No More Heroes - 7.5/10
No More Heroes
In need of a dose of pop culture?
By Matt Kelly
If you played Killer7 back in the Gamecube days you'll already have a taste of Suda51's brand of design. Depending on what camp you come from you'll either call it awesome or just plain weird. Around the proverbial MyMedia office we tend to fall into the group of people who scream 'AWESOME!' and roll around the floor foaming at the mouth over Killer7. It wasn't a mega hit and didn't score big points in the reviews, but a lot of people remember it as one of the most unique experiences they had on Gamecube. And in 2008, we're getting another helping of Suda style.
No More Heroes is a very different breed of game Killer7, gone is the linear, on-track FPS gameplay and instead you'll find your virtually-based, third-person psychotic killing sprees taking place in the semi-free roaming world of LA-esque Santa Destroy. You play the role of Travis Touchdown, low level assassin hoping to climb to the top of the league. The game takes no time at all to get into the action, as aside from the forth wall breaking intro (where Travis specifically talks to you, 'the one holding the Wii-remote') you're straight into the mansion raiding introduction mission, out to take down your first ranking assassin.
You'll find very quickly that NMH bares a stronger resemblance to something you would have played in the arcades rather than what is more common on consoles. A detailed system of combat that involves you dodging gunfire behind pillars and looking for explosive barrels to take out numbers of enemies, NMH feels much more like a straight in your face beat em up more focusing you direct, continuous combat that just gets harder as the game goes on. You'll find yourself slashing away at the them, blocking attacks, stunning them and pulling wrestling moves on them and all sorts of other very cool to look at killing styles. After slashing the heck out of someone you'll be able to pull what you could call a finishing move, where the game will pause giving you a way to swing the remote. Do so and Travis with slice and dice into bits. While there are a number of ways to dispatch your foes, all of these revolve getting into the thick of it in true arcadey beat em up style.
If constant in your face action is what you're looking for then NMH will deliver but you'll find the game is more style than substance. The fighting looks great but at the end of the day its a very hack and slash experience. Press A repeatedly to swing at your enemies, hold Z to lock on and block, circle around and go for the kill. The level you hold the Wii-Remote at will decide whether you go for a high attack or a low attack, and you'll have various gesture that will allow you to grapple your enemies and throw them around. Occasionally you'll get into a waggle battle (our term, not there's) in which you'll lock weapons and have to waggle the remote quickly to over power them. Doing so will allow you to pull a finishing slice and dice move. Yes it's 3D, yes there are a few different moves, but the core of the combat is still beating your opponents into the ground with button bashing. It's fun, it looks cool, but don't expect it to satisfy if you're the sort that needs a lot of ways to kill your enemies. On a side note you will also find a slot machine style set of rolling icons in the corner, which when three line up you'll be able to cross into Travis' 'Dark Side' (one of the many many references to Star Wars in the game). This will activate one of many powers that range from stopping time, speeding up Travis, allowing insta-geasture-kils, and shooting 8-bit style fireballs at people. Again, doesn't add depth, but it's still cool to watch.
One of the things that got people excited when the game was first announced was the sand box GTA style that Travis moves through the story. While the idea of a Suda51 designed city drowning in pop culture references sounds cool, on execution its little more than moving from point A to point B, and occasionally point C if you feel Travis' clothes are getting boring and want to play dress up. Absolutely no out-of-mission action will be happening on the mean streets of Santa Destroy, and what non-combat population exists is pretty sparse. Few people roam the world and even fewer traffic. You'll spend more time looking at the map checking you're still going in the right direction rather than watching the world go by. In terms of things to actually do outside of side jobs and missions, looking through dumpsters and hunting for dollars. To make matters worse, the city is a really pain to navigate! One real major in the free roaming world is the collisions when you're on Travis' motorcycle. Yes you can knock people down and collide with cars, but you seem to be able to do both without actually having to hit the object. You can drive right by people and still collect them, and colliding with cars has a very noticable gap between your motorcycle in the car. Chances are you'll avoid aimlessly driving around the free roaming world anyway, but for the time you have to spend there it kind of further ruins the experience.
In terms of mission progression the game, Travis' does need to make a bit of coin outside of taking down the top ten assassins (which in turn costs him a fair amount to actually do). There are several kinds of jobs in the world, the most basic being mowing lawns, pumping gas, collecting coconuts, and a few other low key jobs in order to make the dollars to scrape by. These in turn lead to far more fun (and violent) low level missions which will require you to take out particular people in a time limit, kill everyone in the area, and kill everyone with with out getting hit. There are a few more variations but these fall into a much smaller version of the hack and slash assassin league battles. Once you've earned enough dollars you'll stick it in an ATM and you're next ranking battle will be given to you. These involve a much larger area to play through, though they are very linear, little more than progressing through corridors and killing everyone in the way. The boss assassin battles themselves are a break from the general pace of fighting, instead requiring you to learn each ones unique way of dealing out the pain, and it's not always obvious at first. Thankfully even if you get your ass handed to you, you'll receive a little hint in the post-death option menu.
