05-08-2008, 11:03 PM
There comes a time in the lifespan of every game console where a designer comes up with a brilliant concept that breaks the mold, that does something different! That doesn't reuse old characters from franchises going back 20 years but invents a whole new class of wacky characters. Sadly, these are the types of games that go completely unnoticed. No More Heroes is unfortunately one that falls into that category, which is sad because it is one hell of a ride that every Wii owner thursting for a great game to play is looking for.
No More Heroes stars Travis Touchdown, your average everyday man who just happened to win a beam katana (coughcoughlightsabercoughcough) on an 'Net auction. One day he stumbles into a bar and buys a drink for the lovely Sylvia Christel. She offers him a shot at glory by assassinating the 'Drifter', No. 11, Helter Skelter. Travis does so and is awarded rank 11. He then decides that he wants to kill the other 10 above him and rise to the top. It doesn't help that Sylvia promises to sleep with Travis should he make it to No.1. As you can see, No More Heroes isn't your average video game. Some of the characters in this game are unreal. In the beginning you'll come to the conclusion that Travis Touchdown is out of his ****ing mind, which you're right. But the other assassins make Travis look as sane as you and me.
Playing No More Heroes is a bit like playing an old style hack and slash. Rather than use the WIi Remote to control Travis' beam katana swings, you simply mash the A button and watch the carnage unfold. Holding the Wii Remote either up or down switches how high Travis holds his blade, which changes up the style of his fighting as well. After you get the enemy's health down quite a bit, the screen darkens and an 8-bit arrow appears on the screen. Swinging the Wiimote in the direction it indicates triggers a deathblow, often resulting in the enemy being decapitated and spurting more blood then has been seen in many video games. It works very well, much better than many other sword control schemes on Wii. Also, the enemy can also become momentarily stunned due to attacks or by attacking with the B button, you can grab the enemy and execute a bone crushing wrestling move. All are handled by swinging the Wiimote and the Nunchuk and there are plenty of them so you don't get too bored seeing the moves over and over again. While it may seem a tad shallow, No More Heroes never fails to impress with it's sense of style, but more on that in a minute.
The only problem I have with No More Heroes' gameplay is that it can get a bit repetitive. It basically follows this formula from start to finish: get a job to earn money, fight your way through hordes of enemies on your way to a boss fight, watching cinematic with boss introduced ('wtf?!?!' usually comes out of your mouth around here), fight boss, repeat. It's a good thing that it's fun earning money. You basically earn money two ways: odd jobs or assassinations. Odd jobs are just that; odd jobs. You've got everything from cutting grass and gathering scorpions to jumping off piers with your bike and finding lost cats. Assassinations are basically objective based fighting missions, such as killing with only wrestling moves or killing a certain amount in a time limit. Some of them can turn into absolute bloodbaths.
There are also other fighting missions you can do just driving around town. But these are typically on the extreme difficulty side and there's no restart point. If you lose, which you will do often, you have to drive to another one to try the mission again. It's annoying and it's tedious and it's something that could've been handled by a simple 'restart mission' option.
Graphically, No More Heroes is a mixed bag. The game suffers from terrible pop in, with buildings often appearing when you're about ten feet away from them and almost no draw distance. You'll see the building and then the game will take a few extra seconds before it actually loads the building's texture. It also suffers because Santa Destroy isn't the most populated town avaliable. Enemies (with the exception of bosses) all look terribly similar. It helps that the character models are very good, extremely detailed and the voice acting is spot on. The lips perfectly match and the cut-scenes are drawn straight from the game engine. The animation is also great, with the characters moving and reacting pretty realistically
No More Heroes isn't going to win any awards for its soundtrack. Most of the tunes you'll hear throughout the game are simple remixes of the main theme. It's a good thing that the main theme is catchy and highly adaptable. Sometimes you won't recognize the them due to a remix which is good but you really hear that tune far too much. Everything else is spot on. The voice acting is decent enough, the sounds of the katanas and the screams of your enemies are all realistic.
Okay, now let me back up a bit and talk about the style of this game. As it turns out, Suda51 likes retro gaming. Most of the menus and screens you'll see in the game are based of of old 8-bit arcade games. This doesn't subtract from the experience at all and actually fits with the overall theme of the game. No More Heroes breaks all the rules. At first glance it may look over the top violent, but having enemies pop like blood balloons and bosses getting their heads cleaved off isn't exactly ultraviolent but rather a way of getting attention. More than once I've caught myself laughing at this game's supposed 'violence'.
Suda51 also has this thing about colors. They're a lot of bright ones in this game.
All in all No More Heroes is an excellent addition to the Wii's library. While it may not be the most graphically advanced game avaliable on Nintendo's little white box, the game is very entertaining the first time through. I estimate it's length at a little over 12 hours. Playing through on higher difficulties may increase you time. If you're hungry for a game, give this a try.
Story: 10/10 Wow...just wow. An insane storyline with a great plot twist at the end. Unbelievable.
Gameplay: 9/10 Luckily hash and slash is still fun. Perfectly integrated Wii controls combined with the over the top gameplay make this an unforgettable experience.
Graphics: 7/10 Bad texturing and pop in don't help this score. But the good looking character models and animation help a lot.
