Current mood:	amused
Entry tags:	heroes, travis

BLUEBERRY CHEESE BROWNIE!


No More Heroes Review.

Welp... sigh. I've been playing this game since morning.....


....and buddy? Whoever said there was no hope for third-party Wii games is just simply close-minded. "No More Heroes" is an over-the-top violent 'combo-slasher', developed by killer7 designer Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture, with character designs by Yūsuke Kozaki (Speed Grapher), costume designer/mangaka Okama, and weapon and mechanical designs by Shigeto Koyama (Artist for Eureka Seven). Music is of course done by Grasshopper as well, who also did the soundtrack for GODHAND.

Now WHAT is the deal with No More Heroes' plot?


The protagonist of the story is Travis Touchdown, an obsessed anime otaku who collects many things like lucha-libre masks (He's also a wrestling fan), mechs, porn videos that are WAY over-due from video stores, and posters and figures from his favorite fictional anime which resembles DoRemi mixed with Pretty Cure... (Yup, Travis, like me, is a huge 'moe' fan.)

Anywho, he happens to win a beam katana (lawl, scifi reference) off of a net auction. Upon getting this weapon, mixed with the thought 'Damn, I need to buy video games but how?', he reluctantly becomes an assassin, his first mission being the death of 11th ranked assassin Helter Skelter. Finishing this rather easy job, he finally meets up with a suited woman named Sylvia (Future note for later: this sounds alot like "Olivia" from Godhand... =D) who congratulates him on his success and pretty much hands him 10 more assignments.

The catch? Once he accepts, he pretty much becomes an open target to those wanting to be numero uno.

More or less, Travis Touchdown is now forced to become the greatest assassin this town has EVER witnessed just so he can live, geek out, and unravel mysteries of his past.


So I was playing this game for 5 hours now...


And upon popping the disc into my Wii, it shows the logos and gets straight to the title screen. "Wow, this is pretty old skool" I say to myself, drinking down some Jamaican kola champagne soda. Already I got the "GODHAND" feeling of the game. So I press A, and already I'm playing Travis. I make him walk downstairs and he starts whistling a tune and hops onto his motorcycle the Shpel Tiger. Suddenly as he rides off, the opening credits start flashing bit by bit as a narrative from Travis starts up telling you how he doesn't want to bore you with details, he'll pretty much tell you his backstory in 2 minutes. As soon as it was done, he crashes into a mansion, which then takes you to the tutorial and seams onto the first stage. Man! Talk about first impressions!


How does this game play importantly?


Suda51 pretty much shows you that you can play the Wii without having to stand up and flail like a moron, trying to get the sensor. The controls take you back to the SNES era, where only two-to-four buttons did everything. When I said combo-slasher, it's actually a high-paced strike-or-be-struck beat-em-up. Basically -

* - Lock on with Z (It also guards... guarding never looked so cool)

* - Mash the FUCK outta the A button, doing stylish looking strikes that even Musashi Miyamoto would blush to. You start off doing only 5 combos, but eventually you upgrade, making longer more insane strings of attacks.

* - Occasionally hit the B trigger to do stunning attacks called "Beat" and eventually do cool ass wrestling moves you learn from watching wrestling videos and picking up lucha-libre masks.

* - Now when the screen dims and you see and arrow pointing in a certain direction on your opponent, wave the Wiimote in that direction to pull off the Death Blow. When you complete Death Blows, the bottom of the screen does a slot-machine styled mini game as you play. If you match any of the five combinations together (The one I love the most right now is "Blueberry Cheese Brownie"), Travis pulls a Super Saiyan and goes into "Dark Travis" mode, allowing him a special ability, like one-hit blows, "Za Waarudo" styled fast-combos, lightning speed, or one of my personal rare favorites, pulling an Electrode and destroying everything in the room.


Wait a minute! Now that I think about it, this sounds alot like GODHAND already! Easy to learn, but fucking tough to master. Then again, I HAVE only played it for five hours, and I want to find out what else this guy can do.

In order to get into "Ranking Assassination" missions (aka the main point of the game) you have to complete some side jobs (from whimsical things like mowing the lawn and delivering coconuts to more badass things like killing off a whole shitload of people and doing the 'one-hit-and-you're-dead' missions. In order to get to these, however, you travel the fictional town of Santa Destroy on your motorcycle. While it is free-roaming to a degree like GTA, it's not nearly as, say, 'sandbox' like the concept it was based off of, thus making this the only portion of the game I dread. (It's....meh.) But it's not like anywhere is too TOO far, so it's not that much of a chore really.

Oh, right another important thing about combat. The Beam Katana meter.

Anytime you guard, land an attack or pretty much anything katana related, you drain the battery a bit. To charge it you hit the 1 button and start shaking the Wiimote (Which I should point out at this point Travis starts shaking the katana in a rather...*ahem* 'otaku-like' matter.) until it's charged all the way. Plan this carefully, as you'd be lucky to even get at LEAST 4 seconds to charge it....

