I still remember my brother rage-quitting playing the game with me over the definition of the word 'adjacent' because I wouldn't let him attack diagonally with a broadsword. I even showed him in the rules what weapons allow diagonal attacks and offered to let him go back and redo his movement, but he just stormed off even though he knew he was wrong. I was like 8 or 9 and he was like 16 or 17 at the time lol
it happens! try giving it a fresh start. what teenager wants to be corrected by a little kid, especially their own sibling? ;) I learned the definition of "adjacent" from HeroQuest!
If you are on one square, there's 8 adjacent squares around you. Sorry, but the confusing and ambiguous bit about this is the HQ rules, not the meaning of the word in reality.
@@needfoolthings lol that was actually part of the problem. I even said to him, "Look, I know what the word 'adjacent' means, but in the context of this game it means something else." He just literally had an autistic meltdown over it. I think the same thing happened in Monopoly a couple years earlier when I sent him to Jail and told him he didn't get to collect $200 for passing 'Go' because you don't pass 'Go' when you go to jail. He used to punch me in the arm really hard when I would destroy him in Mutant League Football for "Not playing like a real team." He was like 20 at the time and I was 12.
16:00 As a freelance illustrator who has done a dreadful amount of (at my request) uncredited redrawing jobs, I can attest that it is one of the most dreadful jobs you can ask for in the illustration industry. The only job I've done that I hated more was a job I did where I went in and effectively shopped someone else's drawings to make them "sexier".
Very much the same for me, it's absolutely one of those videos that I never fail to watch when it pops up on my feed. I hadn't gotten around to checking out that upload, yet, but I've very much meant to.
I still have my original version! I hate the fact that one of the largest toy companies in the world decided that they needed a crowd funding campaign for a board game. And it’s ridiculously expensive!!
Yeah, because it would've made perfect sense to try and spend the resources to resurrect a dead game for a generation that likely knew nothing about it, and try to rely on some magical rush of newcomers to make their money back...oh, wait...
The one thing you had to learn about the board game sphere is that a LOT of companies use Kickstarter as a platform for pre-orders, rather than an actual crowdfunding platform.
I found it very boring as the GM. Especially when my players figured out the breach and clear method of barbarian in front, and everyone conga-lining behind and blocking a doorway. Every dungeon became easy mode.
If you want a better D&D that focuses on roleplay, try Burning Wheel. If you want something that's a pure dungeon crawler like Hero Quest, try Torchbearer. D&D gets the most play, but it's kinda like the Monopoly of TTRPG's: everybody's heard of it, a lot of people have tried it, but it's a pretty weak example of the genre compared to a lot of the indie options.
The original version was £20, even allowing for inflation, the recentish availability of the game for £100 is tragically overpriced. At an 80's mass market board game price, it was a fantastic gateway drug into other fantasy tabletop games. It's NOT a game worth that kind of outlay. There's infintely better cheaper games and far better premium games at that price point.
Me, my brother and my Dad played the shit out of this when I was about 12. There was an Orc with a meat cleaver which my Dad used to call Dewhurst because that was the name of a local butchers 😅
Looking at the old HeroQuest models, you can see from the poses that they were designed by people used to pewter casting with all the raised arms and weapons as you see in every GW model of that era
Quick tip to fix bent plastic figure bits like weapons: Put some water in a bowl with ice, put some in a pot to boil. Once you have your boiling hot and ice cold water, using a tool of your choice, dip the figure in boiling water for a few seconds, no more than 10, then instantly into the ice water until it cools in a few seconds. It'll unbend itself to how it should be.
The original dwarf was that pose on purpose. He was the iconic "White Dwarf" like the games Workshop magazine, that was their original iconic character and they still do Christmas and Halloween variants of the miniatures.
If you want to fix bent miniatures without stressing them here's a tip: Get the mini, boil up a kettle, and run the hot water over the bent part. It should only take a few seconds to become very pliable and return to the shape it was cast in. If it does not return to the original shape then while it's still pliable hold it in the right shape and run it under cold water, this will prevent the whitening/stress.
I’m curious to hear his full thoughts about it, because in his predictions video he got some things right such as the changed art style and female elf.
@@Ynffy wonder if he'll give a mention towards two more Hero Quest add on/expansion sets, Ogre Horde and the Elf Quest packs that appear not to be mentioned here.
What I bloody love about this video is the chocolate coloured, velvet couch he’s set everything up on😂 Proper OG UA-camr😆 Takes me right back to the 80s! Love it👌🏻
As someone with no nostalgia for the original, the new version looks like an across-the-board improvement. I love Warhammer stuff but I like that this is more its own thing now, more in line with D&D but still distinct.
I've played the original when I was young and I liked the designs. However, I actually prefer all of the new designs with this version. The only one thing I can agree on is that the mummy doesn't look as bulky and powerful as the old one, but that's really just a minor thing. I'm definitely going to look into picking up a set for myself when possible.
I have very fond memories of playing the original back in the day but I mostly like the redesigns with the exception of the skeletons and maybe the zombies. I wish the dwarf axe were 1/3 the size too.
The original designs had a Warhammer Fantasy air and indeed Advanced Heroquest made that more explicit. And GW did have at one point a spiritual successor of sorts that used the warhammer branding I think, but it was one of those "here one year and gone the next" games, like Bloodbowl and Gorkamorka.
Still in the middle of watching but wanted to quickly mention that the "new" character sheets are the exact same ones we had in the original USA/Canada version of the game! :o
The best thing about having both a male and female Barbarian and Dwarf is that now you can let up to four players not be wizards or elves, but instead actually be the kind of tough front-line warrior that does better on this sort of adventure.
I do believe Games Workshop still holds the trademark or whatever for the Fimir, yes. They released a few resin miniatures for the "Fimirach" before the whole Age of Sigmar thing, and they did look like bigger, meaner versions of the HQ ones.
Yup, Fimir were invented by GW as a unique fantasy race specifically for Warhammer. From memory, they never really took off because the sculptors made the models too big (ogre-sized instead of human-sized as the designers intended), and it was just too expensive to collect a whole army of them.
@Eric M yea, a lot of original warhammer lore was spicy. While nothing like that ever truly bothers me I definitely thought it was always a bit toooooo far for a game trying to make money. Some things are changed for the better.
I work in a board games store and almost jumped out of the chair when i saw heroquest being listed. As a D&D nerd i absolutely love that this gets a new release
The soft plastic used for the pieces is very much like the soft plastic used in Reaper's Bones lineup. What I have learned working with those miniatures is that if you want to bend something without screwing it up (or unbending something, more commonly) what you could do is heat up some water (you don't need to get it to boiling, pretty hot is usually good enough) and dip the part you want to work on in the water, remove from water after a short time (duration depends on thickness of plastic you're trying to work with) and then bend whichever way you want. After cooling, it tends to hold. Just don't leave it in too long. There is such a thing as too soft, like when you leave indentations on where you grab it.
The Fimir are indeed an old Warhammer thing that they've more recently brought back to life in the 4th edition of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game. I've never entirely understood why they've been able to claim them as a Warhammer copyrighted thing when they're based on the Fomorians of Irish mythology, if I'm remembering the story correctly
Because it's in the name, that's why. It's also the reason GW renamed a whole bunch of races when they scrapped Warhammer Fantasy Battles for Age of Sigmar. Instead of Dwarves it's Duardin, instead of Orcs it's Orruks etc. You can't copyright concepts or traits, but you can copyright names.
