In your face edginess and repetition make this game a stinker
I love gore in my games as much as the next guy. Glistening scarlet blood, is their really anything better in our beloved interactive medium? No More Heroes has gore, and it's fantastic. Gore is definitely not its problem, however (it wasn't Killer 7's either). Suda 51's new gen offering has the same old flaws that Grasshopper studios is known for: all flash and no substance. What's even worse is that even the flash will grind on your nerves, with extensively grating dialog, intentional or otherwise, and a completely pointless premise.
The first disappointment that you will run into with this game are the controls, which can be wholly replicated, probably even be superior, on traditional next gen consoles. You do control some things with the motion controls, like whether your swing is to be high or low, and initiating execution animations. However, the game boils down to auto-targeting and shielding with the Z button and bashing the A button like its no tomorrow to swing your light saber. The amount of actual depth and move sets is depressingly limited, and considering the Wiimote implementation is unnecessary at best and unresponsive at worst, the whole game just seems like a missed opportunity. You can throw and stun enemies with the B button, but considering mashing the A button is so much easier, you will likely completely ignore this feature.
On top of that, you'll be combating the camera more than you will the enemies. You will constantly get into awkward positions and get attacked by enemies you don't even see. The extent of the camera controls is pretty much delegated to the C button, which centers the camera, but it doesn't even work most of the time. Level design is drab, as you're essentially just going to fight wave after wave of identical enemies that can be defeated by mashing A and swinging your Wiimote in the arrow's direction that'll be on the screen to initiate an execution animation, until you get to the boss battles, which are just a slight variation on the typical enemies in that you'll need to dodge once or twice before you mash A like a maniac. The cherry on top of this feces cake is the completely useless overworld and inferior graphics, with no established solid framerate.
Combine this with Travis, one of the most grating protagonist (antagonist perhaps?) found on Wii, and you have one of the worst high profile exclusives found on Nintendo's little white box. But I'm sure it'll be venerated and overrated by Suda 51's rabid fanbase, just as Killer 7 was. Too bad I don't buy it.
-Dave
