Despite its flaws, every Wii owner (especially the Otakus) of the right age HAS to play this game.
Let's start with the story. No More Heroes is the tale of porn-loving, wrestling obsessed otaku game nerd Travis Touchdown. One day in a bar he meets a hot French chick who hasn't mastered buttoning up a blouse and she gives him a job to kill an assassin. Since he's got nothing better to do and craves to be a tough guy, Travis goes out and kills the guy successfully with a beam katana he bought on a bidding website. He then learns there are eleven other assassins out there and each time he kills one he takes over their rank. That's pretty much the basic layout of the story as the game follows Travis as he takes down each assassin and does the ground work to prepare for each mission (which just involves making money, working out, and buying new upgrades). That may sound a bit repetitive and like, Assassins Creed, there will be some who will probably hate the structure which is totally understandable. However, what helps No More Heroes stay fresh is its amazing combat and the wacky and distinct personalities of each assassin. However, regarding those assassins, killing them usually boils down to a slash fest with some unique attacks to avoid. I would have preferred a bit more of a Metal Gear Solid or even Killer7 influence and had a different way of defeating each one, but its not a big deal since several of the later bosses really make you work for your victory.
The game starts off with a bang as you're thrown right into an assassination mission. Here you are introduced the fantastic combo system. Tilt the wiimote up or down for high or low attacks, hit the A button to attack, and the B button delivers melee attacks. This sounds simple at first, but you forget this is a Wii game so there has to be some movement in some way. After you've emptied a bad guy's health bar, a direction arrow appears on screen and you move the wiimote to the side. Doing so unleashes the unbelievably brutal and cool death blows to your helpless enemies. Heads fly off, torsos fly, and bodies are cut in half as fountains of blood and coins fill the screen. Words can't describe how exhilarating this is towards the end of the game when you're powered up Beam Katana can decimate a crowd of 5-6 guys in front of or surrounding you. Additionally, if you stun an enemy with a melee attack you can do some nifty wrestling moves that are emulated perfectly with a few wrist movements. It's kind of sad in a way that this game has better wrestling controls (and more wrestling moves) than Smackdown vs Raw 2008, but that's a review for another time.
So obviously the combat is the star of the show, but how does the rest of the game hold up? Well, it has its ups and downs. After each mission you are sent to an open world which is basically a hub to go to the gym, side assassination missions, side jobs, weapons shop, clothing store, and video store. The hub serves its purpose fine and the city is small enough that each location is really only a few minutes away. Additionally, scattered all over the city are dig spots where you can find some excess cash or t-shirts buried. However, the city is pretty barren overall and even though it only takes a few minutes to drive somewhere, some side missions can be over in a matter of seconds. This brings me to the biggest flaw of the game: No Quick Restart!!
The GTA games and the recent Burnout Paradise also lacked a quick restart, but at least in those games theres more than enough activity to keep you busy in other locations. Instead, in No More Heroes, a few times you will accept a job at the assassination HQ to play one quick baseball/assassination mini game or kill all enemies without being hit. Its possible to fail these missions in a matter of seconds, so now you'll have to go from that location all the way back to the HQ, then back to the location again. Its rather mind boggling to have such an oversight in the game, when a simple warp to the HQ or job site would have done wonders. That way you can cut out at least one trip. This really becomes a chore for the later assassination missions when you may need to do some missions several times to earn enough cash to take on your next assassin (especially if you've gone on a shopping spree previously).
The sound and graphics are really a mixed bag overall. Both really stick to the style over substance technique but they do have some faults on the technical side. Starting off with the graphics, the game uses a cell shaded technique similar to Killer7. No More Heroes is slightly sharper than its Gamecube predecessor and uses more detail in the facial movements, but its not going to appeal to everyone. Specifically, the overworld has a lot of texture pop ins and the framerate stutters occasionally when there's a lot of activity on screen (Its kind of forgivable sometimes though when you've just taken out seven guys with one death blow). The menu screens and other various HUDs are all pixilated in 8 bit style but, if you're like me, you'll kind of appreciate the throwback to the NES days.
The sound is slightly less forgivable due to the fact that the music tends to get old quite fast. There's a spyish theme that serves as the main theme of the game, but you will hear it from the very first area to the very last. Also, a few shops share the same pop song and you might get tired of the motorcycle riding theme really quickly. Other than that, the game uses the wii speaker perfectly for the buzz of your Beam Katana. Perhaps my favorite aspect to the sound is the phone call you get from Sylvia before each boss. You only hear her voice through the wii speaker so you'll actually have to hold the wiimote up to your ear to hear everything she's saying, which is also great if she decides to start yelling as you'll quickly pull the wiimote away from your ear a bit.
Overall, if you're over 18 and own a Wii, this game is a must rent at first. For me it was a must buy because I knew I would get into this kind of game, but I know for a fact it will not appeal to everyone. Barring the gameplay flaws, the game also has incredibly crude humor, quite a bit of profanity, and tons of stylized but still gory action. Again, none of those things bothered me at all, but some might not enjoy it. Basically, this game deserves to at least be played by everyone of the right age group.