@@zebn2253 I'm not brushed up on Irish mythology, but there was a rather distressing aspect to GW's Fimir that would make Hasbro want to give them a wide berth today. I won't go into detail, but it involved kidnapping human women.
45:08 - clicked on this video expecting "Broad Sword" to be mentioned numerous times from quite early on. Cracked a beer and was going to drink every time it was mentioned. After about five minutes in I just gave up and starting drinking anyway. He knows people were waiting for that sound bite and left it until the end. The swine.
The Wizard's fine... eventually. They get the most artifacts, giving them better defenses, weapons that can attack diagonally (though it's not as strong as the long sword that lets the others attack diagonally) and spell scrolls and magic rings that give them extra charges for their spells. But it takes several missions to accumulate the various artifacts a wizard needs to become fine. And with the fewest body points, and no armor until artifacts can be discovered for them, keeping the wizard ALIVE to get there can be difficult. Still, care and patience will serve the wizard well.
@@RoninCatholic Yep, it's even more so in D&D where starting wizards can barely do anything. The upside is that wizards power grows exponentially as they lvl up, which is why they can easily do game breaking shenanigans when they reached higher lvls. Fans made a tier list of how powerful/broken classes are, Wizards are tier 1 while fighters are tier 4 (I think barbarians are either tier 3 or 4).
@@SvengelskaBlondie Yes, presuming high level campaigns wizards in the long haul are the only class nearly as good as clerics and druids. Surpassing them in a couple areas, but lacking a few key tricks that you're only going to get out of the master healers. Clerics and druids also excel at low level play, though. Barely less physically tough than Fighters and Barbarians at the levels where that matters, barely if any less overpowered in their magical shenanigans at very high levels, and have access to HEALING SPELLS which D&D wizards are strangely and arbitrarily restricted from, which in turn helps bolster those other physical types during the time period where they're the ones that matter most. I've never actually seen a wizard above level 7 in person. Nor a paladin or ranger above level 8. Most campaigns I've been in have imploded after about three sessions, so even though we'd do super fast leveling (skipping experience point tallies and just making it one session = one adventure = one level up) we simply never ran into high levels. I still always liked wizards for reasons of style and flavor, despite mechanically underperforming to a ridiculous degree.
I paint miniatures, and occasionally take commissions, but if one of my clients asked me to paint this set up I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. It would take too much time cleaning the mould lines, correcting bent bases and weapons to warrant the time and effort. Avalon Hill should've gone hard plastic, especially for the price, which holds detail better and is easier to clean up. A no sale for this punter. Thanks for the review and comparison though, very much appreciated.
The Fimir were GW's own design of monster, hence their omission from this version. The metal ones you could buy (and I did :P ) were made giant sized, apparently due to a miscommunication between the designers and the sculptors. Pics featuring Fimir showed them as man sized, like the ones on the game.
Fascinating idea the Fimir, based off Irish legends, kinda morphed into amazonian kidnapping beasts that... Ummm 🤔 had uncosenting relationships with the men. More thought went into them then a lot of fantasy beasts of the era
There is a site that lists the story of how GW created them. It describes them as a PR disaster waiting to happen! TBH, I used them in my D&D campaign for years - I just changed it so they laid eggs :p
Wonderful review. It really was a special game for me. My first adventure leading to Space Crusade, various Role Playing games and eventually, 40K. And thank you for mentioning the Bard and listing the link in your description. Nice work!
If the prices of old games has gone through the roof, I'm glad I re-bought most of my 1980s Traveller stuff back in the 1990s and 2000s.... not to mention Games Workshop pre-Warhammer games like Judge Dredd, Doctor Who, Golden Heroes, MERP, Cosmic Encounter, original UK Call of Cthulhu etc... The Dr Who was component-heavy so I had to buy and combine two sets. Talisman 2nd edition was expensive though, even back then. Gary Chalk card (and board) artwork on that, too.
The old Dwarf is from the cover of the GW magazines, in the upper left corner it would have him just standing there exactly like that. I always thought it was odd that GW put one of their most iconic characters at the time on a game that didn't 100% own.
I have wanted a copy if HeroQuest for years now and the only reason that I haven't bought one is the absurd collectors price. So thanks for notifying me of the re-release. I just ordered it as a pre-release for January next year :D
I loved HeroQuest as a kid. Me and my cousins used to come up with so many custom quests of our own, and countless days were spent playing this classic. I still have most of the original pieces, but they certainly show their age at this point, no matter how careful I've tried to be handling them. It makes me so happy that the game has resurfaced again, and seems to be doing great with all these expansions coming out. It'll take some time to get used to the name Zargon though, as well as the lack of Fimirs, which were my favorite monsters in the original game. Abominations do have a rather cool design though.
I had no clue the EU version had all the monsters at 1HP. That's so bizarre. I played HeroQuest about 500 times as a kid with my friend Gabe. When we were 11, we even started making our own quests and stuff. I didn't get into D&D until I was 13 but it felt so natural, so I never realized how much I had been indoctrinated by HeroQuest. The only thing they did was turn me into a nerd, really. Also, I'm going to have to disagree with you on all of the mini figures, haha. Even thought I have massive nostalgia for those little weirdos, I have to admit that every single one of the new ones is larger, better posed, has better detail, and simply have a far better design. The original seems childish and cartoony when you compare them and I would much rather have something scary and intimidating than cartoony.
Well the original HeroQuest was meant for kids to intoduce the to TTRPG, so that's why they were more childish and cartoony. I like the old ones better, exactly because they are more cartoony, but glad you like the new ones
@@g.alvarez3140 Yeah, it's one of those things where the new one looks how I imagined the old one did when I was a kid. FFVII Remake was able to do that same thing, for me.
Nobody is going to argue that the new ones have better detail. That is very obvious. But i'd say the only reason the old ones look a bit cartoony is because of the detail. They just had to make some things larger. The new ones completely left the realistic style and went over the top blizzard style. Not my thing at all.
I can't speak for the UK or other countries, but I'm from Spain and my old Hero Quest version (Spanish language, of course) has the USA rules and monsters with different "hit points"
I do like the old ones. The new ones are not more realistic than the old ones, simply just more "marvel-like action figures". It's only another type of exaggeration.
22:52 DO NOT DO THAT! Do not straighten bent miniatures like that! For the love of god, please fill a cup with hot water from the kettle, soak the mini for a few seconds, straighten into position and set under cold running water.
So many hours playing this when I was young. That Character Sheet you showed with the Gold Coins, etc. was in the American version. That's the one I was used to seeing back when we bought this game brand new from Toys R Us. Wish I still had that bad boy...
