by Sirfalcon
It has been two years since the release of No More Heroes on the Wii and gamers have eagerly awaited Travis Touchdown’s return to the Wii. Thankfully Suda 51 and Ubisoft have released a sequel titled No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. For gamers new to the No More Heroes franchise, here are a couple things to get you acquainted to No More Heroes (NMH). The protagonist Travis Touchdown is a loud mouth Otaku, whose main objective is to be the #1 assassin in the city of Santa Destroy. With his trusty saber in hand and foul language at the tip of his tongue, Travis is ready to cripple anything in his path.
Graphics. Most of the game is shown through the 3D game engine as well as the cutscenes. Most of the time the screen is covered in a thick layer of red, depicting blood that scatters from your fallen foes. The graphics aren’t really much of an upgrade since the last NMH but it definitely serves its purpose to depict fast action gameplay. The other portion of the game, the jobs, are displayed through a classic 8-bit style that will make you wonder if it’s a graphical cop out or pure genius.
Control. The first time NMH hit the market, it did a great job giving the player full control over Travis. NMH 2 is no exception with sabers in hand as players can hold the wii remote in a high stance and a low stance for two different types of attack patterns, as you wildly mash the A button to attack. Players are also given the option to swing the nunchuck for other attacks as well, but it’s not enough to make you feel like you’re actually wielding swords; ala Red Steel. Although, from time to time Travis does need to recharge his sword, which involves the player wildly shaking their remote as Travis displays some suggestive on screen motions. The controls work well and if that style doesn’t fit your fancy, Ubisoft has blessed us with the classic controller style as well.
Sound. Many of the sound effects in NMH 2 are imported from the first game. The first thing you start to notice after the fourth hour of gameplay is the repetitive voice clips. In fact they happen so often that sometimes some of the clips repeat before the others finish, resulting in a very annoying experience. On the other hand, the cutscene’s dialog isn’t bad, just expect a lot of potty mouth foul language and sexual innuendoes that most likely will leave most gamers in stitches. On the other hand, the music is a combination of rock and typical anime music that you probably won’t remember too much. And yes, that NMH tune from the original does make a return, so maybe that one will leave you humming!
Gameplay. NMH 2 decides to ditch the whole open world idea and bring it down a notch to make it more like a menu select screen. To advance the story, you gain rankings and defeat bosses. NMH 2 does offer a variety of side missions that take away from the main storyline, but it only serves as a distraction. The main concept of the game is to play through a level by clearing out every single enemy and advancing to the boss. This tends to get tiring after a while and the game loses its flare after you see all the special techniques and unlock all 4 sabers. Personally, after playing the game and seeing that there were 50 rankings to go through, I became really excited and expected a lot of unique original bosses. Only to find out that there were only 14 bosses and most of them were forgettable and didn’t hold a candle to the original game.
Now the mini games Suda 51 has created does something for us grandpa gamers. The fact that they went out of their way to create 8-bit games for all your money collecting needs. There are eight games in all with a huge variety. Some range from side scrolling, to racing, to a Tetris-like puzzle game. There is even a game where you cook meat for customers. Don’t fail or you’ll end up with a fork in your face and dirty language escaping their mouths. Each of these games comes with their own cool soundtrack that is also in 8 bit, which adds to the experience making them, Oh so much fun!
Overall. NMH 2 does a great job at pulling the player in. But in the end the tedious levels, forgettable bosses, and a nonsensical plot line leads to a disappointing experience. Suda 51 plans to continue the series but with different characters. Hopefully a new plot with some returning characters will do the trick. But until then we can only hope that the next NMH will satisfy fans everywhere. Just what kind of battle cry is “Strawberry Orange Shortcake,” anyway?
