Great use of the Wii remote for this gorey action game.Has a nice artstyle and good mature/dark story themes.
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Story
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The story continues after the original NMH game and certain people want to get revenge on the main character named 'Travis Touchdown' because of certain things that happened in the original NMH story.Travis also wants revenge against people who did bad things to people who he cares about.Travis is a perverted otaku and in the first NMH game he had certain reasons for becoming an assassin(but I will let you discover those reasons for yourself)and he can use different lightsaber style weapons in battle.
The story has a violent,dark,mature,sexual theme to it.It's very violent in a dark humor type of way(such as in the Quentin Tarantino movies).The story also has supernatural elements.The story also doesn't take itself too seriously because crazy stuff will be happening in it(crazy in a good way)and to give you an idea of what to expect,you'll be battling against giant,Japanese style robots and you'll even go into space and see other crazy stuff happening at times.
Travis will become an assassin again and will need to kill other assassins in a tournament and other assassins will be trying to kill him.Everytime Travis kills another assassin or somebody else kills another assassin,his rank becomes higher and he will be trying to kill all the other assassins and become the number 1 ranked assassin.The other main characters in the game include Sylvia,who is a busty,seductively dressed,blonde haired woman who organizes the matches for the tournament and enforces certain rules within the tournament and she enjoys toying with Travis and talking in a sleezy way to him.Shinobu is another female character who is playable and I will let you discover her for yourself.
The story will show you some shocking things too and I don't want to reveal what they are,but I will say this assassin's tournament is not for the faint of heart.
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Gameplay
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The gameplay is the best feature of this game.I guess you could say it plays like a hack n slash game,but it allows you to finish off weakened enemies in a very brutal way by doing remote motions displayed on the screen and it will result in the enemy being decapitated or sliced throught middle or in half.Doing this will not only kill the enemy who is weakened,but will also kill the enemies who are within range of your killer attack.When Travis enters an areas and looks for an assassin,he will need to fight past many other enemies(I don't know if they're supposed to be henchmen for the rival assassin or one an obsticle created for the tournament).
Some enemies shoot at you with guns,other enemies use light saberweapons or chainsaws and other types of weapons.Every enemy has a certain attack pattern and they'll try to surround you,and you'll need to be tactical in which enemies you try to dispose of first and in how you attack each enemy.Simply hacking and slashing at every enemy won't work.You can block most of the enemy attacks,whether they're gunshots,energy beam attacks or melee attacks but doing so will drain some of your lightsaber's energy and your lightsaber will need energy to damage opponents or to block.You can recharge your lightsaber energy,but it will have to stand there and leave yourself vulnerable to enemies attacks for a couple of seconds,but some places have instant lightsaber charge ups.
You can roll to get away from enemies or to dodge their attacks by pressing the D-Pad directions.You can lock onto enemies but the target system only locks onto the enemy that is closest to you,so if you want to target an enemy who you can't see,you'll need to run around until you find them,which can be a bit annoying.Also,the camera angles don't let you see where the enemies are sometimes too,which allows them to get free hits on you.You can do a special attack which makes Travis lunge forward with a powerful swipe of his lightsaber and he is invulnerable while he does this,but it comsumes lightsaber energy.You can make him do this by shaking the remote and it's easy to do.For the most part,the controls of the game are easy and fun to use.
After you defeat a certain number of enemies,a game of roulette will appear on the screen and it will give you a certain type of temporary powerup.The best one transforms Travis into a tiger and allows him to run around and instantly tear enemies apart for a while.There is another one that allows travis to shoot fireballs and makes his attacks more powerful.There's another one that will kill every enemy in the area(but not the next wave of enemies who enter the.The game also has very small amount of platforming and the platforming segments can be frustrating because the camera angles and the controls make it hard to direct your jumps and if you miss a jump,you'll have to redo an entire platforming section again.
The bosses can deplete your health very quickly with their attacks(even on sweet difficulty)so you'll need to learn how to avoid their attacks or be aware of where the health power ups in the environment are.The bosses have a certain trick/tactic to beat them and just running up and trying to hack n slash them won't work.
There's a boss battle that requires you to get into a giant Japanese style robot suit and battle a boss who's also in a Japanese robot suit and it's quite fun and challenging and tactical.
When you weaken the bosses to a certain point,you can do the finishing style attacks on them,but it won't kill them(unless they're very low on health)it will just take a big chunk off their health,and against some tough bosses,it's important you do the remote motions correctly to take a big chunk of the boss's health when you have the opportunity.
The game doesn't allow you to explore the city unlike the first NMH game.When you want to travel somewhere,a map will be shown and you select the place you want to go,and you'll be taken there automatically.You can work out at the gym(mini game style)to upgrade your character's stats(but a gym session costs money).You can buy new clothes and new weapons.You can earn money by finding it when you're inside enemy bases or by doing jobs which are represented by retro style mini games.
The gym instructor is so funny(you'll see what I mean when you play the game).The clothes shop has it's own charm and you'll see a busty,revealingly dress weapon designer at the weapon store.
The environments that you'll travel through before you fight a boss don't offer much exploration either.
The bottom line is,the gameplay is very fun,creative and easy to use for the most part.
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Graphics
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The artstyle of the game is very nice and reminds me of comic/manga style.Travis has a slim build and black hair that reminds me of a Japanese male.The women are often busty,dress revealing and the cutscenes deliberately focus on the women's breasts and rear.You'll see a woman in the shower and the game shows you as much of her naked body as it can without it being a full on nude scene,but the way the game does it feels artistic and playful because of the way her body is shown with the running water and the way it reveals little bits of her body at a time to tease you.
I like how the guy in the clothes store wears a skull face and how the way his store looks makes him crazy looking.For one of the mini games,you'll see anime style girls who are busty and dressed revealing too.The city has a nice atmosphere(the yellowish skies blend in nicely with the buildings)and the dream segment of this game look svery beautiful.
I've played many 2010 game releases which are supposed to have good graphics,and I think NMH2 is right up there with the best looking games of 2010.The Japanese robots look huge and Japanesey and dwarf the environment around them.The cutscenes are entertaining and when you see blood spray everywhere,it looks comical but not too brutal,it looks humorous in a dark way.You'll see enemies peel apart when sliced through the middle or enemies sliced in half or headless.There some scenes where your character will sliced the head of a decapitated enemy into small pieces or will put their sword through the brain of an opponent.
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Sound
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The game has a lot of swearing,but it doesn't feel overdone because it suits the situation when it's used and Travis sounds very assertive when he talks and Slyvia sounds very sleezy when she talks.The enemies will swear at you too and sound very heartless.
The music is great and has punk/rock feel at times,but at other times it has a deeper,more emotional feel to it.
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Overall
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The game has great gameplay that's easy to learn and easy to use and the artstyle and mature theme of the game make it really stand out and enjoyable.