Travel the city! Meet new people! Kill them!

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Released: Dec. 6, 2007
Genre: Action
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture
Publisher: Tri Synergy

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"Travel the city! Meet new people! Kill them!"

A Review by Doctor Setebos
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For anyone looking for an entertaining romp with mindless action and senseless violence, the choices have always been few and far between on Nintendo consoles. Which is why seeing a game like No More Heroes have its moment in the sun on a system such as the Wii is such a refreshing change of pace.

The game follows the adventures of Travis Touchdown, whose personality wonderfully blends American and Japanese stereotypes, creating a nearly psychotic, violent, socially-inept assassin with an ultra-geek otaku sense of style and wit. Travis must ascend the ranks of the United Assassins Association (UAA) by successfully knocking-off the assassin of each rank above him. But the story is really just window-dressing to an amazingly simple yet deliberately intricate gameplay system.

Travis wields a beam katana, and through a nuanced recipe of button-presses and slight movements of the Wii remote, you can pull off artistic attack combinations that utterly decimate large groups of opponents. Indeed, the most pleasing aspect of the entire game is how completely and totally indestructible you feel at times due to the sheer power and technique you are capable of producing with very little input. As opposed to making you feel as though the game is taking some manner of control away from you as the player, it instead results in making you feel like a complete badass.

The game is far from perfect, however. Numerous problems exist within the overall "hub world" where Travis spends his time taking odd jobs to earn money for UAA matches. Animation clipping, object displacement, and poor hit detection can all be frustrating nuisances. Also, the incredibly low draw distance while driving around in the city completely kills any feeling of a truly "open world."

Thankfully, No More Heroes isn't attempting to be the next Grand Theft Auto. It is what it is, a delightfully violent, gory, and wonderfully captivating action title that doesn't take itself too seriously. It isn't lacking in charm, or numerous faceless bad guys. And it is full to overflowing with self-indulgent fun.

Comments on this review

Devilturnip on 04/07/2008 (permalink)

Nice. I still have this one sitting in a drawer. I'll have to dig it out and finish it up.

ghostbear on 04/07/2008 (permalink)

Makes me want to buy a Wii.

Tabasco on 04/07/2008 (permalink)

I honestly could not stand the "hub world" and all those odd jobs. I loved the actual assassination missions though, but could not bring myself to finish the game after getting about halfway through. To me the jobs felt like filler content that I had to go through before I had fun, and that really rubbed me the wrong way.

Doctor Setebos on 04/07/2008 (permalink)

That's part of what's great about it, Tabasco. If you wanted, you could do nothing but assassination missions to earn money. Once you open up a nice selection of missions, you never need to look at the odd jobs again.

Libuke on 04/07/2008 (permalink)

The game was really fun, I have opened up the hardest difficulty but I haven't gotten very far into it. Almost all the boss fights had a good theme and interesting way of doing it and even though the hub world wasn't the greatest wanting to see the next boss really kept me playing.

I thought the dialog in the game as whole was pretty good, and it was particularly good between Travis and the assassins.

TheEvilNarwhale on 04/07/2008 (permalink)

I really liked the combat, but driving the bike thing around was a pain in the ass.

beefyjr on 04/28/2008 (permalink)

This game is pretty awesome, but I wish it didn't look like a PS1 game. I think in terms of actual fun Wii controls it stands heads and shoulders above everything else on the system.

anakin876 on 04/28/2008 (permalink)

This game sounds great. Thanks for the interview Dr Setebos. For those who had things they disliked - thanks for the criticism - it really helps bring the game into better focus. If you ever decide to get rid of the game - let me know :-)

livE ecivonvA on 05/03/2008 (permalink)

I had a blast with No More Heroes the first time I played it, but repetition killed it for me in the end.

Here's hoping to a little more substance for the sequel, or a brand new game from Suda 51.

thecrazyD on 08/18/2008 (permalink)

I liked the boss levels, but everything else was kinda crappy. I think it was worth the $30 I paid for it.

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