N-Philes

No More Heroes

Posted June 9th 2008 by kino.

You're done slaughtering your last generic henchman when your cell phone (er, Wii remote) rings. You press A to take the call and hold the remote against your ear. On the line is a hot, French sounding girl blabbering half-encouragements about how you're ready to face a merciless maniac, the next obstacle on the path to killer stardom. Yeah, you're probably not going to make it... Welcome to Suda 51's No More Heroes!

This third person action game puts you into the worn jeans of protagonist Travis Touchdown, a young otaku-esque aspirant to rank as the number one assassin in the city of Santa Destroy. To reach his goal, Travis must challenge ten opponents in ranked assassination jousts in order to ascend the macabre ladder and become the ultimate killer. Sounds easy enough? But not unlike this reviewer, Travis' main problem is money, or rather the lack thereof (I know, sounds impossible given N-Philes' huge paycheck, right?). Engaging in a United Assassins Association officially ranked killing session isn't cheap, and Travis' sole possessions are the Anime action figures and second rate furniture decorating his ascetical motel room, as well as the Schpel Tiger, his trusty motorcycle which looks like it could've been stolen from Kaneda.

Thankfully, the pseudo open-world (as in, not-nearly-as-good-as-GTA), L.A. inspired neighborhoods of Santa Destroy provide plenty enough small-time but monetarily rewarding jobs to help honest professional killers make ends meet. To pay for his expensive hobby, Travis will have to mow countless acres of lawn and pick tons of litter off the streets; tasks that all translate to equally exciting (as in, boring) minigames on the player's side. This is definitely not the most enjoyable part of No More Heroes, unless you get unconventionally excited at the prospect of sufficient A button mashing to make Master Takahashi weep.

Surprisingly, those repetitive backbreakers never quite get dull enough to make the player give up. After all, the pastiche jobs offered are so creatively stupid you still feel strangely compelled to execute them the best you can. It's like Grasshopper Manufacture timed the chores just right to bore you on purpose, yet not actually get in your way for too long. Once the more tedious tasks are done with and you have amassed enough capital to proceed towards your actual assignments, the next assassination target will appear on the mini-map. Also on the map are a handful of shops and locations scattered around the city: The Job Center, K-Entertainment, Ryu's gym, Video store, etc. Spending some of your hard earned cash at these places will allow you to unlock new weapons and collectables, improve your character's stats, or acquire stylish yet totally useless wardrobe elements. Hope you spared some for the ATM, though; now would be a good time for a restroom/save stop at Travis' place.

*flushes toilet* OK, I'm back!

The game's concept wholly revolves around the ten most brutal showdowns the collectively skewed minds at Grasshopper Manufacture could come up with, and pitting the player against hordes of lambda enemies on his way to confront them. The fighting missions are indeed where the quintessence of the package resides; using the faithful Beam Katana he won from an Internet auction, Travis takes on foes in a mix of button mashing, analog controlled dodges, and gesture based finishing thrusts and Lucha Libre moves. While the motion detection can sometimes be a tad too forgiving (which admittedly isn't necessarily a bad thing given how frantic the action can sometimes be), the system reveals some surprising depth as the possibilities increase exponentially depending on how you position the Wii remote, or time and alternate saber attacks and destabilizing kicks. Just make sure to watch the Katana's charge level, as you don't want to face even the weakest peon with a fully discharged battery for your weapon.

One last toilet stop before the Boss door separates Travis from his true enemy. It is no secret that Suda 51 is good friends with Metal Gear series director Hideo Kojima, and maybe their indirect collaborations are accountable for No More Heroes shining so bright during Boss battles that the rest of it almost feels peripheral to the experience. Each one of the ten UAA members - be it the emo African-American Ninja schoolgirl, the paramilitary beach babe amputee, or the deranged crooner doctor - brings on a fight of fully epic proportions, masterfully set up by stylish cutscenes and memorable dialogue. Some of the bosses can be quite hard to defeat (beating Shinobu took me easily a dozen retries), but the winning formula often lies in observing and dodging the opponent's signature moves, then patiently waiting for an opening in their defense before unleashing Travis' most powerful special thrusts.

The presentation is a mixed bag. One the one hand, the technical side can be qualified as poor, with its aliased and angular models, inconstant framerate and unrealistic collision detection during the driving segments. On the other, and perhaps even more so than Grasshopper Manufacture's previous ruthless wonder KILLER 7, the highly stylized artistic approach hits quite effectively. The solid black self-shadowing and half cel-shaded look give the title a sort of comic-book-meets-anime feel that fits the game rather perfectly. All screen transitions are nicely polished (with a stylish colored stencil effect, over just the adequate guitar riff) and help mask brief but frequent loadtimes. Major parts of the user interface adopt a brilliantly emulated pixelly 8-bit feel (the ranking board, for example, directly spoofs high-score screens from 80's arcades), sonorised with a generous bonus of retro chiptune-jingles. The whole original soundtrack excels, in a mix of rock, surf and house music that oftentimes goes places rarely explored in action games. The voice acting is just as over the top as the rest of the game, and does its part in keeping the numerous cut scenes telling the story entertaining.

No Mores Heroes is a videogame - a hard hitting one at that. Unlike the immense majority of modern so-called interactive entertainment, it is fully aware of that and won't pretentiously try and make you believe otherwise. It is more accessible than a KILLER 7 could ever hope to be, but still not exactly the game of choice for Mii artisans and the bowling elderly. Even if you're unlucky enough to play the European or Japanese versions (in which case you'll be missing out on the blood fountain extravaganza found in the US version - What happened, Suda? You used to be quite the rebel), there is still plenty of adult content to be experienced, so do not let the fun cartoony look fool the most prude of you.

Steady Beat - High Five, Goichi for delivering on your promise! No, I didn't wash hands after flushing earlier. Why?

No More Heroes has to be experienced if only for its delightful exuberance, with Suda 51 at the same time borrowing from and trouncing videogame conventions, with the audacity of a Tarantino taking on the seventh art. There is definitely enough substance and enjoyment to be had, for the game's gameplay flaws and budget limitations to rarely frustrate, and the fascinating style and narrative truly are to kill for. Punk's not dead!

Posted in: Reviews

Comments (0) | Permalink | Digg | Reddit