Another great NMH game, though it's not a 100% improvement over the original
Combat is near-identical to the first game, as well. To swing the beam katana, the player simply taps the A button while the finishers and wrestling moves are controlled with motion. If it sounds simplistic, that's because it is, but it's also among the best simple and addictive combat systems ever. New to the brawling is a power gauge that fills up by landing hits and empties whenever Travis takes a hit. Once the gauge is filled, a power that will let Travis hack away at enemies quickly without taking damage becomes available. Other powers are also randomly triggered by a slot machine that rolls at the bottom of the screen whenever an enemy is killed. There are about 5 or so powers, but a good amount of them feel similar. One new power, which is pretty much the best of the bunch, transforms Travis into a tiger and lets him gnaw on foes, killing them instantly. The changes are minor overall to the gameplay, but what changes have been made are positive.
However, one could argue that a No More Heroes game is as much about its style as it is about its substance. Like the original, Desperate Struggle is chock-full of in-your-face profanity and violence, all of which is delivered with great comedic value. The mature content isn't gritty; rather, it's brightly colored and full of humor. Someone will crack a joke while Travis decapitates a boss, often times. This game successfully balances an over-the-type mood without detaching focus from the action, which is commendable and an improvement over the original. The story is even more unnecessary than it was before, but now it also serves as an interesting analysis of Travis and Sylvia's relationship, even if it does stop making total sense at some points.
There are other improvements from the first game that deserve some mentions. Firstly, the visuals are excellent. While No More Heroes 1 was stylistically great and technically proficient, in Desperate Struggle, the style is even better and the technical aspect of the visuals are almost as impressive. The frame rate, which would dip in the first game, has been improved, and the poly-count seems higher. This is among the prettier Wii games. A complaint that one could have is that the 8-bit style menus can be difficult to read at times, but they're not terribly bothersome.
Also improved are the jobs. In the first game, Travis had to earn money in order to pay to participate in the next ranked battle. Now, there is no entry fee to pay these games are spectacular. There are nine jobs, eight of which are 8-bit style versions of real jobs. Why the ninth job, scorpion collecting, did not get the 8-bit treatment is surprising, but the 8 other jobs are simply great and are as addicting as the beam katana fights they sandwich. Even training at the gym to raise stats has been given the 8-bit treatment to excellent results. Gone, unfortunately, are the assassination-based jobs, such as clearing as many goons as possible in a set amount of time. Though the new games are all fun, earning huge amounts of money in the first game while eviscerating scores of foes was possibly more fun.
Other changed aspects from the first game are also mixed improvements. The boss battles, for example, are stylized, memorable, and mostly a blast, but many are flawed. About one third of them are very easy, one third are just right, and one third are absurdly difficult. Worse, the difficulty doesn't ramp up over the course of the game; an unfairly hard boss can come at from any ranked battle. For example,I easily killed the third ranked assassin, had a fair battle against the second, and died from cheap one-hit kills against the first ranked assassin ten or so times. Let's just say that when I had to fill out the difficulty for NMH2 for this review, I considered "Very Hard" and "Very Easy" before settling on "Just Right" because it seemed like an average of the two. In fact, the game's difficulty is insanely uneven and overly difficult bosses can get annoying fast.
The reason the boss fights are so important is because the henchman slaying before them are breezes. They are more memorable in the first game, that's for sure, but they're simply just too easy. What is great, though, is that they are all different, like the boss battles. It no longer feels like a third of the game is spent at Destroy Stadium. This helps game try to regain a sense of size that it loses from removing the overworld.
Yep, Grasshopper Games removed the overworld. While riding around in a motorcycle wasn't all it should have been in the first game, it made the game feel quite big. Now, however, the player gets a menu and locations to choose from before being arriving there automatically. This definitely streamlines the process and it's understandable as to why this was done, but it feels strange after playing the first game to no longer be able to explore Santa Destroy, whose culture and inhabitants play an even larger part story-wise in Desperate Struggle than they did before.
Also worthy of a mention is the game's sound. The voice acting, like the visuals, have been largely improved. The dialogue is better and the sound effects and mixing are all great. The music, though not as catchy as in the first game, is also very good.
Overall, No More Heroes 2 is strange in that some things are improved over the first while others feel like a step backwards. The combat sections are all improved and always feel fresh, but the difficulty in the boss battles can be infuriating at times. The retro-style mini-games are excellent, but the removal of the assassination jobs are disappointing. The lack of an overworld puts emphasis on the combat, but it makes the game feel smaller. If comparing the two games side-by-side, it would be tough to say which one is better. I thoroughly loved the first game, but I never had any giant complaints with it like I have for the uneven difficulty in the sequel. I would guess that preferring one game over the other comes down to how much you prefer the new lack of overworld.
For me, I was completely satisfied killing as many people as possible in three minutes and then having enough money to do the next fight and then aimlessly driving Travis' motorcycle around. The new system isn't bad, but it could be disappointing to people who share my liking for that. A fusion would have been nice where Travis could just jump to a place via menu or use his bike if the player wanted to. These two points are really what, for me, makes Desperate Struggle harder tor recommend than the first game. It's still great, don't get me wrong, but it's not the improvement it needed to be for a sequel.