No More Heroes
You are Travis Touchdown, a normal guy (with an otaku geek streak) who wins a Beam Katana through an online auction and uses the weapon to start a new career as a professional killer. One day, an assassin named Helter Skelter appears before Travis and the two face off in a battle. Travis emerges victorious and finds himself in the presence of Silvia Christel, a mysterious French woman who claims to be an agent with the UAA. Silvia gives Travis official rank of 11 in the organization. Now, it’s up to you to become #1. No More Heroes takes place in the city of Santa Destroy, and you are free to explore the town to your liking, taking on missions large and small to collect money and purchase new weapons as you work up towards the 10 main killing contracts. Gameplay is all about using your Beam Katana (via Wii remote) to defeat enemies.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Possibly the Best Wii Title on the Market…
I was first told to play No More Heroes by some people at work. I watched the trailer and was pretty excited from the get go, but nothing could prepare me for the gaming experience that I was about to have.
From start to finish No More Heroes is one of the most immersive games ever made. It truly utilizes as much of the Wii as it possibly can and makes the player feel as though they are a part of the action. From using the Wii Remote as a cell phone, to removing the nun chuck control to play a classic arcade-style mini-game, No More Heroes never lets up.
That’s not even mentioning the fantastic story and fun characters. The introduction alone should be enough to get any gamer hooked, while the continuing twists are turns are extremely fun. There are side quests and mini-games which all tie in to the main quest (never a down side), but aren’t entirely necessary to completion.
Murder? Femme fatales? Professional wrestling? A light beam sword?
My only question is: Why aren’t you playing this game RIGHT NOW?
Note: All of the above being said, this game is DEFINITELY not for kids.
It isn’t supposed to be!
I have a pretty high tolerance for what I’d say is acceptable, but if I caught anyone under 15 playing this game I’d be a little worried.
So should you buy this game? Yes. Should you buy it if you have kids? That’s up to whether or not you know how to parent your children.
4 Stars A One of a Kind Experience
First of all, please be aware that No More Heroes is rated “M” for good reason. It has an overabundance of cursing, over the top violence and sexually suggestive (and sometimes overly blatant) content. If these things don’t bother you, however, you may very well enjoy this game. The extent to which you enjoy the game (if you have no problem with the “M” rated content) will come down to two factors: whether or not the style appeals to you and whether or not you enjoyed the combat. I enjoyed both, but let me describe them in detail.
The style is, well, unique. It has anime influences, but you don’t control a typical japanese protagonist. He’s actually kind of a jerk. I personally found this refreshing, kind of like how playing as Wario was fun after being Mario for so many years. He even gets blown up several times during the course of a level (as if he’s some sort of cartoon character), which was done entirely for comedic effect. The bosses you fight in the game are amazingly creative. You never know what to expect, and that fact in of itself was enough to keep me playing.
The second consideration is the combat. Now, this is something I didn’t care for at first, but it grew on me. It first seemed like everything boiled down to hitting the “A” button over and over to swing your beam katana, and while you can play this way, you won’t get the full benefit of the controls. There is a high/low attack system in place and it works with your enemies’ ability to block high or low. There is also a stun attack (”B” button) which only works if you hit the enemy where they’re blocking. After stunning them, you can grab them and body slam them, which is a fun alternate attack. There is also a guard system, wherein you guard most attacks by holding Z (so long as you’re not in the middle of attacking). When an enemy attack can break through your guard, you will see the enemy flash brightly before performing it. You will at this point need to do an emergency dodge, accomplished by pressing a direction on the control pad, to avoid the attack. Most powerful attacks, when avoided, leave enemies wide open to your own attacks. Altogether, there is a very soothing flow to the fighting, balancing guarding, dodging and attacking. The boss fights, on the other hand, take these elements and usually put some sort of spin on them, as most bosses have very unique special attacks that require altering your strategy. Figuring that strategy out is a large part of what makes the boss fights the best part of the game.
Unfortunately, there are some slow parts to the game, mainly when you are asked to gather X number of dollars in order to fight the next boss. While not that annoying at the outset, the time it takes to earn money by doing stupid side jobs and setting up fighting missions will get to you. In my opinion though, the rest of the game is worth it. Yeah, I wish it wasn’t that way, but the game is still a lot of fun . . . when you’re not mowing lawns and killing the same dudes for the tenth time.
2 Stars Atrociously Overrated
OMG, everyone and their grandmother have fallen all over this game because it’s SOOOO GOOOD cause ITS DIFFERENT THAN OTHER WII GAMES….no. Just because something’s different doesn’t mean it’s good, and in this case, it’s just plain bad. Just how bad, well…
1. The City
Empty. Lifeless. Unnecessary. It’s so big, and getting places takes so long that it seems like it was done to aribitrarily extend the length of the game. It would have been better to just have a map screen and a cursor option to click where to go. The only “things” you have to find are Lolikov Balls (which help give you new moves you don’t need and won’t use), and dumpsters filled with T-shirts you won’t wear, and money on occasion, that’s so low in value that it’s hardly worth the effort. The bike doesn’t even do cool jumps - it’s a freakin motorcycle!
2. Fighting Mechanics
Works good at first, but then try a “free fight” mission where you can’t get hit. Now have 3 of them surround you, and try to use an attack that hits multiple enemies. You can’t can you? That’s cause there isn’t one! Your charge attack, when it works, doesn’t kill them all instantly - just knocks them down - and leaves your weapon without a charge, which means you have to run away to recharge it!
