 700 lives left. If I was playing on the Hard mode I'd hate to have seen what my final count would end up being.

Prinny Boss Fight

As a Prinny you'll have several moves at your disposal to help tackle the game's enemies. First up is the Prinny's knife, which you can quickly wield to slash opponents while you're standing on the ground. A regular knife attack is fine, but when you attack with your knife while jumping in the air, you suddenly gain the ability to hover a bit as you unleash your Prinny Barrage. Besides those two moves, the only other offensive move Prinny can do is to butt stomp on enemies. In terms of defense Prinny can squat to make himself rather small, double jump, and perform a spinning dance that not only help him gear up for a longer jump or dash, but will help him avoid enemy attacks for a short time (until he becomes dizzy).

To help you combat the numerous challenges each level presents, there will be resurrection points that you can butt pound to unlock. After opening up the resurrection point you can start back there whenever you die instead of having to go all the way back to the beginning.

The game only has a few levels, but by playing them through multiple game plays, you'll be able to experience every version of that level. The game is heavily focused on the idea of time and at what time of the day you choose to do a level. Tackling the first level on a list during the first hour of the day will typically net you a great level score and very little in the way of challenge. Playing that same level later on at night, when more enemies (and tougher ones at that) are roaming around, you'll certainly find a different challenge. A big part of the game is trying to figure out what level to tackle at what time. Each level can be tackled whenever you want, as each level is doable no matter what time it is.

At the end of each level you'll find a boss, which are also very old school in design, as almost all of them follow a pattern that is hard to grasp at first, but get easier to read as you experiment and retry time after time. Bosses run the gamut of everything from twin sister knights to a woman ninja to a giant robot. The bosses are extremely tough and are where I ultimately lost most of my Prinnies. In order to do any damage to a boss you'll first have to butt stomp them the requisite amount of times, which range from two to four. After the boss is stunned you can then unleash your knife attacks or Prinny Barrage. You won't kill them right away with one attack, so you'll have to go through the butt pound/attack strategy several times before you finally beat them.

The game is very frustrating and will make you curse and threaten bodily harm to your PSP – it's not really a matter of if, but when. It sucks to continue dying over and over while making your way through the levels, but you slowly learn from your mistakes, see what works and what doesn't, and then ultimately you'll thrive because of the mistakes you did make. It's really a metaphor for life – try something and if it doesn't work try again. Of course, if you hate making mistakes in life or don't try things because you don't want to fail, you'll absolutely loathe this game.

Now there are some faults with the game, which are tied mostly in with the difficulty. First up, the game is really short if you just want to get through the game, as it only becomes a reasonably sized adventure thanks to the padding that happens from all the deaths and constant attempts at trying a level over again. Secondly, the bosses don't always register the hits they're supposed to while you're battling them. Imagine knowing what you're supposed to do to win a boss battle, performing the routine like you're supposed to, but ultimately running out of time because the enemy chose for some reason not to register your attack.

As for my third and final reason for detesting this game's difficulty so much – my right arm is tired! You know games that require you to quickly press a button as fast as you can in order for something good to happen? For example, quickly pressing a button during the original Metal Gear Solid for the Playstation so as to avoid caving in to torture. Okay, now that that image is in your head, imagine doing that same thing every time you want to attack. You don't have to do so much of it when working your way through a level, but to beat a boss in a timely fashion you'll have to hammer away as quickly as you can. I died near 100 times on the game's final boss alone, almost for the sole reason that I couldn't slam my finger down on the button fast enough. You try attempting a boss 100 times in a row, playing for two minutes each time that requires you to hurt your arm holding it so tight so you can press a button, only to lose, have to start over, and trying to keep up the stamina needed to still press that button.

Prinny Barrage

Graphically the game is very cute and colorful, mimicking the sprites and character designs from the Disgaea series perfectly. The characters are animated very well too, which is easy to see during such reactionary moments as a Prinny frozen silent in horror or watching its head spin from being too dizzy. The audio portion of the game is equally great, as the music and sound effects are very good, and the actors do a great job bringing their silly characters to life.

I don't mind a challenge, but I appreciate fair challenges that don't require expert timing and constant retries to make you better. Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero is a game that I couldn't wait to play when I first heard about the game, but one that I couldn't wait to put down quick enough once I was done. I wanted to beat the game to say I kicked its butt and it didn't get the best of me, but even while playing the game I knew I'd never pick it up again once I was done. I play games to escape the challenges of life – I'm not looking for a life even more difficult than the one I already have. If you like a game to test your patience and really challenge then you'll love Prinny. For those less hardcore players who just want a good time – stay very, very far away.

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