Liam's Profile

No More Heroes

Published: Mon 3 Nov, 2008 | On:

Originality can be hard to come by in any media nowadays. Games are no different. Every second game is either an FPS or has the word "Party" at the end of it. So thank you No More Heroes. Thank you for stimulating my need for individuality in my videogames.

To the bare bones, the plot is roughly similar to Afro Samurai. The protagonist, Travis Touchdown, wants to be the numero uno assassin. To do this, he has to defeat the top 10 assassins above him. The basic kill-your-way-to-the-top plot seems simple enough. Where this game really shines, however, is in its slick story-telling and kick-ass presentation. The game simply reeks with style. Much like Travis himself, the game has a real punk-rock, F-you attitude. He buys his "beam katana" from an online auction, he watches old wrestling tapes to learn new moves, mows lawns, gathers coconuts, cleans graffiti and such just so he can pay the entry fee for his next battle. At any one time, the game will throw out an old-school 8-bit menu for no apparent reason. The game is saved by constant trips to the bathroom in order to "release yourself". It's all wacky, it's all cool and it all... somehow... works. The only real gripe is that the game attempts an open world setting. While it isn't inappropriate by any means, not a lot of time or effort has gone into it. The city of Santa Destroy seems like a ghost town. Although you get a sweet bike to boom around town with, the game is no GTA.

Those who are aware of Grasshopper Entertainment's previous PS2 game Killer 7 will be welcome to the cell-shaded visuals. The look is solid and compliments the style of the game. Brilliant character design is also a plus. However, a lot of the environments lack any real appeal. The city of Santa Destroy is a lot more plane than it sounds, littered with boxy buildings, boring people and the odd bridge here and there. Overall though, the game's a looker and stands at a high quality compared to other Wii games.

Sound design can be a hit and miss also. It's mostly a hit, but there is the odd miss. For instance, the combat music, while appropriate, is somewhat generic and repetitive. It's nothing grating but variety during battle would've been nice. On the other hand, the voice acting deserves an A+, with everyone nailing their given roles. The various sound effects that the game throws out also gets the stamp of uniqueness. The numerous 8-bit tunes that appear out of nowhere always manages to place a smile on my face.

To Grasshopper's credit, they've avoided waggle gameplay as much as they could. It results in a fun, but slightly flawed brawler. The control stick moves Travis, A attacks with your beam katana, B performs a knock-back melee, Z locks on, digital pad performs a dodge in the given direction and the tilt of the Wii remote affects Travis' fighting stance. The setup is simple and fairly easy to get to grips with. The problems tend to lie with the camera, which you have minimal control over. When locked on to a character, the typical issues emerge, such as the disability of instantly viewing what's behind you. The camera can also become stuck in a wall for a second or two when fighting in corridors (which you'll be doing a lot of). Granted, this never happens often. On the plus side, the game lets you pull off finishing moves and wrestling moves by motioning the Wiimote and Nunchuck in the given screen-prompt direction. No matter how many times you do this, it always feels good. The many minigames that you'll be spending time with around Santa Destroy are also amusing time-wasters and, while not particularly deep, are fun in their own, strange way. Searching around town for buried coins and bins with T-shirts in them may test your patience, however.

Overall, No More Heroes deserves your attention. Its a rear game that simply explodes with style which has been vomited from various genres from Anime to Punk to Mexican Wrestling. The style washes over and small technical issues the game has. If you're a Wii owner, go out, buy it, enjoy it. You have never played anything like it.