Wrestling moves are ok, but only useful in boss fights. Regular henchmen are better dispatched with the sword. The enemies get tougher as time moves on, which is made worse by a camera that conveniently forgets to show you there’s enemies behind you.
3. Story
The story is the only thing the game has going for it, if that. You’re supposed to want to be the #1 assassin, and you’ve got some hot Russian? chick annoying you along the way. (I haven’t finished the game, but I hope to god the main character kills her, it would make me SO happy). You fight bosses who are all more interesting than either of the main characters. Why do I care about Travis again? He’s not funny, he’s not hurt or damaged, he’s just a pompous jerk.
4. Logical Gaps.
In one of the boss fights, you’re tricked, fall into a sand pit, and get BLOWN UP BY GRENADES. How does Travis survive? The previous fight as you tricked and shot across the room via laser beam. Again - you don’t die instantly? I thought you had a light saber, not super powers. Oh, and speaking of logic gaps, the PAL game is censored for blood, so all we get is black particles and coins, however the same grenade boss STICKS A GRENADE IN HER MOUTH AND BLOWS HER HEAD OFF. You’re telling me that’s better than blood all over the place? (Her head is comically shown like looney toon charcoal, but we all know what happened).
5. The gameplay
Chores. You have to do chores. It sounds like someone’s having a little satirical fun - and it’s fine at first. Cocnuts, lawn mowing, trash pick up - first few times, OK we get the joke. By the 8th time it’s not funny. Same goes for the over the top video rental girl who tells you which sexual movie you have overdue at the store. Funny once. A chuckle the second time. By the 8th time you’re just pressing skip. The “assassination missions” (not to be confused with the actual missions) are well, boring. You’re only doing them to make money to get into the next fight - again game stretching. If I didn’t have to do that the game would have only been 5 hours. The game is supposed to be a game - NOT A CHORE. The game ALMOST got interesting after boss 5, but I’m still waiting to see something resembling vision by boss 2. I haven’t.
Save your money for something less pretentious.
4 Stars great fun
So far I love this game! I like the GTA type open world, but I wish I could destroy things like in GTA. The few missions I’ve played have been fun and I like the money pouring out of people when you slice them up. Since you have high and low stances for blocking, slicing, and kicking I feel there is a strategy element to the fights. The dark humor is great as well the punk and retro video game vibes. I can’t wait for Deperate Struggle!
5 Stars The Accidental Assassin
If someone had told me a year ago that the Wii would bring a game that is hilariously ultraviolent, constantly irreverent, and cheerfully bloody, I probably wouldn’t have believed it. But No More Heroes is exactly all those things, and it is irresistible fun.
In No More Heroes you play as Travis Touchdown, an American “otaku” (fanboy), dirt-poor and pretty much a loser on all counts, until he wins a beam saber from an online auction and uses it to kill one of the country’s top assassins. From that moment he is on a mission (encouraged by Sylvia, a mysterious vixen who teases him with not-so-subtle hints) to become the #1 assassin in the country.
The game is made up of open-world sandbox gameplay in the city of Santa Destroy, where you can take jobs to earn your entry fees, which include collecting coconuts, cleaning graffiti, and even catching lost cats. Other jobs are shadier, and entail killing either one enemy or a number of them in a specific time frame. You can also get upgrades for weapons, lots of new costumes, and do some strength training, among other pursuits.
When you’re done exploring, the meat of the game is in the main missions, where you fight your way through hordes of enemies to reach the next killer on your list. The boss battles are surprisingly varied, for what looks essentially like a hack-and-slash sort of game. Many of them involve some fancy footwork and clever use of combat moves, but a few are quite surprising in how the final boss is beaten.
There is a story here, and it is clever and funny, with a surprising depth. Take the M rating seriously, though. Lots of sexual innuendo, crude humor, swearing, and just basic bloody violence make this NOT a game for kids.
That said, it is incredibly fun. It doesn’t make perfect use of the Wii controls (so far, that honor belongs to “Star Wars: The Force Unleashed”), but combat is intuitive and satisfying. Basic combos are done with simple button presses, while special moves and death blows bring in the more dramatic motions. When you swing the Wiimote to behead one (or more!) of your enemies with a single blood-spraying stroke you feel like you’ve just done something pretty cool.
The graphics make nice use of the same sort of cel-shading seen in Zelda: Wind Waker, but here it gives a real noir feel to the action. Motion is smooth and natural overall, and the colors are amped up to accentuate all the action. The over-the-top kill strokes result in blood spraying across the screen and coins flying all over as the enemies fall over crying for their mama (literally). It is so ridiculous it’s almost funny (the game often had me laughing at some of the situations).
Speaking of which, the audio of the game is equally strong, with excellent voice acting, perfect sounds effects, and well-chosen music. The music for the boss battles, where each assassin has his or her own theme, is nicely done and adds to the feel of the fight rather than distracting from it.
In Travis Touchdown, we don’t have a hero. We have a gaming, anime-loving geek who most gamers can probably identify with at least a little bit. Stepping into the character and how he fights is easy, fun, and more than a little addictive. Even after you finish the game once you’ll likely want to run through it again with your improved weapons and moves, just to explore the places you might have missed.
Travis might not be a hero, but sometimes it’s fun just to power up your sword arm and kill everything you can. If this sounds about right to you, No More Heroes is worth your time.