So the game play is fun, a bit repeative, and very violent. So what saves Suda's first entry in the Wii world and stops Travis fading into the background of shovelware? The tone, humor, and look is flat out great!
Most games that try to do funny either fail or do it in such a way that it's not funny. NMH however pulls out in front as a lot of the characters, animation and dialogue will have you giggling. Be it just through its pop culture references, the situations Travis is put in (professional killer mowing lawns?) or just through the characters, NMH delivers the laughs. Travis is a really great character on so many levels because on one hand he is a bad ass killing machine, but on the other hand he is a bit of a loser. You can laugh and have respect for him at the same time. He can be rolling around screaming on the side walk about not getting laid one minute, and being a tough guy killer the other. You look around his apartment and he has porn and little figures from anime series, but out in the city he's decapitating people. One curious thing is a lot of Travis' 'I'm about to kill you' type dialogue is delivered in a way that sounds like he's almost repeating lines from a TV show that he thought were cool. A bit under confident and a bit stony, its an interesting touch if nothing else and works well.
Regardless of whether the above was intentional or not, all the voice acting is great right through and is treads the thin line between natural and ridiculous. While the vast majority of characters will only get some pre-battle dialogue, its all delivered well and aids the story. For the characters who don't get mauled and appear right through the story, every time you see them its a welcome experience and you are waiting for their next line of dialogue. Travis is the star of the show though and you'll find yourself waiting for his next cut scene. You'll also find a bit of uncommon voice over use in the game, as Travis from time to time talks to himself during battles. For instance in the first boss battle, the carnage is overlaid with Travis' dreams and hopes about what it's like to be a millionaire mansion owner, surrounded by hot yoga girls who tend to his every need. All in all Travis is a really well developed character that has a lot of different sides, all of them are great to watch.
Music is also another thing that's really impressive in the game, sounding more like a film score, and not in the sense that it's orchestral music. Various motif develop through out the game which you'll hear popping up with a new spin on it. Be it thumping techno, garage band rock or 8-bit blips, the music really serves in keep the game tied together. And not only that, the tunes are really cool and catchy too!
Finally on the graphics front, NMH is a mix bag. The character design, animation and harsh use of lighting is great, but for the most part the surrounding world is lacking. There is a distinct washed out look to Santa Destroy which lends itself to the gritty factor of the game, but like we said you won't stop and just take in the world. The game also sufferings from a fair few pop-ins when driving around as stuff does literally appear before your eyes. It's not a constant thing but it's annoying and occasionally will send you flying off your bike. The linear combat sections of the game aren't much better, as they not much more than rooms with a few bits of furniture to give you an idea of what you're actually standing in. This is kind of made up for with the sheer number of on screen enemies, but when you're just having to run through corridors it does lose the cool factor a bit.
Now, let's talk about blood. We've played both versions, the US and the PAL edition. If you've been following the on-going goss both on MyWii and elsewhere, you'll know that there's a whole lot of reasons flying around about why blood was cut from the PAL version. Be it a ratings refusal concern, the blood was only added to the American version to get the publishing deal, or a whole lot of other things, at the end of the day NMH does not suffer by having no blood. The game is gritty and adult and doesn't add or lose anything with blood. And on the plus side you'll be getting a noticeably better frame rate out of the PAL version compared to the NTSC version when the blood fountains start happening!
Summary:
Overall chances are you won't end up playing No More Heroes for it's gameplay, but rather it's risking taking style and design. There's a lot of style elements that are really uncommon in games, and it's well worth getting your teeth into them. That being said, the combat aspect of the game is a fairly solid version of the beat-em-up design, and it's gonna appeal if you love just getting in there and kicking the crap out of anyone if your way. The boss fights are solid but once the kill method has been figured out it really just becomes a matter of timing. Santa Destroy's free roaming environment adds little to the game and can be a complete pain in the ass sometimes, though it is nice being able to cruise around buying clothes, Katana upgrades and so forth. Overall if you're a gamer who's been gaming since the 1985, you're gonna love the amount of game and pop culture humor through out, and even if you're not there's still a lot of laughs to be had along the way. If you're looking for a title that isn't scared to be daring, this is the one.
Gameplay - 7.0
It's rough and gritty but if you like dealing out the harshness constantly than you'll have fun. The free roaming world is more bad than good.
Graphics - 8.0
Stylized as hell, NMH doesn't fight the 'real' battle and instead plays on the characters and 8 bit imagery to give its feel. Environments are under detailed and are there as little more than space to move through.
Sound - 8.5
Excellent music though it may not be everyones style. Voice acting is great, and you'll always be up for another dose of it.
Replay - 6
Despite it's Sandbox style, the only thing to come back for is the game's adventure. The little collectibles aren't all that exciting, though playing dress ups with Travis can be fun.
Overall 7.5
No More Heroes doesn't quite hit a lot of marks but also does things that no other game does. The core gameplay isn't as solid as it could be, but it's still worth a play for the sheer awesome design principles.
Submitted by Robtot
11/04/2008
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