Review: No More Heroes
Publisher: Rising Star Games Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture Inc Platforms: WiiPosted on April 18th, 2008 at 9:17pm by Lime_Spider
A little history for you, No More Heroes was originally developed to be an X-Box 360 title. Over the development and pre-production Suda51 (the game’s director) decided the Wii was a better system to reflect the stylized action. You’ll thank him for it. If you want to play hands down the best game to use the Wii-Mote, then you owe it to yourself to buy this game. In fact, even if you were burnt by the surrealist nature of Killer7 (shame on you) then you still need this game. Quite simply No More Heroes is an incredible gaming experience which will be unparrelled on the Wii, or indeed any system, for quite some time.
Like most Suda51 games summing them up in simple terms is quite difficult, considering how deep or surreal (in most cases both) they are. Fundamentally though the game is similar to Assassin’s Creed, where by you play an assassin with hits to perform, and voluntary side quests to undertake. However that is where the similarity really does end. In the melting pot No More Heroes is a bit of Assassin’s Creed, GTA and more than a little helping of 80’s style arcade beat ‘em ups. Indeed one could construe that it’s Golden Axe for the next-generation.
OK so getting ahead of myself here and of course I realize that there are more than a few who have probably not read BUY IT NOW and done so, which leads to the inevitable justification.
No More Heroes isn’t heavy on exposition and puts you in the frame immediately, with your first hit being the tutorial level. You play Travis Touchdown, a porn loving, foul mouthed, psychotic sociopath anime otaku who, throughout the game despite his glaring homicidal flaws, is actually a quite endearing anti-hero you are always happy to root for. The actual start of the story is told in the simply amazing game’s manual which is delivered as a manga. Here Travis wins a beam katana on an e-bay equivalent auction site and proceeds to kill people with it. Quite why Travis wants to become the number 1 assassin in the U.S., or how he meets the French temptress Sylvia who sets up his ranking “matches”, are left until later in the game.
The game is designed to play like an action movie, so the majority of your time will be getting new katana and using them to off a variety of different enemies. The game really does play like a next gen version of Golden Axe or Streets of Rage. Even the scoreboards and HUD hark back to the time of the arcade, and really tap into Travis’ psyche and as to who he is. Although it can be grating to the casual gamer they are never as crazy as Killer7’s Harman multiple personalities, and the design style really suits the feel of the whole game.
The gameplay itself is quite simply astounding, with a combat system so deep that it is actually quite difficult to get everything from it in one play-through. Ultimately it seemed a little disappointing when the main way to attack was relegated to the A button, with Wii-Mote swinging left to finishing and wrestling moves. Once you hit matches that require 100+ kills though, you will be thanking the designers for this though, as it makes the proceedings so much easier (although your arm will still hurt akin to button mashing if you play for too long!). Combat is made up of sword combat for the majority, but also of pro-wrestling moves that (unlike American wrestlers) actually look and feel totally cool. Although sword fighting requires just a simple flicks, wrestling moves require case sensitive co-ordination of the Wii-Mote and the Nunchuck, really immersing you into the combat.
It’s not all death and mayhem though. Travis has to make money in the world, which come in the form of two jobs… legit and shady. In order to get by you have to do series of odd jobs which if done well unlock more assassination missions. These earn you money which not only is needed to pay for your next ranking matches, but also to buy clothes, rent wrestling movies (for new moves), training in the gym and getting better weapons. The jobs are scattered about the town which you can get to by either running or using Travis’ motorbike. The town section seems heavily inspired by GTA, where there are many secrets to be found making exploration a must. It can lead to new outfits, money and more importantly new moves (from Lovikov balls).
