Published by: Ubisoft
Developed by: Grasshopper Manufacture
Score: 85

Back in 2004/2005 I remember all the buzz about Suda 51’s Killer 7. The style, the trailer, the characters all had this sleek, bass-ass style about them. Characters who were all about the kill and getting paid, blood splattering all over the damn place, it made me anxious to see how everything played out in actuality. Well when it was released it turns out the style was all there, but the gameplay was a mixed bag. Killer 7 was basically a rail shooter with puzzles that oozed style. The reviews and reception was mixed, some lauded the simpler gameplay which allowed for more emphasis on the story and others complained Suda 51 forgot he was making a videogame. This was far from the end of Suda 51 as he made a few lower key games, but it wasn’t until 2008 that he finally got some of that buzz he received for Killer 7, the game is No More Heroes. In No More Heroes, Travis Touchdown is a man of many interests, he watches anime, collects toys, decapitates assassins; you know, the normal things an otaku would do. Unlike Killer 7 however, the style of the game is only matched by its hybrid linear/open world gameplay and proves itself as an inventive and clever action adventure game.

No More Heroes throws you straight into the action from the moment you pop in the disc.. There are twists and turns all throughout the game and actually serve as the best reason to get off the side missions and minigames. Travis, the protagonist is not the typical hero you’d find in a game, he collects all the normal things you might find in an import video games shop like posters of anime girls and also has those weird quirks that are usually suspect of an otaku like having a cat. I’m not sure he even is a hero, which is maybe why it’s called “No More Heroes.” Neat right?

Combat basically comes down to hitting A or B, slashing and stunning, respectively. Using Travis’ beam saber, you’ll go around carving into enemies that are representative of the level. For example, when you have to fight in a school, all your enemies look like school yard thugs. All of the enemies suffer from that old “we all look the same except some of us may have a hat or darker skin” syndrome. Regardless of that, you’ll be killing them so quickly and often that it may not matter. You’ll hack and slash through tons of enemies and along the way you’ll gain access to some nifty and useful moves. One of which is the death blow which is obtained by cutting your enemies until their down to their last sliver of health and then entering death blow mode which requires you to swing the Wii remote in a direction indicated on the screen. It’s not just for show either, using death blows also allows a slot machine in the corner of the HUD to start spinning, which allows you to go into Dark Side Mode when certain combinations of the slot are acquired. One of the Dark Side Modes is a black and white mode which slows down everything and when Travis encounters an enemy he is given a prompt and if you can hit appropriate button in time Travis will brutally kill the enemy. The whole random slot thing, which I’m getting used to more and more everyday, has severe disadvantage in that your powerup may come at any time, and sadly, it may be towards the end of a battle. Here you are glowing, oozing with power and ready to kill half an army only to realize that guy you killed to get this power was the last one in the room and your power will run out by the time you see another one. Kind of a bummer, but when it comes at a more opportune time, it’s blood thirsty fun.

Boss fights, or ranking battles are the best part of the game. At the start of the game, Travis is ranked 11th in the UAA (United Assassins Association) and to rank up, he has to kill that ranking assassin. Almost all the assassins are great characters with some sort of quirk that goes along with them (Shinobu, a shinobi schoolgirl, being my personal favorite). Each fight is a fight to the death. As you might expect, each assassin has some sort of extraordinary talent which is their primary way of fighting. Some are great with swords, some with guns, some use unorthodox means of fighting, but these are all the best moments in the game.

Since the Wii remote was first announced everyone has been waiting for that inevitable beam saber control reminiscent of Star Wars and thanks to No More Heroes the wait

…will continue.

The motion control capabilities are put to use for a few purposes. One of them is to determine if you will be using a low attack or high attack, placing the controller upright will allow for the former and pointing the controller towards the screen will do the latter. Other uses are for executing moves such as throws or finishing blows which require movements indicated on the screen of the remote and/or nunchuck. You’ll never use the Wii remote as the beam saber, sadly, it’s more of a specific movement usage. It’s just for fun and doesn’t really add a whole lot to the visceral action onscreen, but it does add a little bit of imperativeness which will only suck up more of your attention.

