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No More Heroes: Style isn’t everything
(by Caleb Rumley - March 12, 2008)
The Wii has seen plenty of mini game collections in the past few months, but there has been a pretty serious shortage of hardcore games. Suda 51 recently released No More Heroes, a free roaming action game that really has great graphical style and excellent combat.
In No More Heroes, you play as Travis Touchdown – an almost laughably stereotypical video game character. His spiky hair, leather jacket, and ostentatious aviators are exactly like every other character from action games. Travis has a beam katana that he bought online – basically, a light saber, and he signed up for the United Association of Assassins. The UAA keeps ranking of the top 10 assassins, and as Travis, you have to kill your way to the top.
The action in No More Heroes is for the most part exciting and innovative. Instead of waving the Wiimote around like a fool for every sword strike, you only use it for the awesomely powerful finishing moves. After slashing at an enemy a few times, you slash the Wiimote in a direction as Travis unleashes a fury of destruction on the assassins against him. Even better, the action pauses for a split second before Travis goes in for the kill.
No More Heroes’ graphic style allows for crazy gameplay. The graphics are very reminiscent of Suda 51’s Killer 7, which came out in 2005. The cel-shaded style is incredible, and every fight is ridiculous. You can pull of some Matrix-esque moves in No More Heroes, and the stylized graphics make sure everything looks as good as possible. However, the draw distance in Santa Destroy is pretty weak, and sometimes you can actually see objects load into view. But overall, I really enjoyed the over the top graphics and art style.
However good the game’s style and look may be, No More Heroes has quite a few flaws. To move to up the ranks in the Assassins’ List, you have to raise money by finishing pretty pointless and boring minigames. The games are as exciting as actually pumping gas and mowing lawns so I could raise the funds and fight the next ranked assassin. Suda 51 could’ve been more creative with the minigames, and I wasn’t a big fan of the time in between missions.
No More Heroes really does a lot of interesting things and is definitely different than the typical adventure game, but it has plenty of shortfalls. I have to say, however, that it has some really great fight scenes and you can pull off some really sweet moves. No More Heroes also has a hilarious sense of humor and the game never really takes itself seriously.
But all in all, there’s just an element of fun when you slash the Wiimote and completely devastate the enemies attacking you. But just remember, the game is rated M, and definitely should not be played by younger kids for its violence and crude humor. No More Heroes is only available on the Wii and gets a 7.5 out of 10.
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