No More Heroes Review

Over the weekend I managed to win some money at a poker game (not the greatest way...but money is money) and I took some of it to a Gamestop to buy No More Heroes. I was a bit curious after watching all the footage and the slow and mounting hype towards its release. I can honestly say it was worth throwing down the cash for this.

Lets start with the the basics. NMH revolves around one Travis Touchdown (a guy that happens be a wrestling/anime/assassin otaku) as he takes on multiple opponents in a ranking system in hopes to get laid with a chick. Now if this was it, I would be amused, curious, and skeptic how such a ridiculous plot device could ever work for a Wii game...and amazingly it holds ground. I played this game over the weekend and I don't regret it at all.

Some interesting points of the game are the side jobs Travis has to do, since in order to fight the next ranked opponent he needs funds...and it isn't cheap either. These vary from your typical kill-everything-that-moves job, to filling up gas, and then to land mine removal. Yes...kill missions makes sense, and land mine removal works too, but I can see how being a gas fueler is a bit...off. As, like most of the game, it works well into the theme of the game, where basic held concepts of a game are mostly thrown out the window.

The best part of the game though is the ranked assasaination missions. After paying the fee you head to the location to start the stage/level, or as the game calls it a 'warm-up match'. For the most part you basically run through the corridors killing any opponents that get in your way. However, to set itself different, the stages are never quite the same, and the enemies you face usually reflect the the stage enviornment. Its a nice touch.

After you get through the 'warm-up' match, you go onto the battle against the ranked opponent. For each character before and after the battle you get a snippet of who they are, some personality, and possibly an idea of how they ended up where they are. Considering how limited you get to know them, the game does an incredible job of fleshing out the characters. Each battle I had let me really connect with the characters, despite how weird, out of place, or ridiculous they were. I still remember some liners from each of them.

The game controls remarkably well. For the most part you move with the nunchuck, redirect the camera with Z, attack or interact with A, and shake the Wiimote. Depending on the context, these controls differ. In doing the sidejobs you might make the Wiimote motion of filling a gas tank, or picking up trash. In battle, when you knock an enemies health to critical, an arrow pops up pointing the direction to swing the Wiimote. Pulling it off causes Travis to slash (in a very awesome way) his opponent, usually as finishing move. In some cases you can pull off the motions of wrestling moves, and then watch as Travis uses them on his opponent.

The controls are not without fault though. Against groups of enemies, there is no way to actively switch between who you want to target. Allow, despite how awesome killing an opponent is, it can get repititive. Most enemies tend to fall quite easily to your skills, and only become more difficult towards the end of the game. Pulling off wrestling move finishers prove difficult, and I found just shaking the remote more effective. It kills the point of doing the motions.

Graphically, NMH sports plenty of dynamic settings. The cel-shade style adds to the crazy realistic unrealism in the game. Each stage is unique, and always creates a different feel, despite usually covering the same general idea (kill everything to move on). Not only that, prior to entering a ranked match, you always start off with taking out your weapon. Its not significant, but a nice touch. The general hub city is littered with several signs and posts parodying American standards and businesses. It definitely does feel like an atypical (though unrealistic) West Coast city. An extra touch is that you can customise Travis's look with various shirts and clothes you find around town. For some reason it feels fun to go on an assasination mission wearing torn jeans, a brown jacket, and a T-shirt with anime girls on it.

Counteracting this is that it will get old. The city is interesting, but it quickly becomes bland when you find out you cannot completely interact with it, and even fewer places stand out after playing for a while. When you have to keep going through the city to find other locations, this problem stands out more.

Overall, I found this game to have one major strength and weakness, its variety. The game will keep throwing you into radically different situations, whether its the sidejobs you're doing to earn cash or the assasination ranked missions. For that, there is enough to keep you busy playing the game until you've made it to the end, and then some. However, the variety is the greatest fault. Each thing you do is unique and fun by itself, but if you tend to stick to one thing, whether assaination or sidejobs, it will get boring and tedious.

Despite some of the faults, No More Heroes is one of the most unique titles to make it onto the Wii console. If you are an adult gamer, this is definitely one title you should try, but I'd definitely add it to any gamer's Wii library.

Opinion - For some reason, this game feels like a prototype of sorts. Everything was incredibly fun, but there are definitely parts that could be improved upon, like the control system, graphical outlook, music variety, and more types of missions. Depite being on a inferior hardware system, it they did an incredible job. I really hope a sequel comes out, because this type of game feels like it needs just a little more polish and tweaking before it can reach the status of 'classic'. I also recommend playing this game in pieces, to enhance the gameplay experience.