Cranberry chocolate sundae!
The original No More Heroes was a highly entertaining ride that was bursting with personality. Unfortunately, much of its gameplay was shallow or unrefined, and that's where No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle comes in. It attempts to fix those gameplay gripes that everyone had with the first game, while providing the same bizarre characters and setting as before. And while Desperate Struggle does indeed refine the core gameplay, it's lost a lot of personality in the process. The result is a fairly cookie cutter sequel, and one that ultimately left me feeling a little underwhelmed.
First and foremost, Desperate Struggle improves a slew of minor gameplay issues that plagued the original No More Heroes. The clunky overworld is gone, replaced by a snappy navigation menu. The ridiculous side jobs are replaced by simple 8-bit minigames, which turn out to be a lot of fun. There are no longer entry fees for ranked battles, meaning you can avoid the minigames altogether if you so choose. The long corridor crawls preceding each boss have been minimized, putting the focus where it always belonged- on the bosses themselves. And while it's mostly unchanged, the actual combat somehow feels tighter. That's a pretty hearty list of welcome refinements that go to great lengths towards streamlining the entire experience. The best parts about the original game were its boss fights, and each and every one of these changes is meant to reduce the tedium between those showdowns.
All of these gameplay changes lead me to believe that Desperate Struggle's head is in the right place. It knows what the best parts of its predecessor were, and knows how to get players to those moments more quickly. At the same time, I can't help but feel that it's lost its heart in the process. Namely, the actual boss fights feel completely uninspired. Most of them have little to no personality, execute simple attack patterns, and they can all be beaten in pretty much the same way. Gone are the crazy verbal exchanges between Travis and his foes. Gone are the off-the-wall tactics of old (land mines on the beach or crazy magician magic, anyone?). And perhaps most of all, this lack of personality extends to the overarching narrative as well. The story is nothing more than your basic revenge plot- plain and simple. Gone are the nonsensical plot twists and dialog sequences that filled the original with a fantastic sense of humor at every bend.
No More Heroes succeeded by providing completely bizarre characters and scenarios that never missed an opportunity to blow my mind. No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle reveals the danger with spawning a sequel from such a concept. It's easy enough to improve the nuts and bolts of gameplay, but it would take a serious effort to blow my mind all over again. And when that's your measure for success, things can get real tricky, real fast. Desperate Struggle is a decent enough follow up to one of the Wii's best, but it has a hard time recapturing the personality and style that made it such a success in the first place.
For additional information on my review style and scoring system, click here.