At first I was confused, I didn’t know how to classify the game. I had somewhat of a philosophical question, was the game actually linear or did I actually have some freedom of choice. In the first “level” of the game, you’re thrown into a mansion where only certain areas are able to be walked into and usually only open in response to certain enemies or objectives being eliminated or completed, respectively. Not too surprising for a linear game, right? The only thing is that there is an in game compass on the HUD which gives the impression you could just walk out of the mansion and go do something else, maybe massacre a bunch of people in a different mansion of whatever, but you can’t do that. You’re locked into a strictly linear set of events. However, after that’s all done with and you’ve killed the assassin who’s waiting at the end, you’re allowed to walk around Santa Destroy and do odd jobs. It feels just a bit odd. I mean sure you just killed one of the top 10 best professional killers and eviscerated his hired goons, but you still have to mow lawns to get paper? It’s not like Kill Bill, where you’re Oren Ishi and you have an entourage and can get into a bunch of cool places and order people around in high ranking mafias. Rather, you’re more like Budd and you get bitched around by some guy to do menial shit. I gave it a thought for a few moments and then just ended up shrugging my shoulders and going along with it.

That brings me to another part of the game which is the city of Santa Destroy and the way you interact with it. It’s kind of well..lame. Alright, maybe lame isn’t the right word, I’ll go with hm…ah, I know, let’s go with barren. I say barren because Santa Destroy isn’t your playground city like Liberty City or Vice City. It’s more like a cardboard city that has a few places in between. You can drive around the city for a few minutes and the only real reason you might do that is just to get from point A to point B. The streets have maybe a few cars and a few pedestrians. While riding in Travis’ motorcycle you can run into people and poles, but to be very honest there is no real reason to do anything in Santa Destroy aside from the few shops. Travis motorcycle driving is the simplest part of the game. A makes you go forward, B lets you stop and reverse, and that’s it. Turns are simplified to the point that you’d have to be completely retarded and on crack to complain about it. The actual reason for Santa Destroy is basically to make money so that you can advance Travis to the next ranking fight. This involves doing odd jobs like picking trash and mowing laws. Then there are the assassination missions which are basically hack and slash adventures in a small room with a set of enemies and some sort of stipulation. The bottom line is that Santa Destroy basically serves as area between destinations and little else, but with the smaller budget for a game like this, it’s not entirely surprising.

No More Heroes has the same visual styling as Killer 7, or maybe I should be a little less specific and just say it looks like most cell shaded games only a little more crisper and vibrant than say, Wind Waker. Each assassin and character you meet has some unique or interesting aspect about them. The art style of No More Heroes is definitely a highlight and a refreshing change. As said earlier, Santa Destroy isn’t a lively or active city, but the developers did take the time to map out a city and for that I give them credit at least. The game suffers from a lot of invisible and visible barriers, but you get used to them after a while especially in the level areas. Now, let me also say that No More Heroes is a bloodbath. You’ll see heads flying off all over the damn place and people being split in half down the middle. It’s actually not too gruesome especially since the bodies seem to disappear quickly and with the visual style, there isn’t a whole lot of detail. Basically you slash and then suddenly a fire hydrant of blood erupts in front of you. No More Heroes is also big on its 8 bit roots. That whole blocky, bright colored scheme is placed everywhere from menus, pick up icons and just about all the text.

Voice acting in No More Heroes gets the job done, it isn’t great, but it isn’t terrible either. Out of them all, I found Silvia Christel, Travis’ love interest, to have the best voice talent which is basically that cold central European accent, that I’ve termed Cockteasian. The soundtrack is average at best. No More Heroes seems intent on playing “Heavenly Star” by Genki Rockets in every single place it possibly can. Sadly, I…well…err…was kind of already familiar with the song, but it was only because of Lumines 2.

I know the first reaction by the Wii community was “finally a cult classic game that we can get behind.” For the most part, I think No More Heroes does the job very nicely, but also does the job of just being a well done action game in addition. Wii owners should definitely take a break from the first party games (c’mon admit it, what else would you actually play?) and check out No More Heroes. Don’t go in expecting a game the will revolutionize gaming, but just look for a different take on the action genre along with a cool story. No More Heroes still has the old original Zelda formula of going around a city and gaining items and then making your way to a “dungeon,” but at least it’s done in a more straightforward manner. It’s not a long game, but you get a game that keeps you entertained the entire way with its own style and charm and never over stays it’s welcome.