If you were to ask to list my favorite genres, it would read something like this depending upon the day and mood: Fighters > Shooters/Shmups >Brawlers > Puzzlers > Action-Adventure and then, far in the distance, RPGs.

All of the genres mention (save for action-adventure), lend themselves to quick and dirty gaming sessions  - – precisely why I like them. RPGs, on the other hand, require hours of your life before a sense of satisfaction in made manifest.  But XSEED’s Half-Minute Hero may be the RPG that appeals to my sense of gaming ADD.

Thursday night, the entire 2D-X crew, along with our colleagues from Spawn Kill, The Other View, and TrueGameHeadz, got hands-on with the title. The concensus? Half-Minute Hero managed to evoke smiles from all parties, RPG fan and non-RPG fan alike.

Developed by Marvelous Entertainment and Opus Studio, Half-Minute Hero puts the player in the typical world-saving role, but the gameplay is decidedly non-typical. Seemingly tailor-made to eliminate my major complaint about RPGs, Half-Minute Hero breaks up the gaming sessions into tight 30 second chunks in which you grind, level up, heal, and fight bosses. The idea, on the surface, sounds absolutely loopy, but in terms of pure gameplay it’s incredibly addicting.

Our protagonist, and everything else in the game, moves at break-neck speed. When you traverse the map, it’s basically a RPG on fast forward; the hero simply blazes through the terrain as a clock ticks down the seconds toward zero and doom.  When I encountered enemies, the view switched from overhead to veritcal and we did a speed run grind – - and leveled up! Unfortunately, I was a hair too slow as I was unable to complete the mission due to time running out.

Half-Minute Hero is more than just a gimmick; it sports charming 8-bit styled graphics and a translation that reminded very much of Working Designs when our protagonist shouted “Oh noes!” in reaction to a surprising event. XSEED stated that the game offers over 15 hours of gameplay spread across multiple modes: action-RPG, shooter, escort mission, and strategy. Up to four friends can link up their PSPs for lightning fast fights.

Half-Minute Hero is set to hit the PSP this fall.

Founder and Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey L. Wilson’s love of all things shiny/digital has led to jobs penning gadget- and video game-related nerd-copy for 1UP, E-Gear, Laptop, LifeStyler, Parenting, PC Magazine, Sync, Wise Bread, and WWE. Besides overseeing the editorial content at 2D-X.com, the Brooklyn College grad hosts New York City’s monthly Bits and Bytes video game media and public relations meetup. You can find him at a bar sampling foreign beers, or on Twitter doing twittery things.