If you played turn-based sword-and-sorcery RPGs during their 16-bit prime, you know they often involved lots of level-grinding drudgery. Half-Minute Hero lovingly emulates the aesthetics but fast-forwards through the tedium. Your towheaded hero must work fast, because the world is constantly just 30 seconds away from annihilation.

Your champion gets busted back down to level one at the beginning of each mission, but he need only bash a few creeps to quickly level up. Battles are automated left-to-right marches across the screen, but that doesn’t drain them of their entertainment value: watching your warrior and his occasional companions smack hit points out of slobbering 2D goons is a hoot.

Freed from hammering an attack button, your job is to figure out how to complete simple mini-quests and reach clock-resetting altars before time expires. It’s often tricky, and you’ll undoubtedly curse directional controls that feel terribly twitchy, whether you use the left thumbstick or the Xbox 360 controller’s accursed excuse for a D-pad. But because every snack-sized adventure introduces new monsters, puzzles, and perils, there’s always some novel new tidbit to keep you glued to each world map. You’ll even be tempted to return to many missions, thanks to branching paths, timed leaderboards, and a closetful of collectible equipment.

You’ll eventually unlock one-off side stories that involve other protagonists, followed by a level that cuts the calamity counter down to just three seconds (!). You may tire of the basic gimmick before you’re skilled enough to succeed on elaborate, brutally competitive four-player online maps, but Half-Minute Hero’s charms still last a surprisingly long time.

On Xbox Live Arcade

+ All the loot lust and leveling of old-school RPGs, concentrated into minutes.

+ Over 60 adventures of retro style, colorful characters, and monster variety.

- Movement on world maps feels slippery; unnecessarily difficult online multiplayer.

? Can you call it grinding when it takes seconds?

7.5