No Heroes Allowed! is one of those strange, first-party PlayStation properties that keeps getting new entries without anyone really batting an eyelid. Having started life on the PlayStation Portable, the irreverent What Did I Do to Deserve This, My Lord? series has spawned all sorts of silly spin-offs – including a surprisingly enjoyable Puzzles & Dragons rip-off on the PlayStation Vita.

No Heroes Allowed! VR catapults the franchise into the realm of virtual reality, where you’re summoned by pantomime villain Badman and his annoyingly accented daughter to serve as the God of Destruction and assume control of the world. A series of simplistic strategy stages await, with the action playing out from a kind of table-top perspective.

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While the tutorials are needlessly convoluted, the gameplay is actually quite straight-forward: you summon monsters onto the stage using the DualShock 4 controller. Each type of creature has a place in the food chain, and you need to work your way up in order to balance the title’s unique ecosystem of evil. Stronger critters can inflict more damage, and aid you in your quest to thwart the good guys.

Essentially your goal here is to garner a gang of malevolent fiends foul enough to feast on all of the pesky do-gooders on a stage. Crush the castle at the end of each of the title’s 15 levels and you’ll come away victorious, though repetition is encouraged in order to level up your beasts and acquire higher completion ranks overall.

It’s fairly simplistic stuff but in an extremely satisfying way: the game feels very tactile, and while the virtual reality doesn’t really add a whole lot, the visuals look crystal clear in the headset itself. It’s also got a great sense of humour: not every joke lands, of course, but there’s some extremely witty writing in here that you may not anticipate going in.

The only real downside is that the title’s pretty pricey for what you get. Realistically, you’re going to be done with this one within six or so hours, and there’s not a great deal leftover to coax you back. Sure, you’ll have a lot of fun completing the campaign, but this is yet another example of the nefarious PlayStation VR Tax™ pushing prices beyond the wrong side of reasonable.

Conclusion

No Heroes Allowed! VR is a deeply satisfying and surprisingly humorous PlayStation VR strategy game. It doesn’t do much with virtual reality, but it looks great inside the headset and has some unique gameplay ideas to boot. Sure, its high price means that it’s never going to get to the top of the food chain, but this likeable title is still worth feasting on – assuming, of course, you can afford it.