Kernel Hearts review

The debut from Buenos Aires studio Ephemera Games has one of the year’s wildest pitches: the M.A.H.O.U. Unit, cybernetic magical girls, climbs the Tower of Babel through biblical monsters to settle things with God directly. Runs mix hack-and-slash combos, temporary powers and a flashy transformation, while a 256KB MAHOU.OS chip system handles permanent builds. Up to four players can climb together online.

We couldn’t find an OpenCritic or Metacritic aggregate at press time, so here’s what individual critics say. Game Critix (4.5/5) called it “gloriously bonkers,” praising fast, responsive combat and co-op that feels designed in rather than bolted on, though big fights can get hard to read.

NoobFeed, around two dozen hours in, found open arena maps rather than rooms, a “sin meter” that summons a Sky Angel if you linger too long, and bosses that are the highlight. On-screen combo guides and a forgiving dodge make it approachable. On the other hand, it found the combat simple and repetitive, the characters other than Fernet thin, and early meta-progression slow, and it flagged a sharp difficulty spike from the third level.

A full run can take up to two hours, which NoobFeed notes is long for the genre, and the finale lands better than you’d expect.