I'll let you know now. I was too lazy to get good sized screenshots so I really just recommened you take a look around YouTube if you're really interested.
It's been such a long time since I've written a review I've almost forgotten how to do it. But don't worry, hopefully I'll be able to shake off the rust and give the review of a lifetime because I've got a lot to say about what was my most anticipated third party Wii release yet.
The amount of good third party Wii releases targeted towards the hardcore gamer have been few and far between. There was
Resident Evil 4, however it was more or less a direct port of the GameCube version with remapped controls. Unfortunately when a good third party game does hit Wii it is usually a port, or when not a port, it simply isn't very good. Wii owners complaining about a lack of hardcore titles should at the very least give games such as
Resident Evil,
Scarface, and one of my favorites,
The Godfather: Blackhand Edition a go. Yet I believe it to be more important for Wii's hardcore following to embrace a new comer who unlike the aforementioned games is not a port.
Now that we've gotten past that train wreck of an intro it should be no surprise that the game I speak of is
No More Heroes (maybe the title gave it away) from Suda51, the man responsible for the critically acclaimed
Killer7. Suda brings with him to No More Heroes the cel shaded art style of Killer7, only a little bit darker with an immeasurable more amount of blood.
In No More Heroes you take control of Travis Touchdown, your everyday average
otaku gamer, and simply put geek. What sets Travis apart from the rest of the world however is his complete and utter insanity as he aims to become the #1 ranked assassin in the United States, killing anyone who stands in his way simply for bragging rights and cash. However throughout the game it can still become easy for the player to identify with Travis as we are doing the exact same thing he is. Gamers attempt to escape the monotony (I'll try not to overuse that word) of everyday life by playing a game where the normal rules we play by do not apply anymore and we're free to do as we please without worrying about any consequences. This is what Travis is doing, albeit it at a much more extreme level.
After meeting with Sylvia Crystel, an agent with United Assassin's Association Travis takes on a job as a hitman and soon strives to become the top killer in the country. To get to these fights Travis must provide the UAA with entry fee which he can pay for by doing odd part time jobs around the city of Santa Destroy, and by taking on assassination missions.
As mentally unstable as Travis may seem to be, he is the sanest man on Earth when compared to most if not all of the 10 ranked assassins above him, each and everyone with their own distinct and developed personalities. It is because of this that the boss battles and the scenes which take place before and after the fight are the best and always the most anticipated parts of the game. The opening and closing cinematic for each of the bosses is a treat to behold and it lets you know that besides Travis' simple ambition of becoming #1, there is a story to be told and very complex characters each with their own story to tell.
I cannot hardly say enough about how great these sequences and the fights are that I even find myself going to YouTube to watch some of my favorites yet again. Each boss has his or her own set of unique attacks and strategies so you will never find yourself getting bored or will you ever find yourself feeling like the character you're currently fighting fought a lot like that last one.
To keep the player from falling into a rut of constantly repeating the same tasks continuously, much like in
Assassin's Creed, Sude51 threw in more than enough twists and turns to keep everyone happy. While I can't really go into much detail without spoiling much of the game I will tell you that the game has a far more complex story than you may currently be led to believe.
Mostly all of the characters are given a short monologue where they can tell you their sad story and some of the writing is just amazing. Suda51 certainly outdid himself with this one. On top of that, the voice acting is top notch and there is not one character for whom I could suggest a better voice.
The game is also capable of being laugh out loud funny at times, referencing both gaming and nerd culture, as well as just having fun and wacky moments. It is by no means a game that takes itself too seriously, managing to find that perfect balance between seriousness and comedy.
Outside of the boss battles the combat can get a little repetitive, however Grasshopper Manufacture have managed to add just enough of a distraction to keep what would normally be a simple button masher from getting boring very quickly. Once an enemy's health has been brought down to nearly nothing one more swing of your trusty beam katana will bring up a context sensitive finishing move which will have you swing or flick the remote in the direction designated by the on-screen arrow to deliver the final blow.
Travis, being an avid wrestling fan, has more than a few moves up his sleeve which you can use to deliver punishing body slams and DDTs to an enemy. There is definitely more depth in Travis' wrestling moves than in his finishing katana swings as both the remote and nunchuk are used in a variety of different ways. However, a wrestling move will usually not get the job done, leaving just a sliver of health left in the now motionless enemy to whom you must deliver one final blow.
As the whole, the combat is incredibly engaging and extremely fun to play. Even in a side mission that will have you assassinating 100 people will not leave you bored just because of how stylistic the fighting is, and not to mention the incredible amount of gore and blood contained within the game will keep you going as your enemies cry out for their spleens as you slice them in half.
Even ignoring the blood that comes only with the North American version of the game, it is still very bloody fun (Sorry for that. Won't do it again). Although European gamers will be disappointed to know that their version of the game will be sans blood and instead replaced by a black "powder" it should not alter your views of the game. You are still getting the same narrative masterpiece as the rest of
Although Santa Destroy is a fairly open world the game still plays in a fairly linear fashion. After each successful hit you will have to earn enough money to enter the next rankings fight. To do so you will first finish a part time job (none of which are all that memorable) and then move onto the real money in the assassination missions. There are always other things to do such upgrade Travis' strength and combo abilities, purchase new clothes, and simply explore Santa Destroy, kicking open dumpsters to find shirts or money.