I had just started high school when this came out. Funny enough, of all the supposed "family board games" out there, the only one our family ever played together was Hero Quest. Dad was always the DM, Mum the wizard, sister the elf, whilst I took on both the barbarian and dwarf...who always snuffed it, even when got him the "brode swode" (clearly, Gimli son of Gloin he was not!). I just got my copy of the reissue, and only regret I did not know about the kickstarter, as the Mythic Tier expansions for that look awesome. I do hope they come to retail! Also, I never saw the supposed prejudice against female players when I was younger, seeing as how my sister and I were both in a D&D group growing up, got our Mum to play Hero Quest; and heck, nearly half of my current gamer friends are women. Even my wife, who is NOT into Fantasy RPG at all, might be up for giving Hero Quest a go...just need to get the female barbarian for her to play! 😁
Okay, the modern version is actually truly amazing and worth the money :) I expected some easy cash grab based on nostalgia, but the final product is really good :)
The Mythic Tier came with an absolute crapload of stuff. It took quite a while to unbox, sort, etc everything. And they're apparently planning on coming out with more expansions. They already have a Knight character that should be available in a few days
Full marks on the Bard, everything else suffers a little in comparison. I don't think it's just that I'm an old curmudgeon who hates change - seeing them side by side I'm really starting to appreciate some of the design choices in the original miniatures. They obviously prioritised a certain easily identifiable silhouette, and giving the pieces appropriate heft and beefiness. I guess it's the old school Games Workshop style, but cleverly simplified down to something that works well in a board game and reads very clearly, but still has that classic look. Sure some of the poses are a bit simple and the detail could be improved but they really gave every piece a strong identity with bold, simple designs. Shame they don't have the likeness rights for anything, because I'd love to see essentially the same pieces in the classic style but with more detail, more poses, more options, maybe a nice paint job etc.
I always loved how the Elf looked like Vigo the Carpathian. Fimirs were an old Warhammer monster, but GW has stepped away from them because their lore was all about R word. That dragon mini looks dope. Sadly, all the rest look way to D&D and not nearly HeroQuest enough. Very glad that Hasbro did this, since the fandom was basically rabid, but it's a bit bitter sweet.
The American version had chaos spells, but they were rarely ever used (unless the DM went off-script). The character sheets with so much more on them were also in the American version. Very helpful back then for new players.
Re: The Poses If memory serves me right, the reason a lot of the minis in old Heroquest have that strange X-pose is down to manufacturing constraints. Basically, to get a miniature that both looked dynamic and could be cast as a single piece, sculptors had to put them in that X-Pose that is so prevalent among the Heroquest minis.
I googled this mid video because I thought it sounded cool and my nephews might like it and found two things: it is a lot more expensive than I thought ($125) and also Zargon has a Twitter
For the amount of miniatures in the box, it's not an unreasonable MSRP. It will probably go down in price availability when it is released. They always do.
If you want something along these lines at a more reasonable price point, I'd direct you to Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. Then, if they liked that, you can drop the big boy bucks and pick up Gloomhaven. (Or Frosthaven, depending on when that comes out.)
I mean, it puzzles out to $3.60 per mini, so it's actually more than fair. Like, outside of Reaper Bones you can't buy miniatures that size for cheap. Most around that size are 7-10 USD. And it's a board game, so it comes with even more than just the miniatures. Honestly? I low key think the original when it was new was sold at a surprisingly low price. How do I know all this? Am just in the mini hobby.
Having played Og Hero Quest as a kid, I'll still say visual improvements across the board, a lil paint will get the plastic furniture up to shape, even anime esque elf is good. Makes them feel ethereal or otherworldly as opposed to just snobby nosed folk with pointy ears. Rather I felt like each character was in a different art style, so still works. Didn't know they had remade this until I saw this. Very cool.
On the comparison of the minitures (especially the Gargoyle) you can see that even when the old ones look more basic on how they where sculpted, they have a lot more crisp details. For example the armour oft the Gargoyle or the sword is much more detailed. So yes, the new ones are more modern in the way they are designed, but they suffer from how production is done nowerdays with the cheap soft plastic that can'T hold as much details as hardplastic can. For example the face of the new Gargoyle look just awful in comparison to the details of the old one.
Played the Amiga version of this game, used the pic of the board in the advertisements as a guidance to know where to go (in the game the map is not revealed until you go to a place for the first time).
The Amiga version also had this "great" feature where you could search a room multiple times. In the original game you either couldn't find anything or the GM straight told you that you can't do that (I forgot what it was). In the Amiga version you can search it as much as you like. You can't find anything after it was searched for the first time but you could trigger a bunch of random events, like missing the next turn or spawning a random mummy or skeleton behind you which immediately attacks you.
Yeah. I might not have a ton of nostalgia for old fantasy art, but there is a wonderful charm to it that just isn't in modern fantasy art. Like neither is inherently better than the other but there was just more character in the old art. Less polish making it more memorable I guess.
You're likely right about the art assets - I know at the very least the spell card back illustrations are by John blanche and all his work done during his tenure at GW remains in their possession.
Hero Quest is one of those games that I didn't get to play often but that I would very often pull out of the shelf to look at the models, design adventure maps, etc... For some reason the game had really stuck in my mind as a kid and it was only years later that I learned about Warhammer. My favorite model was definitely the chaos warrior and to this day I absolutely love the aesthetics of the Warhammer chaos warriors (none of that Age of Sigmar bullcrap). I never got to own the Space Hulk board game but the numerous ads for it in the comics I read made sure to make me lust after it very much.
The only thing I know about HeroQuest is the unreleased NES game with a fantastic soundtrack written by Neil Baldwin. That being said, it's nice to see board games get "remastered", so to speak.
A fun trivia fact about the Mythic Tier stuff: The dragon and the quest line he's the final boss of (The Crypt of Perpetual Darkness) was a stretch goal in the crowdfunding campaign. When the campaign didn't hit the set goal needed to unlick them, Avalon Hill essentially said 'screw it!' and included him anyway!
I remember we loved this game when i was a kid...playing it more times then i can count. I recently played the old HQ with my youngest son and the nostalgia came rushing back. I have to say i do love some the new models. But would i buy this one... i don't know, i miss the Fimirs and some of the enemies look a little weird. Thanks for this comparisson video, very clear and great review.
I don't mind the elf, but you're right it does stand out like crazy from how over designed she is. I genuinely hope they sell the stuff included from the Mythic Tier, some of those alternate minis are awesome today nothing on the 4 extra heroes. I'll always be happy I managed to grab a 99.9% complete set of the classic HeroQuest. The only thing missing is the two plastic beams that connect the two halves of the throne.
Wow, you're not kidding about the EU version being "easier"...I played this a lot as a kid, and remember Chaos Warriors having 4 attack and defense, with 3 hp to boot.
I remember spending my saved christmas money on the adventure design kit without realising that it wasnt a stand alone game. I was devastated when i realised! But i did spend ages trying to design adventures for a game i didnt have until the next christmas my dad got me the actual game.
Really excited for this to come in. Been wanting to play HeroQuest for a long time, and it's just..impossible to get the original complete for a good price. Everything new honestly looks great! Very different to get away from the Oldhammer stuff, and I get that a bit is a little overdesigned, but it's all pretty good. New Orcs look great and I do like the Dread Warriors and such. I will say though, as someone who does watch a fair bit of anime, the elf doesn't really feel as anime as you say, though she does stand out a little bit from the others. Oh, also! Around 45:57, that mini shown with the Bard, is that design not supposed to be Zargon/Morcar? It looks a lot like his art from the GM screen!
Nah I get what he means, the elf design is something I'd expect from a fantasy anime or Asian RPG. You could really just drop those designs into generic fantasy anime world and they wouldn't look out of place.
Wow fantastic review. Really brought back some great memories from play the original back in the day. I spent days painting all the miniatures. So glad I still have it after all this time. After watching this I think I will break it out and see if I can get my 10 year old interested in playing it with his friends.
I grew up with Hero quest as a youngin, I even ended up with the original 2 expansions. I personally really did like the 'glow up' on this remake, and all of the mass of nifty miniatures. The character sheets look exactly like the 'murrican versions from long ago, so for us they did not change. As a bonus now I can flood the board with 2 original sets, and the 2 expansions, plus all of the characters from the mythic tier. Sad news, the new set does not come with my favorite add-on I got, an Oreo tin which I kept all of my monsters in, which I named the Oreo of death. I hope you enjoy playing it, I know we already broke ours in and plan to go through all these quests!