OH YEAH. Other important details. You can (and you must) -

* - Buy new katanas.

* - Upgrade said katanas.

* - Extend combos.

* - Train your body through quick minigames to raise vitality, strength, and combos.

* - Learn new wrestling moves.

* - Change your clothing (Cuz every girl is crazy for a sharp dressed man.)

* - Spend time with your pet kitten. (Quirkiness is important to attracting gamers nowadays.)

* - KICK THEIR ASSES.

Basically, it's GTA except it doesn't put me to sleep.


So how does this game look?


Remember Suda51's killer7? Just like that, only... well, yeah just like that. The cel-shaded 'violent-comic' style seems to fit in this world just right, what with gritty cities, assassins, and stylish characters. (Typical Suda51 trademarks.) Hell, some I've spoken to have described this 'killer7's son' in aspects of mood, setting, and characters. Each slash you do to someone makes a samurai styled streak, and wrestling moves knock them limp on the floor. Pretty clean eh? Then you do your first Death Blow: Holy Shit. This game is violent. =D

Now let me say, for the record, that for me personally, violence doesn't make a game "radical, neat, tubular or excellent". As you can tell, I never got into the whole Mortal Kombat phase kids seemed crazy about in the 90s. Guess I just wasn't cool enough. I mean, it wasall about gameplay right?

Now with that said, let me say that I've never seen 'blood, gore, and decapitation' look ANYWHERE as stylish as....well, again, killer7. Hell, killer7 is more gruesome than this, but for some reason, splitting enemies in two just looked and felt fucking.... satisfyingly delicious, kinda like Suda51's other game Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked, only the combat was slower in THAT entry.

The character models? Eh, nothing to make a big stink about really, nor anything to rave on honestly. Ok, so it may not LOOK Next-Gen (Nowhere near as good looking as Mario Galaxy), but as far as 'character design' and animation goes, it has the hint of 'style, style, style, and - OH YEAH; STYLE.' You'll fall in love with the characters quickly (I already have a small crush on the insane gothic black girl Shinobu...) and the mech designs on pretty anything interactive with the game looks straight on. The backdrops and what not range from 'Pretty cool looking' to 'Somewhat blandy'.



Ok, but how does it sound?


I need to bring up two things. Two important things to know about these sorta games. "Suda51" and "Grasshopper". With Suda51 leading the projects, he seems to have a keen eye of how he wants his characters to sound. In fact, 4-5 of the voice actors from killer7 happen to played important roles in this game as well, helping to make the story more enjoyable to understand, laugh about, laugh AT, do a 'fuck yeah' uppercut to, and in general brag about to your friends who think these kind of games suck without playing. (Read: Godhand.)

Now when Grasshopper is involved with how the game's soundtrack is going to be, they usually get thousands of people reserving the game's soundtrack by the end of the night the game is released. The five of you who played Godhand and enjoyed the ultra-cool surfer rock-inspired soundtrack will be happy to know that Masafumi Takada, the main composer of Grasshopper, is also the genius behind the game's music. From the 'Matrix-style' of the assassination missions to Dr. Peace's battle music (The music that played in NMH's first trailer and the current trailer.), you'll hope there is some sort of 'sound test' unlockable in this game....

Sound effects? From Star Wars styled swinging to the splattering of crimson rage on the asphalt, they pretty much put you into the game. Literally. No, I mean before each Assassin Boss Fight, you have to raise the Wiimote to your ear like a cellphone, awaiting for Sylvia to 'wish you luck' (i.e. - be a bitch and doubt your pride as man.).


OH. Did I mention Genki Rockets' "Heavenly Star" is a song in the game? Haven't heard that song since Lumines II...


So, how did I think of it overall?


One thing you have to hand to Japanese game designers is they don't try to go for 'what's totally with the in-crowd today' but rather ask you 'what did you love about video games back then and how can we make this stand out in a crowd?' Simply, cool characters, intriguing story, catchy sound, and most importantly, game play value. The second you start this game, it's going to be hard to put down. No More Heroes goes to show you two things: that the Wii does have superb action games that don't have the words "MARIO", "ZELDA", or "METROID" in the title, and that not ALL third-party games are ass. Like Treasure, it seems if you walk through a field of weeds and flowers, you'll find a four-leaf clover that stands out that screams "Hey! Pick me out, bro!"

So in conclusion, pick No More Heroes up if you own a Wii. GTA-styled city aside, this game is a must-have title for both fans of quirky original titles, and people who just love killing stuff for no reason.

Or better yet...

"Trust Your Force... and head straight to the Garden of Madness..."
Have some wallpapers.


Also, on a side note, Suda51 is already working on a new project for the PS3 and for the 360. Two of them. One is based off of his favorite writer (Kafka), and the other is with Hideo Kojima. (Metal Gear) Supposedly, he and Kojima are working on a revival project for the classic game Snatcher. Delicious....