Publisher: Ubisoft & Marvelous Interactive
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture
Rating: M (for Mature)
Genre: Action
Number of Players: 1
Release Date: January 22, 2008
Platform: Wii
MSRP: $49.99
No More Heroes Gallery

Intentionally corny and absurd, No More Heroes makes a point to proclaim itself as such right from the start without apology. While more often than not this would be annoying, Goichi Suda and Grasshopper Manufacture (For whom “Punk is not dead”) have created a true work of gaming art.

Story
You play the role of “Travis Touchdown,” a young booger-picking, crotch-scratching, vulgar-mouthed, well… punk. Travis lives in “Santa Destroy” California, and doesn’t have a chip on his shoulder so much as he just doesn’t give a $#!% about anything but his own interests. Imagine James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause” fused with Yusuke Urameshi of “Yu Yu Hakusho”, wielding a light saber, and driving an Akira-style motorcycle. Then you’ll begin to get a hint of what you are in for with this game. By the way, while crudity and expletives are somewhat censored for the purposes of this review, expect no such thing in No More Heroes. There is no holding back in word or violence. The only censoring in the game comes in the form of covering Travis up just enough with words and what-not when you go take a dump/save the game (so that we aren’t subjected to such a thing throughout the entirety of play).

The game opens with a quick narrative by Travis himself. In a nutshell: He unwittingly kills the worlds 11th ranked assassin, meets a gorgeous girl, and ends up playing himself into a self-cannibalizing league of world renowned assassins in order to impress her. Only by taking out the top 10, and becoming the best in the world will he have a shot at (as he puts it) “Doing it with her.” Since killing comes quite naturally and without hesitation for the rather arrogant Travis, it will be a piece of cake as far as he’s concerned.

Silly sounding bosses such as: “Destroy Man,” “Dr. Peace,” “Bad Girl,” and “Death Metal,” of course, will prove him wrong, since their abilities are far from silly. By the way, you’ll love the interlude mini-game: “Pure White Giant Glastonbury,” (whatever that’s supposed to mean), and the silly “Luke, I am your Father” almost-twist in the story that you really won’t know what I mean until you experience it.

Gameplay
Suda 51 did an amazing job of creating a very challenging game that both the serious and casual gamer can play, implementing a style of combat that is neither overly simplistic, nor complicated. The optional tutorial is short and sweet, with several chances to opt out once you personally feel that you are ready for the real thing.

Rather than the arm-killing constant “waggle” that was a complaint regarding games such as Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire, and Soulcalibur Legends, the primary attack command is the A button. Depending on an enemy's ever-changing guard, you tilt the Wii remote either up or down as you attack to capitalize on openings. Full directional motion control only comes into play for finishing moves at the end of an enemy dispatching combo, the commands for which are displayed by classic game style, pixelized directional prompts. The end result is the deep immersion that so far has been promised by Wii swordplay games, but mostly undelivered. Thanks to No More Heroes, gone are the days where gamers found it more expedient to shake the Wii remote without rhyme or reason whenever an enemy appeared, and good riddance.

The No More Heroes formula basically consists of: Doing quick odd jobs and assassination levels to gain the amount of money needed to take part in the next ranked fight, depositing the money, then traveling to the fight/level destination on your motorcycle through the moderately large sized city of Santa Destroy. Do yourself a favor though. Don’t go into No More Heroes expecting Grand Theft Auto. While it is clear that the creators wanted there to be some small element of GTA feel to No More Heroes, it is this element that is the biggest, and only major flaw of the game.

Santa Destroy in the end is only slightly more than “the little annoyance” you have to go through in order to just get on with the game’s awesomeness. There is very little interactivity throughout the city, and most of that which is interactive only serves to bring the game down a notch. The city is very sparsely populated. Few people are out and about, limping, hobbling, and all doing their best to walk like zombies. Yes, if you are one of those types who likes to go hitting people while driving around, you may do so. All that happens though, is a quick cry, with the individual then running off without even having fallen down. Strangely, light posts and fire hydrants do go down when you hit them with enough speed, only to quickly disappear as though they never existed. It all feels very unnecessary.

No More Heroes is full of little intentional quirks though, that remind us of the fact that it is a game with the attitude of Travis Touchdown attached to it. It is what it is, and just doesn’t care how people who fail to see it as its creators intended, see it. For instance, Travis runs red lights, callously hits pedestrians while driving his motorcycle, and kills people constantly. Yet he takes the time and effort to pay his fare down in the deserted Subway, where only enemies can be found. Not a single employee or cop. Why? Because he’s Travis Touchdown.

Speaking of cops, you can run into their cars, drive on the sidewalk, hit people, and destroy property in front of them without a care. Which again brings up the question of: Why did they include that aspect of the game if they weren’t determined to fully follow through with it? If they had, this game perhaps might have shot up from the level of awesome, to the level of the all time greats.

The odd jobs and assassinations in No More Heroes can get tedious at times, but usually only if you insist upon making enough money to keep upgrading your weapons, which gets quite expensive. Training with your Master to gain strength and health requires money also, but the comparative monetary demand is little. As far as jobs go, you will end up doing everything from collecting coconuts or scorpions, to mowing lawns, or seeing how far you can jump your bike. While it seems that the job games serve mostly to add filler time to that of total gameplay, they are fun the first couple of times through; sometimes you may find that you need a break from the pure intensity and joyful insanity of No More Heroes’s battle action.

Regarding said battle action, No More Heroes is second to none when it comes to pace or intensity. Though extremely fast paced, swordplay is very smooth. The Z button trigger on the nunchuck adjusts the camera instantaneously as you slide from one enemy or kill to the next, helping you to keep the proper vantage point. There are also wrestling moves that add diversity, but are only particularly useful against certain Bosses (If you’ve got the skills to pull them off against Bosses that is).

The combat system is nearly flawless. The only small exception being certain close combat instances on the subway levels, where if you get cornered, the camera gets a little wonky, making it hard to know when exactly to move in the next direction during that crucial split second between kills. This is especially true when the huge sprays of blood go off, or there is a quick pause in frame rate. In that situation, you just might have to rely on your Spidey sense.

The finest gems within No More Heroes though, are the Boss battles. With each one, more and more of the quirky, crazy, over the top, yet massively entertaining story unfolds. While enemies on any given level can become a little repetitive, levels aren’t very long, and seem to build up to the perfect Boss battle crescendo every time.

Each Boss is quite a handful in his or her own way, and players more often than not have to be very observant in order to figure out how to win. The wonderful Dark-Anime style of the game translates seamlessly into the cinematic portions, which keeps you immersed. If No More Heroes was nothing more than the Boss fights, it would still be worth playing. That’s how much fun they are.