Ah, I remember playing HeroQuest and Basic Dungeons & Dragons in the early 2000s, because my dad owned them. They're both great, and I still wish I had access to it. Spells could actually be really useful, but you had to understand what situation each one was for.
I was a military brat and moved around a lot and spent one Christmas staying with my grandparents between deployments when I was about 6. My dad had got this game for me and my brother, as it had just released, and we had never seen anything like it and were instantly enthralled by it, being avid fantasy game and movie lovers. We played it to death, had the Kellar's Keep and Return of the Witch King expansions although there were more, including US exclusive ones that were character-centric we never got in the UK. Along with stuff like Space Crusade, Battlemasters, Dark World and a plethora of other tabletop-lite style RPG board games, we would mix and match the gaming pieces to create our own adventures. Better, carefree times to be sure.
I'm 40, I have the original game and some expansions and do monthly HQ games with my friends and we have so much fun. I've updated the rules a bit, as we play sometimes 6-7 at a time, so we have new characters, a mecha that needs tinkering from the Dwarf to heal, a poisonous rat that can run fast and slip through the monsters legs to get away...it's a lotta fun.
I had never played a game before where the board was revealed room by room as you played it. Oh the excitement! And it looked amazing. One of the best experiences of my childhood. Bless you brother for gifting me this rather expensive present on this fateful christmas eve.
So cool that I came across this video. I grew up in the States and received Hero Quest when it first came out as a Christmas present. My brother and I played it non stop growing up. I actually still have my set, except the box is massively taped up after all these years. But I still have all the pieces.
Great video, great review, had a lot of fun watching! I think that nearly every figure looks better in the new version. The old ones always felt boring because of their static posture. I was playing only with the figures sometimes and was always disappointed because they were doing no fight movement.
Love your vids man. You've only gotten better over the years. :) I've been watching your stuff since around when you started your Poundland specials (way before your TV stints) and these reviews keep getting cooler and cooler.
Americans were already heavily into D&D which is why the US version was a bit meatier. The art and mini designs still belong to Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson of Fighting Fantasy game (they founded Games Workshop), though there are a bunch of crazy covenants tying it into Warhammer and the current IP. Another great GW boardgame was Warlock of Firetop Mountain, based on the Fighting Fantasy book. Then there was Talisman, which belonged to Fantasy Flight for a long time (not sure who owns it now). Ian and Steve essentially introduced Europe to fantasy roleplay then abandoned their mission when Steve lost interest and Games Workshop was sold. Many readers of White Dwarf will not know that Ian and Steve also founded that magazine to promote GW products and roleplay generally. White Dwarf was sold with the GW IP and turned into a vehicle for Warhammer 40k.
I think it's kind of amazing that this new version stayed so faithful to the original. I thought for sure it would cave to modern dungeon-crawler trends, like map tiles instead of the iconic board, app integration instead of a simple quest book, more/more complicated dice, etc. The bit I find disappointing is the new minis. The old ones are definitely a little cartoony and silly, but they ooze personality. Their designs are clean, simple and strong. The new ones are kind of a mess of over-designed detail, with the Chaos Warrior - sorry "Dread Warrior" - being the worst. Even the furniture...I kinda love the old combo of cardboard and plastic. It's brighter and more colorful, without having to paint anything.
The best thing about HeroQuest is the Barbarian! Look at its Musculariiiity!
Easy mode. 😂
He's so toxic!
The best thing about heroquest is the dwarf!
Broadsword!
Browdsoad!
I still remember my brother rage-quitting playing the game with me over the definition of the word 'adjacent' because I wouldn't let him attack diagonally with a broadsword. I even showed him in the rules what weapons allow diagonal attacks and offered to let him go back and redo his movement, but he just stormed off even though he knew he was wrong. I was like 8 or 9 and he was like 16 or 17 at the time lol
it happens! try giving it a fresh start. what teenager wants to be corrected by a little kid, especially their own sibling? ;) I learned the definition of "adjacent" from HeroQuest!
@@HeroQuestFans Diagonally adjacent is also adjacent.
If you are on one square, there's 8 adjacent squares around you.
Sorry, but the confusing and ambiguous bit about this is the HQ rules, not the meaning of the word in reality.
@@needfoolthings lol that was actually part of the problem. I even said to him, "Look, I know what the word 'adjacent' means, but in the context of this game it means something else." He just literally had an autistic meltdown over it. I think the same thing happened in Monopoly a couple years earlier when I sent him to Jail and told him he didn't get to collect $200 for passing 'Go' because you don't pass 'Go' when you go to jail.
He used to punch me in the arm really hard when I would destroy him in Mutant League Football for "Not playing like a real team." He was like 20 at the time and I was 12.
@@georgeclinton4524 I love me a knucklehead or two among my friends and family... 😉
The original dwarf is a cheeky easter egg, its literally the magazine mascot for Games Workshop's magazine White Dwarf.
Make sure not to call them little people.
I'm still annoyed that 40K versions of Grombrindal tend to be limited edition things. Cowards, give us permanent Squat Grombrindals.
@@TheHutchy01 I am _THE_ White Dwarf.
And yet, thanks to the colour of the plastic he's a Red Dwarf
@@jimbob3332 smeeeeeeeg heeeeeeed
16:00 As a freelance illustrator who has done a dreadful amount of (at my request) uncredited redrawing jobs, I can attest that it is one of the most dreadful jobs you can ask for in the illustration industry. The only job I've done that I hated more was a job I did where I went in and effectively shopped someone else's drawings to make them "sexier".
"sexier" worries me and I'm too afraid too ask
I hope the day never comes when I don't smile when someone references the best video on youtube. Bard is a treasure.
Its the best thing about hero quest
I have lost track of how many times I've watched his HeroQuest video, and so very excited that he's uploaded the Elmore book video recently.
Very much the same for me, it's absolutely one of those videos that I never fail to watch when it pops up on my feed. I hadn't gotten around to checking out that upload, yet, but I've very much meant to.
Interesting... 🤔
Honestly, it's cringeworthy to me. But every other reaction I've seen was positive.
I still have my original version! I hate the fact that one of the largest toy companies in the world decided that they needed a crowd funding campaign for a board game. And it’s ridiculously expensive!!
Yeah, because it would've made perfect sense to try and spend the resources to resurrect a dead game for a generation that likely knew nothing about it, and try to rely on some magical rush of newcomers to make their money back...oh, wait...
The one thing you had to learn about the board game sphere is that a LOT of companies use Kickstarter as a platform for pre-orders, rather than an actual crowdfunding platform.
The RE-release is AMAZING though, and has reinvigorated Heroquest for an entire new generation of players! It's incredible!
The best thing about Hero Quest is...
.....the Muscularity!
Hero Quest 😁
The Gargoyle.
The fact that I can date the Wizard.
The 3D furniture.
I'd say this is a bit like 90% of the satisfaction of D&D with 20% of the effort. Such an awesome game.
This^^
I found it very boring as the GM. Especially when my players figured out the breach and clear method of barbarian in front, and everyone conga-lining behind and blocking a doorway. Every dungeon became easy mode.
If you want a better D&D that focuses on roleplay, try Burning Wheel. If you want something that's a pure dungeon crawler like Hero Quest, try Torchbearer. D&D gets the most play, but it's kinda like the Monopoly of TTRPG's: everybody's heard of it, a lot of people have tried it, but it's a pretty weak example of the genre compared to a lot of the indie options.
