No More Heroes has several flaws, but it succeeds in mixing unique ideas, visceral gameplay, and incredible characters.
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The Good:
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> Tons of in-your-face action that is a joy to play and very satisfying.
> Gameplay that is surprisingly deep.
> Unique Boss encounters.
> Some of the Best Cinematic on Wii.
> Outstanding Character Design that makes you want to continue playing.
> Sleek presentation with plenty of nods to old-school games.
> Moments of great sound design and all around fantastic music.
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The Bad:
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> Terrible textures create a muddy world.
> Some texture pop-ins, frame-rate slowdown, and other issues bog down the game a little.
> Overall linear design makes for a lot of repetition.
> Enemies become an annoyance due to their lack of variety and annoying voice work.
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Gameplay: 9.0
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There is a large variety of gamplay in No More Heroes, most of it having to do with your beam katana. Swordplay in No More Heroes is fast, instinctive, and satisfying. The mechanics are surprisingly deep when you add in charged moves, wrestling throws, dodge moves, high/low stances, dual battles, and more. The pay-off, however, is the final blow done to your enemy. To perform this move, you physically slash in a specified direction and watch your opponent slowly split in two as blood and coins erupt from their deteriorating flesh. Satisfying, indeed.
In the overworld of Santa Destroy, you will try to earn cash by picking up coconuts, mowing lawns, and picking up trash. These are all fine and are a decent distraction from the rest of the game. Other assassination jobs are available to you as well where you will go and kill a number of enemies based on a specific rule given by the game, such as: kill as many enemies before time runs out, use your katana as a bat and hit baseballs through as many opponents as you can, or kill everyone without getting hit. Overall, these get incredibly repetitive and you will get angry when you fail as you will have to back track to the place where you initially got the job. These jobs all earn you cash and let you enter in the game's main event of killing ranked assassins.
Ranked assassinations are the best part of No More Heroes, and is the reason why you will continue to play. After a long spree of linear corridors where you kill everything in sight, you will get to the boss of the level. Each has an entertaining and very well done cinematic. The actual fight is unique to itself as each assassin has different attributes and styles. You will get a kick out of each as they all have a distinct personality. Without ruining anything, let me just say that you will love this part of the game.
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Difficulty: Just Right
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The game offers two difficulty settings from the start; sweet, and mild. I recommend mild to offer you a decent amount of challenge. After you beat the game, a new difficulty is unlocked; bitter.
Within the game, you will find yourself blasting through enemies as you attempt to finish the game. When a regular enemy poses a challenge, it starts to get frustrating, which is a bad thing. The regular enemies are fun to kill, but not as much fun to fight.
Most of the challenge comes in with the ranked assassins. You will get hurt, and probably die at some point as you will fall into one of their clever traps. You will develop strategies to kill these assassins, and it as a blast to do so.
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Graphics: 6.5
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Though the game has serious style and some good art, the actual game can not be considered to look good. "Jaggies" are everywhere, slow-down occurs, textures pop-in once in a while, and entire objects will appear from nowhere. It is amazing that this game can do so little with graphics and have so many issues.
The game succeeds, however, in its (ranked assassin) character models, interesting ideas, and overall style. The retro theme behind the game is undeniably cool and will bring on a few chuckles. The ranked assassination locations are the best looking moments in the game as the game's style prevails over everything else. There is some good lighting, but it is rarely seen except when blocking rapid bullets from an enemies' gun. Again, it has a retro feel to it.
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Sound: 8.0
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Sound design in No More Heroes is not a very dominant area of the game. The music is fantastic where it is played, but there is little variety in it. It has a wonderful retro feel to it and the actual compositions are quite good. In most of the game, the voice overs are either drowned out or extremely repetitive.
Once again, however, the ranked assassins have fantastic voice work and wonderful sound design. The music that plays before, during, and after the battles are among my favorites in the game.
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Overall:
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No More Heroes tries very little and succeeds at even less. Its overworld is technically and realistically lacking, its side-jobs are repetitive, its overall design is linear, and its enemies are uncreative.
However, what matters is its gameplay. The game is undeniably a blast to play and a joy to just experience. The characters alone are reason enough to beat the game, and the overall style is unmatched. There are ideas galore and never before has even the strangest idea felt more at home than in No More Heroes. Buy the game not for its advances in technology, but in its ideas and gameplay. Suda 51, you are a mad genius! You just need a better team behind you.