Next Up Hero is a hand-drawn, Gauntlet-style dungeon crawler developed by Digital Continue and released in 2018 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Mac. Players select from nine heroes, each equipped with distinct weapons and abilities ranging from swords and boomerangs to bongo drums and rocket launchers, and battle through procedurally generated dungeons against enemies collectively known as the Ceaseless Dirge. A central mechanic called Community Continue shapes the experience: when a hero dies, they leave behind an Echo on the battlefield that subsequent players can resurrect as an AI companion. Up to 20 such Echoes can fight alongside an active hero at once, making repeated deaths a resource rather than a setback. The game supports two-player co-op and includes a dungeon creation tool that lets players craft and submit their own challenges to the broader community, with loot stakes attached to whether others succeed or fail.
