The developers giveth, the developers taketh away. SEGA Heroes (Free) has a new update and it has at least one cool new feature that kicks off today. It also sports a spiffy new icon that lets you know who the real star of the show is. But Demiurge and SEGA also took the opportunity to address a rather sizable issue with the game’s balance, and it’s definitely making some players unhappy.

First, that new feature. Boss Fights! These are Guild Raids against extremely tough enemies that offer some nice rewards if you win. Your guild will have to work together to make much headway, and even making an attempt requires special keys that you’ll receive as part of the daily missions. You can also buy those with gems, of course. It’s a nice addition that adds value to the so far rather underwhelming guild aspect of the game. If you’re looking for one to join, by the way, feel free to search out the TouchArcade Guild. We are small but motivated.

Alright, and now it’s time for the beef. Regular SEGA Heroes players will probably know about this issue already. Namely, practically every strong team in the Arena was using Big the Cat and Joe Musashi. Throw in Sonic and Shadow and you’ve got a pretty nasty team that can chain special attacks like a series of exploding dominoes. Or perhaps you’ve run into some really nasty Rouge the Bats, whose special attacks can whittle down the mightiest of foes.

In short, there was a balance issue here. Big the Cat is a Common hero and probably shouldn’t be one of the best in the game given how easy he is to power up. Joe is Rare but not especially hard to farm, either. Once people figured out how potent this pair is, they naturally took advantage of them. And why not? If it’s in the game, it’s in the game. Except now, it’s not. Developer Demiurge has made a bunch of changes to various characters to adjust the game’s balance.

The upshot? Joe Musashi got hit hard with the ol’ nerf bat. Big the Cat didn’t get it quite as bad, but he still took a hit. Rouge had her damage toned way down. Gena, of all characters, got a buff. And the way some parameters work were changed which resulted in tiny adjustments to characters like Lassic and Gus. On the one hand, this does make some stupidly difficult stages easier. On the other hand, if you invested in the characters that got weakened, you’re probably feeling pretty upset right now. I can’t blame you.

At any rate, balance changes will happen in games like these. All you can do is adjust your team or quit the game, I suppose. I do think it’s odd that SEGA left Shadow and Sonic untouched, given the reasoning behind weakening the others, but it is what it is. On the positive side, it’s certainly nice to see the new Guild Boss Fight feature, and I hope to have plenty of fun with it in the future. If nothing else, let’s all try to remember that for a brief, shining moment in history, Big the Cat was the most popular character in a video game.