Music: 6/10 Not much music to judge here...but the main theme is extremely catchy and I still find myself humming it...
Overall: 8.7/10 (not an average)
No More Heroes stars Travis Touchdown, your average everyday man who just happened to win a beam katana (coughcoughlightsabercoughcough) on an 'Net auction. One day he stumbles into a bar and buys a drink for the lovely Sylvia Christel. She offers him a shot at glory by assassinating the 'Drifter', No. 11, Helter Skelter. Travis does so and is awarded rank 11. He then decides that he wants to kill the other 10 above him and rise to the top. It doesn't help that Sylvia promises to sleep with Travis should he make it to No.1. As you can see, No More Heroes isn't your average video game. Some of the characters in this game are unreal. In the beginning you'll come to the conclusion that Travis Touchdown is out of his ****ing mind, which you're right. But the other assassins make Travis look as sane as you and me.
I'm on FIRE BABY!!!
Playing No More Heroes is a bit like playing an old style hack and slash. Rather than use the WIi Remote to control Travis' beam katana swings, you simply mash the A button and watch the carnage unfold. Holding the Wii Remote either up or down switches how high Travis holds his blade, which changes up the style of his fighting as well. After you get the enemy's health down quite a bit, the screen darkens and an 8-bit arrow appears on the screen. Swinging the Wiimote in the direction it indicates triggers a deathblow, often resulting in the enemy being decapitated and spurting more blood then has been seen in many video games. It works very well, much better than many other sword control schemes on Wii. Also, the enemy can also become momentarily stunned due to attacks or by attacking with the B button, you can grab the enemy and execute a bone crushing wrestling move. All are handled by swinging the Wiimote and the Nunchuk and there are plenty of them so you don't get too bored seeing the moves over and over again. While it may seem a tad shallow, No More Heroes never fails to impress with it's sense of style, but more on that in a minute.
The only problem I have with No More Heroes' gameplay is that it can get a bit repetitive. It basically follows this formula from start to finish: get a job to earn money, fight your way through hordes of enemies on your way to a boss fight, watching cinematic with boss introduced ('wtf?!?!' usually comes out of your mouth around here), fight boss, repeat. It's a good thing that it's fun earning money. You basically earn money two ways: odd jobs or assassinations. Odd jobs are just that; odd jobs. You've got everything from cutting grass and gathering scorpions to jumping off piers with your bike and finding lost cats. Assassinations are basically objective based fighting missions, such as killing with only wrestling moves or killing a certain amount in a time limit. Some of them can turn into absolute bloodbaths.
There are also other fighting missions you can do just driving around town. But these are typically on the extreme difficulty side and there's no restart point. If you lose, which you will do often, you have to drive to another one to try the mission again. It's annoying and it's tedious and it's something that could've been handled by a simple 'restart mission' option.
The King of Cool
Graphically, No More Heroes is a mixed bag. The game suffers from terrible pop in, with buildings often appearing when you're about ten feet away from them and almost no draw distance. You'll see the building and then the game will take a few extra seconds before it actually loads the building's texture. It also suffers because Santa Destroy isn't the most populated town avaliable. Enemies (with the exception of bosses) all look terribly similar. It helps that the character models are very good, extremely detailed and the voice acting is spot on. The lips perfectly match and the cut-scenes are drawn straight from the game engine. The animation is also great, with the characters moving and reacting pretty realistically
No More Heroes isn't going to win any awards for its soundtrack. Most of the tunes you'll hear throughout the game are simple remixes of the main theme. It's a good thing that the main theme is catchy and highly adaptable. Sometimes you won't recognize the them due to a remix which is good but you really hear that tune far too much. Everything else is spot on. The voice acting is decent enough, the sounds of the katanas and the screams of your enemies are all realistic.
Sword versus Sword
Okay, now let me back up a bit and talk about the style of this game. As it turns out, Suda51 likes retro gaming. Most of the menus and screens you'll see in the game are based of of old 8-bit arcade games. This doesn't subtract from the experience at all and actually fits with the overall theme of the game. No More Heroes breaks all the rules. At first glance it may look over the top violent, but having enemies pop like blood balloons and bosses getting their heads cleaved off isn't exactly ultraviolent but rather a way of getting attention. More than once I've caught myself laughing at this game's supposed 'violence'.
Suda51 also has this thing about colors. They're a lot of bright ones in this game.
All in all No More Heroes is an excellent addition to the Wii's library. While it may not be the most graphically advanced game avaliable on Nintendo's little white box, the game is very entertaining the first time through. I estimate it's length at a little over 12 hours. Playing through on higher difficulties may increase you time. If you're hungry for a game, give this a try.
Story: 10/10 Wow...just wow. An insane storyline with a great plot twist at the end. Unbelievable.
Gameplay: 9/10 Luckily hash and slash is still fun. Perfectly integrated Wii controls combined with the over the top gameplay make this an unforgettable experience.
Graphics: 7/10 Bad texturing and pop in don't help this score. But the good looking character models and animation help a lot.
Music: 6/10 Not much music to judge here...but the main theme is extremely catchy and I still find myself humming it...
Overall: 8.7/10 (not an average)