No More Heroes

No More Heroes is the newest game from Suda-51 and Grasshopper studios, the developers of Killer7. The quality that will attract most people is its unparalleled style that could only come from the mind of Suda-51. No More Heroes offers a unique art style, some catchy tunes, but most importantly: a sense of humor.

In the world of No More Heroes, you, Travis Touchdown, are a stereotypical otaku that lives in a motel in Santa Destroy. After winning a Beam Katana, which very much resembles and bares a similar name to the Light Saber, he is ranked as the eleventh ranked assassin of the United Assassins Association (UAA). When Travis gets tricked into killing Number 10 by Sylvia Cristel, Travis' basic mission hander, he becomes a target for assassinations. Because of this, he decides if he will be on an assassination list anyways, he should be Number 1.

The very first thing you will notice about this game is that the art style varies much from other games you are now used to. The game uses a cell-shaded art style, and it works out fine for this type of game. The design of the game is exceptional, however the characters not only look exciting but really delivers as well. The city itself is very colorful, however there are problems with it. You will encounter some framerate issues and the fluidity of the game slows down. Also some buildings don't show their features such as doors, windows and signs until you actually get close to it, which can sort of be annoying. The most interesting part of the visuals, in my opinion, is the map. The map is produced in 8-bit, which brings back memories of the great NES days. Graphically, the cell-shaded graphics and environments are very nice and although there are a few problems, they will not affect the gameplay.

As far as sound effects go, they are great. Much like No More Heroes' map, there are also some old-school video game sound effects, such as "beeps" and "boops". Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. One thing about the music really annoys me though. There is no music when you are exploring the city of Santa Destroy, only car horns and what-not. Oh, wait! There is music... when Travis is on his motorbike. Another gripe I have with this is the voice acting. Although, they are pretty well done, they make every single boss assassin and Sylvia sound like stereotypical immigrants. Sylvia has that annoying French accent, which you may or may not like. The first boss you encounter is some English dude... and yes, with the British accent. There are pretty much no real problems with sound at all, minus some of the voice acting and the lack of music in Santa Destroy.

The game is divided to two different gameplay aspects, sandbox free roaming and hack and slash battles. The latter is where the game shines with unique characters, humor and great boss battles. Unfortunately the flipside isn't nearly as entertaining. Combat is simple and rewarding. Of course the ranking battles are the most fun as you get to fight all the outrageous bosses of the game. When you're not fighting the next ranked assassin, you will be doing several other things to keep you occupied. You will have to do jobs in order to get money in order to pay for your next ranked match. You will be doing a variety of missions in order to get this money such as lawn mowing, collecting coconuts, and cleaning walls which are used to kill time but are not very entertaining. Along with side-jobs, you can actually shop with the money that you earn if you do not want to get into the next ranked battle just yet. You can buy new clothes, which may I add is too expensive, work out, buy an upgrade for your beam katana, and even feed your cute little kitty, Jeane.

When you think of sword-slashing on the Wii you think of waggle, waggle, waggle. This feature came to be very annoying, and sometimes even caused some soreness. No More Heroes thinks of a brilliant way to implement the motion controls without the onslaught of it either. To attack with the beam katana, you basically button mash the A button and you do melee attacks with the B Button. In battle, the motion controls are implemented as well as stated above. When an enemy is almost defeated, No More Heroes gives you a chance to finish your opponent off with a "fatality" move of sorts. A blinking arrow will appear on the screen where you must flick your Wii remote in to slash their body in that direction. You can also use wrestling moves on your enemies, which also uses the on-screen arrow, but instead uses both the Wii remote and nunchuk to activate. Motion controls are also activated when you are riding your motorbike. You can flick the Wii remote upwards to perform a jump. There is also a baseball mini game mission, where you swing your beam katana to kill enemies within the ball's line of fire.

When you play the game for the first time, you have two difficulty levels to choose from: sweet and mild, your basic easy and normal. Once you've finished the game on either difficulty, you can start a new game with a harder difficulty setting and keep all of your items from the previous playthrough. As for the difficulty, excluding some of the boss battles, this game is fairly easy.

If you are looking for a fun time where you can also look at something visually appealing at the same time, this is the game to get. Especially with humorous dialogue and an overkill of blood (in the US versions at least), you will not want to put it down... that is unless you're doing one of the boring side-missions. However, if you are looking for real challenge, you should look somewhere else. This isn't a must-have for Wii owners, but it should be warranted to check out. Rent it first, as some people do not enjoy this game, but if you do enjoy it, buy it.