Now In Session: Hero Academy Lands On Steam
According to the folklore of our culture - relayed by minstrels sweetly crooning out their dulcet tones in the backs of taverns and also, like, every Hollywood movie ever - heroes always arrive just in the nick of time. So it shouldn't be a problem for an academy's worth of medieval-themed do-gooders, right? You'd think so, but then Hero Academy's planned release date of August 8th came and went with nary a peep - even from Heavy weapons guy. Thousands of lives were lost. Better (slightly) late than never, though, and Robot's provided a TF2-tinged launch trailer to make it official. Because things aren't real until they have trailers.
Speaking with Joystiq, Robot chalked the delay up to "an unexpected issue at the last minute" that affected "a small portion of players." That, however, was still too large a number for Robot, so it took a couple extra days to fine-tune its bite-sized, asynchronous game of thrones. But hark, what's that on the horizon? Definitely not Hero Academy, because it's already right here.
As for the game proper, it's kind of like chess, but with an array of different, well-balanced races and over-the-top, character-specific skills. Also, players can take their turns both when and - thanks to matches that span PC and iOS devices - wherever they please. It's a pretty neat little game - and definitely well worth a look if you're in the mood for something a bit less genocidal after killing all those orcs.