Do you have a burning desire to become number one; the best there is and ever was? No, I am not talking about being a Pokemon master. I speak, of course, about becoming the number one ranked assassin in all of Santa Destroy. If a strong passion for killing, beam katanas, kittens and hot babes burns in your blood, then No More Heroes is the game for you. Within Suda51’s latest ingenious creation lies the fulfillment of that burning desire we all have within us to be the best killer in a place we’ve never heard of. But don’t worry, folks, if the only burning thing you have a desire for is to play a great game on your Wii, No More Heroes can satisfy that with ease, as well.
Suda51 took the “no button wasted” approach when they designed the controls for this game. Every movement of the Wii remote and nunchuck and every button has a use. The control stick is used to move the protagonist, Travis Touchdown, around Santa Destroy. The Z button is for targeting, and the C button is used to focus the camera directly behind Travis. The A button is used to attack with the beam katana, and the B button is used to perform a stun attack (basically a kick). Holding the Wii remote up or down while attacking also will change Travis’s stance to high or low (which in turn, affects the attacks).
The other big thing to mention (before I let the players figure out the rest on their own, because what is the fun if there is no surprise?) is that after performing a combo attack on your enemies, the game will do a slight pause and an arrow will appear on the screen. If players swing their Wii remote in that direction, Travis will do a finishing-blow type attack that usually results in a lot of blood spraying and your enemy’s death.
Santa Destroy is designed in a very open ended way, but the gameplay itself is very linear. You can walk around town, kicking open dumpsters to find money or t-shirts, or you can make long treks through the city on Travis’s motorbike, the Schpeltiger. Besides the six or seven actual businesses of the city, though (like Naomi’s beam katana lab, the hotel No More Heroes, or Area51) there really aren’t any other random buildings to just go in to. In this way it’s very linear, and the game pretty much tells you what to do.
Fight a ranking battle, take on a part time job to raise money, take on some side assassin missions (also to raise money), buy random clothes, gym training, or videos, and then take on the next ranking battle. That is the basic setup of the main gameplay in No More Heroes.
Visuals in this game look really awesome for a Wii game. It has Suda51’s definite art style that we have seen in the only other game of his to make it to North America so far, and the characters all look really awesome. The personalities of the characters are definitely reflected in their outward appearances, creating some very interesting looking antagonists. Each character is voice acted as well, and all the voice work within the game is very well done. Again, it serves to show off the messed up personalities of the pro and antagonists, but it doesn’t sound forced like bad voice acting does. Everything flows within this game really well, and voice acting in particular is quite commendable.
Cinematics within the game have the same style and feel as actual in-game graphics; what their main purpose is not to look “uber pretty”, but to tell the story and explain the characters’ personalities. Which they do spectacularly.
The soundtrack of No More Heroes would definitely be a must-buy just for sheer awesomeness of the soundtrack itself. Every time you walk into or out of a door there is a sweet guitar riff and each boss battle has an intense song playing that totally gets the player in the mood for some beam-katana-swinging action. It appears as though every shop owner has their radio tuned to the same station, as a very “anime-sounding” song plays within most businesses (Area51, Naomi’s shop, Beef Head Videos, etc), though I definitely wouldn’t call that annoying, as the song is rather catchy and fun.
Interaction with this game is a breeze once the player grasps the controls; it is a simple game to play. Not only that, but players can have fun with the controls as well in the form of trying to mix A and B strikes to create neat combos, or using the charge attacks to decimate several enemies at once.
The story within this game may seem like a rather simple tale of Travis Touchdown trying to become the number one ranked assassin within this association. At the same time, it is easy to see there is a lot more going on as you come closer to becoming number one, and discover more about the characters around Travis. Players will have to play the game in order to find out exactly what is going on, though.
