A few weeks ago, spurred by news of an online sale and against good common sense, I picked up Killer is Dead, the latest foray from Suda 51 into the world of modern console gaming. I have been a huge fan of Suda 51 for a long time, although I've had the creeping feeling that since the release of the second No More Heroes, he's been a bit lost. I enjoyed a lot of the bombast of Shadows of the Damned, and it and Lollipop Chainsaw were easily the two most bug-free games to ever come out of Grasshopper Manufacture, but at the same time, they felt (and this is not the word I want to use, but the only word that can articulate what I'm trying to say) surprisingly mainstream.
Now look, I'm not here to talk shit about mainstream games. I quite like a lot of mainstream games, but given Suda's past output, one can be forgiven for thinking SotD and LC were a little lacking in that particular brand of bizarre postmodern flavor that made No More Heroes and Killer 7 so special. So when I saw the flat, cel-shaded look of early Killer is Dead screenshots, and saw the utterly incomprehensible trailers, you can understand that I might have gotten a bit hot under the collar. That shit be my jam, and a return to what I've come to think of as Suda's unique art style was obviously going to capture my interest. Then, of course, it released while I was just moving into a new place and settling into a new job which got quite busy, and with one thing and another I missed it completely. I was familiar with some of the negative press surrounding it, and I got the sense that critically it was not the most well-received thing in the world, but when I finally thought of it again (thanks partially to this entry over here), I went ahead and bought it.
It was...okay? I haven't beaten it, and I don't know if I will bother; although it feels like it recaptured some of the old magic (i.e. the batshit insanity) of the older Suda games, it just doesn't quite have what I was looking for. In fact, it just made me desperate to play Killer 7 again. Sometimes the old ways are best, and if I was so eager to play that I was willing to pay to next-day ship a memory card (my memory card having been left in New York by accident) so that I could play another round of Killer 7, then so be it. Sometimes the old magics are best, and oh, Killer 7, you are absolutely the fucking best.
Let's be clear here: I'm talking about the Gamecube version when I talk about Killer 7 being the best. The PS2 version has long-ass load times, muddy controls, and looks like dog shit. All the edges are aliased all to hell, and it's just a depressing thing to play through if you've seen the beauty available on the Gamecube. Meanwhile the Gamecube version loads fast and looks phenomenal, and the controls (having been designed specifically for Nintendo's funky-ass button layout) are perfect. Killer 7's controls are deeply weird, but once you get past the oddness of what the game is asking you to do, they make complete sense (hint: the big green button and the big analog stick do basically everything).
It's no surprise that's the case, of course, as Killer 7 was the last of the infamous Capcom Five, those five games that were going to be exclusive to the Nintendo Gamecube, at least until Capcom realized that nobody fucking bought the Gamecube and they were going to lose their goddamn shirts if they didn't bang out some quick-ass PS2 ports (the Gamecube remains one of the most underrated consoles of the last decade, just so you know, even though I basically declare it to be underrated based solely on the strength of this particular version of Killer 7).
Anyway, Killer 7 offers an experience not unlike what you get in modern Call of Duty games--you're on rails, you're lead from point A to point B, there are people to shoot in between those points, and you shoot them in order to score upgrades to your shit. The difference is that while CoD pretends you can go off the rails and explore, Killer 7 doesn't bother. Your character knows where to go, even if you don't. I'm being a little facetious here, but come on, think about it. You know I'm right.
The strength of Killer 7 is in its enjoyable gunplay--yes, I said enjoyable--and the strong characterization of its protagonist(s). Each personality has a style all their own, and through the few bits of dialog you get in the selection screen, and in the few times they appear in cutscenes. Of all the personalities that aren't Garcian, Dan gets the most actual narrative, as you get to fight and kill the man who killed him...the first time(?). I would have liked to see personality-specific missions for the other five, but we can't have it all. Mask gets a fair amount of characterization as well, comparatively speaking, but the game is really about Garcian and his attempts to not just get to the bottom of this whole Heaven Smiles thing, but to also figure out who he is and how he relates to Harman (and what all these goddamned courier pigeons have to do with anything).
Everything, surprisingly, makes sense at the end, or at least is less confusing, although given the number of times I've gone through this game I might be a little more familiar with what's going on than most (once upon a time, fresh back from obtaining a Master's degree in Postmodern Fictions that I have failed utterly to use in a career, I went deep into what I saw as one of the larger themes of Killer 7. It is fun to go back and read, if only to remember that once upon a time I knew how to write in something approaching an academic register). I remember sitting back after beating the game the first time and feeling satisfied, like I'd just seen something incredible without necessarily understanding what, but the more I thought about it the more things fit together. It is also possible that beating the game drove me insane, but I'm not quite willing to admit to that yet.
Visually, Killer 7 is gorgeous, its array of simple geometric shapes contrasting sharply with one another in color, giving everything the tone of a noir film, complete with areas that brood in shadows set next to areas with paler, almost pastel looks.
It is safe to say that I cannot get enough of the look of Killer 7, because there's so little like it--even subsequent Suda 51 games like No More Heroes rely almost as much on texture as they do color. With Killer 7, it's almost completely shapes and colors (barring some of Coyote's more flamboyant shirts, and some of KAEDE's dresses), partially because I'm sure it allowed the game to run better on the Gamecube's hardware, but partially because I think that was the look Suda 51 envisioned. In a largely textureless world, it is the Heaven Smiles who possess the most texture to them, immediately signalling an inherent wrongness--they do not look like anything else in the game's world.
Oh, and also there's the sound design (I'll include the soundtrack under this too, although arguably that deserves a post all of its own. Suffice it to say that I could listen to Blackburn on repeat for days and probably come out of it with my sanity intact. Also, if you do not make your avatar dance down the stairs to the beat of Rave On whilst passing through the Viniculum Gate, you are playing Killer 7 wrong and there is no hope for you, I'm sorry). The way your footsteps sound, and the way that KAEDE's bare feet sound different from everyone else's, for example, or the way each personality's gun has its own unique sound, the menacing-as-hell laughter of the Heaven Smiles, and the triumphant cry they give should they get within hugging range that still makes me cringe even now. There's
At its heart, Killer 7's shooting gallery gameplay, Myst-except-with-more-flushing-toilets puzzle solving elements, and occasionally frustrating-as-hell boss battles might have failed to produce a good game on their own, but everything works together to create what remains my absolute favorite game of all time, full stop. The characters are bizarre, and everyone has their own personal bit of history with the Smith syndicate, which becomes apparent the longer you play. I have an unabashed love of Susie, the disembodied head that seems to collect power rings (and I really fucking love that the rings are never explained or addressed, they just Are). If I were to lose all my games in a disaster such as the one that befell Dan Ryckart, the first thing I would do is find a Wii, a Gamecube controller, a memory card, and a copy of this game. If, for some reason, you haven't played Killer 7 before and happen to have a Wii and a Gamecube controller laying around, I suggest hunting down a copy. I hear they're on Amazon, but you might have more luck finding them at a reasonable price on eBay. Totally worth it.
Having just gone back to Killer 7, it's heavy on my mind, so don't be surprised if I talk about this some more next week.
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