The original version was £20, even allowing for inflation, the recentish availability of the game for £100 is tragically overpriced.
At an 80's mass market board game price, it was a fantastic gateway drug into other fantasy tabletop games. It's NOT a game worth that kind of outlay. There's infintely better cheaper games and far better premium games at that price point.
@@TheTurnipKing what are some cheaper D&D-lite type games?
Me, my brother and my Dad played the shit out of this when I was about 12. There was an Orc with a meat cleaver which my Dad used to call Dewhurst because that was the name of a local butchers 😅
Best not let your butcher know then
was he de wurst? you're welcome.
Dads are so awesome!
Looking at the old HeroQuest models, you can see from the poses that they were designed by people used to pewter casting with all the raised arms and weapons as you see in every GW model of that era
Those bits tended to bend pretty easy on metal models tho
Quick tip to fix bent plastic figure bits like weapons:
Put some water in a bowl with ice, put some in a pot to boil.
Once you have your boiling hot and ice cold water, using a tool of your choice, dip the figure in boiling water for a few seconds, no more than 10, then instantly into the ice water until it cools in a few seconds. It'll unbend itself to how it should be.
I knew about hot water but for some odd reason never thought of using the cold to balance it out.
What kind of sorcery is this?
The legendary fig-smith has spoken
Don't put it in too long, I put a model railway wagon bodyshell in hot water and it twisted and melted.
Alternatively you can use a hair dryer to heat it up, put it in the right position yourself and let it cool there. Gives you a bit more control
The original dwarf was that pose on purpose. He was the iconic "White Dwarf" like the games Workshop magazine, that was their original iconic character and they still do Christmas and Halloween variants of the miniatures.
I cant wait to see Stuart eat this 32 year old game! 😄
If you want to fix bent miniatures without stressing them here's a tip: Get the mini, boil up a kettle, and run the hot water over the bent part. It should only take a few seconds to become very pliable and return to the shape it was cast in. If it does not return to the original shape then while it's still pliable hold it in the right shape and run it under cold water, this will prevent the whitening/stress.
You can also do this by holding it under running hot water, then switching to cold.
You can also do this by holding it under running hot water, then switching to cold.
I've heard that but haven't tried it for my minis in Castle Ravenloft. Thanks Tim. Thanks Tim, again.
what a cracking unboxing, cant' wait for BardicBroadcasts
to review it
I’m curious to hear his full thoughts about it, because in his predictions video he got some things right such as the changed art style and female elf.
The best thing about herosquest is the furniture!
The best thing about Heroquest is the Bard's reviews!
@@Ynffy wonder if he'll give a mention towards two more Hero Quest add on/expansion sets, Ogre Horde and the Elf Quest packs that appear not to be mentioned here.
What I bloody love about this video is the chocolate coloured, velvet couch he’s set everything up on😂
Proper OG UA-camr😆
Takes me right back to the 80s! Love it👌🏻
The best thing about HeroQuest is the Ashens video!
Wrong! It's MORE Heroquest 😄
Gravity!land
Poundland is the best thing about HeroQuest
Ah! Mormons!
I'm afraid you might be right. Boardgame design evolved by miles since then. And yes, I'm aware you're making a reference
As someone with no nostalgia for the original, the new version looks like an across-the-board improvement. I love Warhammer stuff but I like that this is more its own thing now, more in line with D&D but still distinct.
I've played the original when I was young and I liked the designs. However, I actually prefer all of the new designs with this version. The only one thing I can agree on is that the mummy doesn't look as bulky and powerful as the old one, but that's really just a minor thing. I'm definitely going to look into picking up a set for myself when possible.
I have very fond memories of playing the original back in the day but I mostly like the redesigns with the exception of the skeletons and maybe the zombies. I wish the dwarf axe were 1/3 the size too.
The original designs had a Warhammer Fantasy air and indeed Advanced Heroquest made that more explicit. And GW did have at one point a spiritual successor of sorts that used the warhammer branding I think, but it was one of those "here one year and gone the next" games, like Bloodbowl and Gorkamorka.
If you prefer the feminized version, disappointing.
The new one figures looks like a concept art for a blizzard games
Still in the middle of watching but wanted to quickly mention that the "new" character sheets are the exact same ones we had in the original USA/Canada version of the game! :o
Came here looking for this comment. I just bought Heroquest from ebay, and they are the same.
The best thing about having both a male and female Barbarian and Dwarf is that now you can let up to four players not be wizards or elves, but instead actually be the kind of tough front-line warrior that does better on this sort of adventure.
Best thing about having a female barbarian is that I can have my barbarian romance quest
Or you can have a 9 player game if they release the other genders for the adventurers, lol.
lol, that should be a bullet point on the box. "Up to four non-wizard players!"
that might break the game, good or bad. 'Easy mode" play with 2 barbarians and 2 dwarves, Hard mode, all wizards.
The most fun I had with the original set is when all 4 players were wizards (one for each element).
I do believe Games Workshop still holds the trademark or whatever for the Fimir, yes. They released a few resin miniatures for the "Fimirach" before the whole Age of Sigmar thing, and they did look like bigger, meaner versions of the HQ ones.
There are still Fimir in Total War Warhammer so definitely still their trademark
@@EricDMMiller Yeah... I'm pretty sure the Game's Workshop is kicking themselves for that decision.
Yup, Fimir were invented by GW as a unique fantasy race specifically for Warhammer. From memory, they never really took off because the sculptors made the models too big (ogre-sized instead of human-sized as the designers intended), and it was just too expensive to collect a whole army of them.
@Eric M yea, a lot of original warhammer lore was spicy. While nothing like that ever truly bothers me I definitely thought it was always a bit toooooo far for a game trying to make money. Some things are changed for the better.
I heard there were Fimirs in a rolegame of the times and that they had to skip using fimirs in times ahead but I'm not sure about it.
I work in a board games store and almost jumped out of the chair when i saw heroquest being listed. As a D&D nerd i absolutely love that this gets a new release
"The male elf almost looks exactly like the female elf."
Ahh, the curse of the elves in a lot of fantasy settings. In other news, "BWOARD SWOARD!"
Fire of wrath!
Hey it's fantasy: anything you want can be down there 😉
@@casanovafunkenstein5090 some think that applies to real, physical life.
@@Chef_Alpo I'm pretty sure that trans people are acutely aware of what genitalia they have.
Go bother someone else 🤠
Would've been more forgivable if both the male and female dwarves had beards.
The soft plastic used for the pieces is very much like the soft plastic used in Reaper's Bones lineup. What I have learned working with those miniatures is that if you want to bend something without screwing it up (or unbending something, more commonly) what you could do is heat up some water (you don't need to get it to boiling, pretty hot is usually good enough) and dip the part you want to work on in the water, remove from water after a short time (duration depends on thickness of plastic you're trying to work with) and then bend whichever way you want. After cooling, it tends to hold. Just don't leave it in too long. There is such a thing as too soft, like when you leave indentations on where you grab it.
The Fimir are indeed an old Warhammer thing that they've more recently brought back to life in the 4th edition of the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying Game. I've never entirely understood why they've been able to claim them as a Warhammer copyrighted thing when they're based on the Fomorians of Irish mythology, if I'm remembering the story correctly
Unfortunately recent history has shown Games Workshop doesnt care much for using fair copyright stuff.