The game's cel shaded art style suits it very well and its stylistic transitions between entering a building, beginning a mission, or entering a rankings fight all look very nice and suit the game's style. The characters and environments themselves also look very nice, however this is offset somewhat by the game's ugly overworld, Santa Destroy. The city has a very unfinished and half baked feeling to it like they just simply couldn't get around to finishing it in time.
The game also employs a very simplistic retro gaming look with it's pixelated icons and mini-map. No More Heroes is a game that takes pride in being a video game and at times even breaking the fourth wall to let you know that it is aware of its status as a game. It all comes together very nicely and completes the game's slick presentation.
Aside from its looks, the city is almost a Californian ghost town. Traffic from other cars and pedestrians is very minimal and they do not react with you at all or very well. Walking into a pedestrian will do nothing more than have you push them freely wherever you please while they just try to continue walking and will then just continue like nothing happened when you leave them.
Even stranger for a game with as much violence in it as No More Heroes is that it is impossible to run over a person in the road or cause a car accident of some kind. Should you ever happen to "run someone over" all that will happen is the person will look like they've just shoved (like how they should react when you run into them), stay standing, and then just run away. The cars in the city on the other hand will just stop dead in their tracks when coming into contact with you and will wait patiently for you to collect yourself and drive away before they carry on their marry way.
Once you've gotten the hang of using the drifts and boosts with your motorcycle effectively it should not be too hard for you to make your way around Santa Destroy. Unfortunately here's where that "unfinished" thing the city has going on comes into play. When traveling at a high enough speed it is possible for Travis to uproot trees and knock over lamp posts with the greatest of ease, and yet (and this happened to me twice) driving into a pitiful little bus stop causes you to crash and fall off.
Another of the game's most frustrating problems which could have been so incredibly easy to fix is that it lacks a "Retry" option of any kind. Sure, when you have entered a rankings fight and you're making your way to the boss you will hit checkpoints. However when attempting an assassination or free fight mission, failure will do nothing more then spit you right back into the streets of Santa Destroy.
In the case of the assassination missions it's a simple matter of simply driving back to K-Entertainment and taking the mission once again and then driving back to the mission point. It is very tedious and annoying but it is nothing when compared to the free fights. A free fight mission is one where you take on a set number of foes, attempting to defeat them all without taking a single hit from them. Doing so results in an automatic failure. The free fight missions unfortunately are scattered around Santa Destroy so failing one of them means that you'll just have to wait it out until that mission suddenly pops back up on your map. It came to the point where I stopped bothering with the free fight missions as I've only ever successfully completed one and was able to easily get by on the part time jobs and assassinations available.
Now it may seem like there are a lot of things wrong with the game, there really aren't. Even though I rambled on a bit about the negatives of Santa Destroy, these things are nothing more than a minor annoyance which can be easily overlooked when the rest of the game is as great and fun to play as it is.
In the sound department No More Heroes comes out on top as well. The game's main theme is very catchy although it is played just a little too much through different tempos and styles while still managing to keep from crossing the line that would make it overly repetitive. There are also some really nice sounding tracks mixed in throughout the separate buildings, bosses, and fights to keep you going.
As mentioned before, the voice acting is great and is an integral part of the game due to its very heavy dependence upon cutscenes and monologues. The game also makes great use of the Wii remotes internal speaker. If you listen carefully you will hear your beam katana hum as it slices through the air and your foes, while the best part comes before each boss battle. You receive a phone call from Sylvia Crystel and she always has something to say about how sure she is that you will die this time around. However as Travis puts his phone to his ear, you just may have to do the same with the Wii remote to hear what she has to say. Sure it looks silly but it brings a whole new level of sucking you into the game.
When playing on the Mild difficulty (aka Medium) that game is still quite challenging to complete, and yet once the game has already been completed once the Bitter (Hard) difficulty is unlocked adding that much more depth to the game. Combined with 3 different types of katanas to suit the fighting style you may be looking for, the game should be good for more than one play through.
I could go on even more and I can't help but shake the feeling that I've forgotten something but this seems like a good place to stop. The bottom line is that No More Heroes is a great game and any Wii owner should be ecstatic that the game is even on Nintendo's platform. Yet with recent sales numbers it seems that people just haven't caught on.
Despite it's few annoying bugs, No More Heroes is an action packed title with amazing characters and presentation to boot. It is the best action game on Wii and among the best overall. If you own a Wii you owe it to yourself to get this game to at the very least support Wii's third party developers and to show that we don't all just want a bunch of party and casual games.
And one last thing, some of you may think of this as spoilers but i want to let everyone know right away how they are to go about getting the real ending to the game as the non-real ending leaves much to be desired. To get the real ending all you have to do is purchase all three of the beam katana upgrades from Dr. Naomi. Once you've done that you'll be able to see the great full ending to the game.