Because it's in the name, that's why. It's also the reason GW renamed a whole bunch of races when they scrapped Warhammer Fantasy Battles for Age of Sigmar. Instead of Dwarves it's Duardin, instead of Orcs it's Orruks etc. You can't copyright concepts or traits, but you can copyright names.
Even without the name, they are quite different to Formorians, tbf.
@@zebn2253 I'm not brushed up on Irish mythology, but there was a rather distressing aspect to GW's Fimir that would make Hasbro want to give them a wide berth today. I won't go into detail, but it involved kidnapping human women.
Fimir procreated through rape, so probably not something they want to bring back, yes I'm aware they came back for Warhammer.
45:08 - clicked on this video expecting "Broad Sword" to be mentioned numerous times from quite early on. Cracked a beer and was going to drink every time it was mentioned. After about five minutes in I just gave up and starting drinking anyway. He knows people were waiting for that sound bite and left it until the end. The swine.
The Wizard's fine... eventually. They get the most artifacts, giving them better defenses, weapons that can attack diagonally (though it's not as strong as the long sword that lets the others attack diagonally) and spell scrolls and magic rings that give them extra charges for their spells. But it takes several missions to accumulate the various artifacts a wizard needs to become fine. And with the fewest body points, and no armor until artifacts can be discovered for them, keeping the wizard ALIVE to get there can be difficult.
Still, care and patience will serve the wizard well.
Delayed gratification is often the name of the game with wizards.
So pretty much as a Wizard typically is in games like this.
Just becareful of the Orb card, he'll get stuck pondering it.
@@RoninCatholic Yep, it's even more so in D&D where starting wizards can barely do anything. The upside is that wizards power grows exponentially as they lvl up, which is why they can easily do game breaking shenanigans when they reached higher lvls. Fans made a tier list of how powerful/broken classes are, Wizards are tier 1 while fighters are tier 4 (I think barbarians are either tier 3 or 4).
@@SvengelskaBlondie Yes, presuming high level campaigns wizards in the long haul are the only class nearly as good as clerics and druids. Surpassing them in a couple areas, but lacking a few key tricks that you're only going to get out of the master healers.
Clerics and druids also excel at low level play, though. Barely less physically tough than Fighters and Barbarians at the levels where that matters, barely if any less overpowered in their magical shenanigans at very high levels, and have access to HEALING SPELLS which D&D wizards are strangely and arbitrarily restricted from, which in turn helps bolster those other physical types during the time period where they're the ones that matter most.
I've never actually seen a wizard above level 7 in person. Nor a paladin or ranger above level 8. Most campaigns I've been in have imploded after about three sessions, so even though we'd do super fast leveling (skipping experience point tallies and just making it one session = one adventure = one level up) we simply never ran into high levels. I still always liked wizards for reasons of style and flavor, despite mechanically underperforming to a ridiculous degree.
I paint miniatures, and occasionally take commissions, but if one of my clients asked me to paint this set up I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. It would take too much time cleaning the mould lines, correcting bent bases and weapons to warrant the time and effort. Avalon Hill should've gone hard plastic, especially for the price, which holds detail better and is easier to clean up. A no sale for this punter.
Thanks for the review and comparison though, very much appreciated.
Ooooof I'd add a: no I won't paint these because no. Bad. Evil. To much work.
The Fimir were GW's own design of monster, hence their omission from this version. The metal ones you could buy (and I did :P ) were made giant sized, apparently due to a miscommunication between the designers and the sculptors. Pics featuring Fimir showed them as man sized, like the ones on the game.
They were also dropped quietly a long time ago on account of having a properly unnecessarily nasty, even by Warhammer standards, backstory.
Fascinating idea the Fimir, based off Irish legends, kinda morphed into amazonian kidnapping beasts that... Ummm 🤔 had uncosenting relationships with the men.
More thought went into them then a lot of fantasy beasts of the era
There is a site that lists the story of how GW created them. It describes them as a PR disaster waiting to happen! TBH, I used them in my D&D campaign for years - I just changed it so they laid eggs :p
Thinking of their own designs-is that Slambo on the box? His armour isn't green and I think he's down an axe but that guy sure looks like him.
Yes it is! I've still got all the old chaos warriors stored somewhere in the garage ^_^
Wonderful review. It really was a special game for me. My first adventure leading to Space Crusade, various Role Playing games and eventually, 40K. And thank you for mentioning the Bard and listing the link in your description. Nice work!
This makes me ache with nostalgic feelings. What a fantastic game.
If the prices of old games has gone through the roof, I'm glad I re-bought most of my 1980s Traveller stuff back in the 1990s and 2000s.... not to mention Games Workshop pre-Warhammer games like Judge Dredd, Doctor Who, Golden Heroes, MERP, Cosmic Encounter, original UK Call of Cthulhu etc... The Dr Who was component-heavy so I had to buy and combine two sets. Talisman 2nd edition was expensive though, even back then. Gary Chalk card (and board) artwork on that, too.
I grew up playing this. It was my favourite game as a kid. The nostalgia is strong here!
As someone who lost a loved one last year who played this religiously, thank you for doing a video on this.
The old Dwarf is from the cover of the GW magazines, in the upper left corner it would have him just standing there exactly like that. I always thought it was odd that GW put one of their most iconic characters at the time on a game that didn't 100% own.
It might be fun to see you playing that with NerdCubed, Larry Bundy, and a few of your other mates.
I have wanted a copy if HeroQuest for years now and the only reason that I haven't bought one is the absurd collectors price. So thanks for notifying me of the re-release. I just ordered it as a pre-release for January next year :D
I loved HeroQuest as a kid. Me and my cousins used to come up with so many custom quests of our own, and countless days were spent playing this classic. I still have most of the original pieces, but they certainly show their age at this point, no matter how careful I've tried to be handling them. It makes me so happy that the game has resurfaced again, and seems to be doing great with all these expansions coming out. It'll take some time to get used to the name Zargon though, as well as the lack of Fimirs, which were my favorite monsters in the original game. Abominations do have a rather cool design though.
I had no clue the EU version had all the monsters at 1HP. That's so bizarre. I played HeroQuest about 500 times as a kid with my friend Gabe. When we were 11, we even started making our own quests and stuff. I didn't get into D&D until I was 13 but it felt so natural, so I never realized how much I had been indoctrinated by HeroQuest. The only thing they did was turn me into a nerd, really.
Also, I'm going to have to disagree with you on all of the mini figures, haha. Even thought I have massive nostalgia for those little weirdos, I have to admit that every single one of the new ones is larger, better posed, has better detail, and simply have a far better design. The original seems childish and cartoony when you compare them and I would much rather have something scary and intimidating than cartoony.
Well the original HeroQuest was meant for kids to intoduce the to TTRPG, so that's why they were more childish and cartoony. I like the old ones better, exactly because they are more cartoony, but glad you like the new ones
@@g.alvarez3140 Yeah, it's one of those things where the new one looks how I imagined the old one did when I was a kid. FFVII Remake was able to do that same thing, for me.
Nobody is going to argue that the new ones have better detail. That is very obvious. But i'd say the only reason the old ones look a bit cartoony is because of the detail. They just had to make some things larger. The new ones completely left the realistic style and went over the top blizzard style. Not my thing at all.
I can't speak for the UK or other countries, but I'm from Spain and my old Hero Quest version (Spanish language, of course) has the USA rules and monsters with different "hit points"
I do like the old ones. The new ones are not more realistic than the old ones, simply just more "marvel-like action figures". It's only another type of exaggeration.
22:52 DO NOT DO THAT! Do not straighten bent miniatures like that! For the love of god, please fill a cup with hot water from the kettle, soak the mini for a few seconds, straighten into position and set under cold running water.
So many hours playing this when I was young. That Character Sheet you showed with the Gold Coins, etc. was in the American version. That's the one I was used to seeing back when we bought this game brand new from Toys R Us. Wish I still had that bad boy...
I had just started high school when this came out. Funny enough, of all the supposed "family board games" out there, the only one our family ever played together was Hero Quest. Dad was always the DM, Mum the wizard, sister the elf, whilst I took on both the barbarian and dwarf...who always snuffed it, even when got him the "brode swode" (clearly, Gimli son of Gloin he was not!). I just got my copy of the reissue, and only regret I did not know about the kickstarter, as the Mythic Tier expansions for that look awesome. I do hope they come to retail! Also, I never saw the supposed prejudice against female players when I was younger, seeing as how my sister and I were both in a D&D group growing up, got our Mum to play Hero Quest; and heck, nearly half of my current gamer friends are women. Even my wife, who is NOT into Fantasy RPG at all, might be up for giving Hero Quest a go...just need to get the female barbarian for her to play! 😁
Okay, the modern version is actually truly amazing and worth the money :) I expected some easy cash grab based on nostalgia, but the final product is really good :)
The Mythic Tier came with an absolute crapload of stuff. It took quite a while to unbox, sort, etc everything. And they're apparently planning on coming out with more expansions. They already have a Knight character that should be available in a few days
@@jameshollingshead1845 I hope they rerelease the rarer old expansions. You know, the GOOD ones.
Full marks on the Bard, everything else suffers a little in comparison. I don't think it's just that I'm an old curmudgeon who hates change - seeing them side by side I'm really starting to appreciate some of the design choices in the original miniatures. They obviously prioritised a certain easily identifiable silhouette, and giving the pieces appropriate heft and beefiness. I guess it's the old school Games Workshop style, but cleverly simplified down to something that works well in a board game and reads very clearly, but still has that classic look. Sure some of the poses are a bit simple and the detail could be improved but they really gave every piece a strong identity with bold, simple designs. Shame they don't have the likeness rights for anything, because I'd love to see essentially the same pieces in the classic style but with more detail, more poses, more options, maybe a nice paint job etc.
I always loved how the Elf looked like Vigo the Carpathian.
Fimirs were an old Warhammer monster, but GW has stepped away from them because their lore was all about R word.
That dragon mini looks dope. Sadly, all the rest look way to D&D and not nearly HeroQuest enough. Very glad that Hasbro did this, since the fandom was basically rabid, but it's a bit bitter sweet.
The American version had chaos spells, but they were rarely ever used (unless the DM went off-script). The character sheets with so much more on them were also in the American version. Very helpful back then for new players.
Ive just received my Mythic tier edition of HeroQuest. Looking forward to getting it all out to play with my 13 year old daughter 😀
Re: The Poses
If memory serves me right, the reason a lot of the minis in old Heroquest have that strange X-pose is down to manufacturing constraints. Basically, to get a miniature that both looked dynamic and could be cast as a single piece, sculptors had to put them in that X-Pose that is so prevalent among the Heroquest minis.
What I loved about this game was how many of the components, not just the characters, weren't just tiles, but actual three dimensional objects.
I’m so glad you shouted out Bardic Broadcasts. His video on Hero Quest is a masterpiece 😄
I googled this mid video because I thought it sounded cool and my nephews might like it and found two things: it is a lot more expensive than I thought ($125) and also Zargon has a Twitter
For the amount of miniatures in the box, it's not an unreasonable MSRP. It will probably go down in price availability when it is released. They always do.
If you want something along these lines at a more reasonable price point, I'd direct you to Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. Then, if they liked that, you can drop the big boy bucks and pick up Gloomhaven. (Or Frosthaven, depending on when that comes out.)
I mean, it puzzles out to $3.60 per mini, so it's actually more than fair. Like, outside of Reaper Bones you can't buy miniatures that size for cheap. Most around that size are 7-10 USD. And it's a board game, so it comes with even more than just the miniatures. Honestly? I low key think the original when it was new was sold at a surprisingly low price. How do I know all this? Am just in the mini hobby.
Having played Og Hero Quest as a kid, I'll still say visual improvements across the board, a lil paint will get the plastic furniture up to shape, even anime esque elf is good. Makes them feel ethereal or otherworldly as opposed to just snobby nosed folk with pointy ears.
Rather I felt like each character was in a different art style, so still works.
Didn't know they had remade this until I saw this. Very cool.
"Fire of Roff" -Richard Brandoff
Roff Roff........Roff Roff
Probably the best unboxing on UA-cam. Great use of British humor and get detail.
On the comparison of the minitures (especially the Gargoyle) you can see that even when the old ones look more basic on how they where sculpted, they have a lot more crisp details. For example the armour oft the Gargoyle or the sword is much more detailed. So yes, the new ones are more modern in the way they are designed, but they suffer from how production is done nowerdays with the cheap soft plastic that can'T hold as much details as hardplastic can.
For example the face of the new Gargoyle look just awful in comparison to the details of the old one.
It's also a much more striking appearance. The new gargoyle could be from any fantasy game designed since 2004 while the classic screams personality.
I definitely prefer the old skeleton.
@@hell3quin864 I agree. I prefer all of the old miniatures over the new ones.
I remember getting this for Christmas and being so happy
Played the Amiga version of this game, used the pic of the board in the advertisements as a guidance to know where to go (in the game the map is not revealed until you go to a place for the first time).
The Amiga version also had this "great" feature where you could search a room multiple times. In the original game you either couldn't find anything or the GM straight told you that you can't do that (I forgot what it was). In the Amiga version you can search it as much as you like. You can't find anything after it was searched for the first time but you could trigger a bunch of random events, like missing the next turn or spawning a random mummy or skeleton behind you which immediately attacks you.
been watching your videos for years and still just cant get enough
I’ve seen the bard video like 20 times, still fantastic
That old school D&Dish artwork, man. Wish we still had that today.
Yeah. I might not have a ton of nostalgia for old fantasy art, but there is a wonderful charm to it that just isn't in modern fantasy art. Like neither is inherently better than the other but there was just more character in the old art. Less polish making it more memorable I guess.
You're likely right about the art assets - I know at the very least the spell card back illustrations are by John blanche and all his work done during his tenure at GW remains in their possession.
Hero Quest is one of those games that I didn't get to play often but that I would very often pull out of the shelf to look at the models, design adventure maps, etc... For some reason the game had really stuck in my mind as a kid and it was only years later that I learned about Warhammer. My favorite model was definitely the chaos warrior and to this day I absolutely love the aesthetics of the Warhammer chaos warriors (none of that Age of Sigmar bullcrap). I never got to own the Space Hulk board game but the numerous ads for it in the comics I read made sure to make me lust after it very much.
The only thing I know about HeroQuest is the unreleased NES game with a fantastic soundtrack written by Neil Baldwin. That being said, it's nice to see board games get "remastered", so to speak.
Yeah it only came out for various computers.
A fun trivia fact about the Mythic Tier stuff: The dragon and the quest line he's the final boss of (The Crypt of Perpetual Darkness) was a stretch goal in the crowdfunding campaign. When the campaign didn't hit the set goal needed to unlick them, Avalon Hill essentially said 'screw it!' and included him anyway!
I remember we loved this game when i was a kid...playing it more times then i can count. I recently played the old HQ with my youngest son and the nostalgia came rushing back. I have to say i do love some the new models. But would i buy this one... i don't know, i miss the Fimirs and some of the enemies look a little weird. Thanks for this comparisson video, very clear and great review.
I still play the old version with family about once a year. Great game.
Can't wait for the advent calendars, I hope you guys picked up some decent ones this time.
I don't mind the elf, but you're right it does stand out like crazy from how over designed she is.
I genuinely hope they sell the stuff included from the Mythic Tier, some of those alternate minis are awesome today nothing on the 4 extra heroes.
I'll always be happy I managed to grab a 99.9% complete set of the classic HeroQuest. The only thing missing is the two plastic beams that connect the two halves of the throne.
Wow, you're not kidding about the EU version being "easier"...I played this a lot as a kid, and remember Chaos Warriors having 4 attack and defense, with 3 hp to boot.
I remember spending my saved christmas money on the adventure design kit without realising that it wasnt a stand alone game. I was devastated when i realised! But i did spend ages trying to design adventures for a game i didnt have until the next christmas my dad got me the actual game.
I noticed when companies want to make a tough female character, they always give them a undercut. which is weird.
The old Chaos Sorcerer looks like he’s doing the YMCA.
Really excited for this to come in. Been wanting to play HeroQuest for a long time, and it's just..impossible to get the original complete for a good price. Everything new honestly looks great! Very different to get away from the Oldhammer stuff, and I get that a bit is a little overdesigned, but it's all pretty good. New Orcs look great and I do like the Dread Warriors and such. I will say though, as someone who does watch a fair bit of anime, the elf doesn't really feel as anime as you say, though she does stand out a little bit from the others.
Oh, also! Around 45:57, that mini shown with the Bard, is that design not supposed to be Zargon/Morcar? It looks a lot like his art from the GM screen!
Glad The Bard gets a shout-out. You're right, his video is one of the best things on UA-cam
Old version was for years 9+
New one is for 14+
Kids these days are idiots 😂
Covered everything I wanted to know, and thoroughly. Perfect job, A+ :)
It’s confirmed: Ashens doesn’t know what “anime” means
Nah I get what he means, the elf design is something I'd expect from a fantasy anime or Asian RPG. You could really just drop those designs into generic fantasy anime world and they wouldn't look out of place.
Wow fantastic review. Really brought back some great memories from play the original back in the day. I spent days painting all the miniatures. So glad I still have it after all this time. After watching this I think I will break it out and see if I can get my 10 year old interested in playing it with his friends.
Another excellent Ashens video. It's like having a chat with your mate about cool stuff from the good old days! Well done, sir!
I grew up with Hero quest as a youngin, I even ended up with the original 2 expansions. I personally really did like the 'glow up' on this remake, and all of the mass of nifty miniatures.
The character sheets look exactly like the 'murrican versions from long ago, so for us they did not change.
As a bonus now I can flood the board with 2 original sets, and the 2 expansions, plus all of the characters from the mythic tier.
Sad news, the new set does not come with my favorite add-on I got, an Oreo tin which I kept all of my monsters in, which I named the Oreo of death.
I hope you enjoy playing it, I know we already broke ours in and plan to go through all these quests!
nice touch on the chapters. Great video, all the work you put into it shows. Thanks!
Ah, I remember playing HeroQuest and Basic Dungeons & Dragons in the early 2000s, because my dad owned them. They're both great, and I still wish I had access to it. Spells could actually be really useful, but you had to understand what situation each one was for.
I was a military brat and moved around a lot and spent one Christmas staying with my grandparents between deployments when I was about 6. My dad had got this game for me and my brother, as it had just released, and we had never seen anything like it and were instantly enthralled by it, being avid fantasy game and movie lovers. We played it to death, had the Kellar's Keep and Return of the Witch King expansions although there were more, including US exclusive ones that were character-centric we never got in the UK. Along with stuff like Space Crusade, Battlemasters, Dark World and a plethora of other tabletop-lite style RPG board games, we would mix and match the gaming pieces to create our own adventures. Better, carefree times to be sure.
Now this video brought back some great nostalgia feels. Got it for Christmas that year.
I adore that second version of the female barbarian you 3D-printed. Top-notch!
Great video! Aaaand like a true gentleman, you acknowledge the meme. That alone deserves a like and subscribe.
I'm 40, I have the original game and some expansions and do monthly HQ games with my friends and we have so much fun. I've updated the rules a bit, as we play sometimes 6-7 at a time, so we have new characters, a mecha that needs tinkering from the Dwarf to heal, a poisonous rat that can run fast and slip through the monsters legs to get away...it's a lotta fun.
I had never played a game before where the board was revealed room by room as you played it. Oh the excitement! And it looked amazing. One of the best experiences of my childhood. Bless you brother for gifting me this rather expensive present on this fateful christmas eve.
So cool that I came across this video. I grew up in the States and received Hero Quest when it first came out as a Christmas present. My brother and I played it non stop growing up. I actually still have my set, except the box is massively taped up after all these years. But I still have all the pieces.
Great video, great review, had a lot of fun watching!
I think that nearly every figure looks better in the new version. The old ones always felt boring because of their static posture. I was playing only with the figures sometimes and was always disappointed because they were doing no fight movement.
The american character sheet hasn't changed from how it originally was. It's very nice.
I have many fond memories of HeroQuest. Great video and fun commentary. Cheers!
Love your vids man. You've only gotten better over the years. :) I've been watching your stuff since around when you started your Poundland specials (way before your TV stints) and these reviews keep getting cooler and cooler.
Americans were already heavily into D&D which is why the US version was a bit meatier. The art and mini designs still belong to Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson of Fighting Fantasy game (they founded Games Workshop), though there are a bunch of crazy covenants tying it into Warhammer and the current IP. Another great GW boardgame was Warlock of Firetop Mountain, based on the Fighting Fantasy book. Then there was Talisman, which belonged to Fantasy Flight for a long time (not sure who owns it now). Ian and Steve essentially introduced Europe to fantasy roleplay then abandoned their mission when Steve lost interest and Games Workshop was sold. Many readers of White Dwarf will not know that Ian and Steve also founded that magazine to promote GW products and roleplay generally. White Dwarf was sold with the GW IP and turned into a vehicle for Warhammer 40k.
I think it's kind of amazing that this new version stayed so faithful to the original. I thought for sure it would cave to modern dungeon-crawler trends, like map tiles instead of the iconic board, app integration instead of a simple quest book, more/more complicated dice, etc.
The bit I find disappointing is the new minis. The old ones are definitely a little cartoony and silly, but they ooze personality. Their designs are clean, simple and strong. The new ones are kind of a mess of over-designed detail, with the Chaos Warrior - sorry "Dread Warrior" - being the worst. Even the furniture...I kinda love the old combo of cardboard and plastic. It's brighter and more colorful, without having to paint anything.
The new gargoyle may be less fearsome, but it is definitely sexier. Do with that what you will.
I agree on BardicBroadcast. He doesn't post that often, but when he does, it is pure gold.
I had never heard of this game nor the video (though I HAVE played the DND Board game)...you, sir, have brightened my life and now I need this game.
The TV ad for HeroQuest in the 80s started a lifelong love of Warhammer for me.
I remember having this as a kid. Such a Nerdmazing game. Great review video, it brings back a lot of nostalgia.