Travis and the UAA are back for another go, coated in blood and gore and plenty of off-beat humor and ultra-violence!
This game takes place 3 years after the events of the first. Travis has fallen from grace, no longer choosing to partake of the senseless bloodshed of the UAA ranking battles. Skelter Helter, the brother of a UAA ranked official hacked to bits by Travis Touchdown during his meteoric rise to number one, manages to goad Travis into a battle on a rooftop so that Skelter may take revenge upon him. This battle becomes the first fight of the game and its tutorial level. At the end of the fight Travis lops off Skelter's head so cleanly that it lands neatly back on the neck stump. Suddenly a helicopter roars into view. Who should be hanging out of the chopper, congratulating Travis on his successful assassination of the fifty-first ranked member of United Assassin's Association? That's right, Sylvia, the blonde vixen who seduced, conned, and then abandoned Travis. She, once again, appeals to the head that really governs Travis' actions and once again, he begins to climb the ranks. However, he is more than a little peeved that he has to start at fifty-first. He also demands that Sylvia give the audience the back-story between the first and second games. Sylvia responds that this is a long and incredibly boring story...a story so boring that the gamers would skip it. In this manner they toss off any attempt at filling you in.
Meanwhile Travis' closest friend, Bishop (the guy who ran the video store in the first game) is confronted by thugs. They start to trash the store and then all turn their guns on him. Bishop, because he doesn't want smut to be the background for what happens next, turns off the monitor. Then, in quiet resignation, he closes his eyes and braces for the end. The camera cuts to the outside of the shop and we hear all the guns firing. The thugs throw open the door and file out into the snowy night. The next morning Travis is, rather bluntly, given the news of his friend's passing. A paper bag crashes through his window at the Motel No More Heroes. Inside Travis finds Bishop's severed head. As he emits an anguished cry at the senseless murder of his best friends the last words of Skelter Helter echo in the player's mind: "I've taken the shackles of revenge, and I'm throwing them back on you". Sylvia calls at this point, trying to give the distraught protagonist details of his next ranking battle. By now the bloodlust is at its peak. He just wants to kill. And now he'll get his chance.
The slaughter begins. The cast of characters from this point becomes an eclectic mix of combatants. Some of them are unique, entertaining, and immensely satisfying to slaughter. Others are pitiable and forgettable. Among others comes the one that helps you climb the ranks the fastest: a mech-piloting jock and his team of bouncy, vapid cheerleaders. Each of these cheerleaders was a ranked assassin in the UAA's roster, too. As such, the simple act of destroying the mech and its crew jump you up the ranks by dozens.
During your climb up the rankings you also stumble upon a few characters you remember from the first. Shinobu (the school girl assassin whom Travis spared in the first game) returns. She went to Japan and climbed to their highest rank. She feels indebted to Travis for what he did and had agreed to help him. This ushers in the two stages in which you play as Shinobu. These two stages should provide a refreshing break from Travis' hacking and slashing. However, aside from her ability to leap her hacking and slashing is the same as Travis'. Her stages add what could be an intriguing element with her ability to jump, but the game's mechanics are not constructed for this. Your first ranked fight with her is against a wealthy aristocrat in his vault, piled to the ceiling with blocks of cash. He constantly runs in and out of the vault through various doors spread across the upper and lower levels. The problem with this is that the camera angle isn't conducive to moving in a straight line. This becomes painfully obvious as you try to line up your jumps onto the stacks of cash and watch as Shinobu lists ever-so-slightly to one side and misses the jump. This crooked jumping is a frequent issue during Shinobu's stages. The crooked jumping presented itself as such a major issue while I was playing that, even though I found the rest of my experience with her to be enjoyable, the jumping sequences made me elated to see her time as the main character come to an end. Despite the fact that Travis doesn't want her help she worked out a deal with Sylvia and the two assassins you hacked apart using her helped to advance Travis two more ranks.
To avoid dragging this out for much longer I will also mention that you will control Henry (the former #1 ranked assassin who is also Travis' brother and Sylvia's ex-husband) as he fights to recover from the coma he slipped into after being encased in carbonite by another of the UAA combatants, the robot in the giant machine that he killed instead of Travis. He returns the favor by winning the next three UAA matches for Travis. You don't get to play those matches (he leaves Travis a lengthy message about it, saying "Those pictures are all you get. You can't experience these fights. The game's packed full as it is"). Henry is as different from Travis as Shinobu. You still get your high/low slashes, but where Travis has beat attacks and Shinobu has jump Henry has dash. This does little to alter the hack and slash mechanic, but Henry's fight (like Shinobu's) seems to be well designed for him, and you'll find yourself dashing across the level to close on your foe or dodge her attacks.
The basic fighting mechanics remain largely unchanged. You get your weapon executions and your wrestling moves. The biggest differences being now you have the option of using the Classic Controller and you can switch weapons in the middle of combat. That particular aspect is a little weird because, like in the previous title, each weapon is more powerful than the last. As such you just switch to the upgraded weapon. There isn't a need for switching back and forth from one to another. Also, and anyone who can argue to the contrary please post a comment and let me know, I was unable to switch weapons while using the Classic Controller. Pressing 2 doesn't work like it does with the standard Wii-mote/nunchuck combo. I have read posts and such of people complaining about the controller being "OP", making the game too easy and that it was designed for the Wii-mote and nunchuck. I chose the controller because the Wii-mote movements are minimal at best and I would just as soon sit in my chair and enjoy this game with a more traditional control scheme. I don't have too much room so I try not to have so many games with intense Wii-mote swinging. I am not saying that one is better than the other as a whole. I am merely telling you of my choice and my reason.
This game seeks to streamline everything about the first title. Gone is the free-roaming open world Santa Destroy from the first game. Now the gym, Naomi's Lab, Airport 51 (another self-reference?), side jobs, revenge missions, and even the UAA Ranked Battle are all accessed from a simple menu interface. Even Naomi's lab suffered from this trimming. Now she only gives you access to two separate beam katanas. You no longer buy individual upgrades. At the end of the Shinobu sequence she is given something from a friend of Bishop's for Travis. It turns out be Rose Nasty, a pair of beam katanas. Shortly thereafter Travis gets his hands on them. You no longer have to grind for hours to earn the massive amounts of money required for your next fight. Now it can all go to clothes at Airport 51 or the two weapons Naomi sells.
The biggest changes come in the side jobs. This time around the game grabs hold of the campy 8-bit styling of the first and takes it to a new level. This time around all but the last side mission is done in the retro 8-bit style. They are quick little 4 level endeavors (all but Tile in Style, which is a single timed puzzle) that pay per level. These are campy and have a quirky appeal, especially for those of us who actually grew up playing a Nintendo Entertainment System. As a matter of fact, when the mini-game is about to start you actually hear some shuffling and then what is clearly the sound of someone blowing in a cartridge and the subsequent loading into a console. The last side job is the scorpion gathering job from the first title.
This mini-game style is also how you train at the gym, now. You can only increase your muscle and your stamina. It is now Ryan's Gym. Ryan reminds me of Big Gay Al from South Park (and considering Suda 51 I'm pretty sure that was intentional). The stamina training is Travis on a treadmill. You alternate L and R (on the Classic Controller) to avoid falling off. The challenge is Ryan will randomly switch the direction it's going. You face Travis using the stick and try not to be carried off before you recover. You do this for a set amount of time and if you survive your maximum health is increased. The strength training is you in a large boxing ring with Ryan. He throws small barbells at Travis and you kick the low ones away and punch the high ones. He periodically blows kisses at you which you must duck. He also tosses the occasional massive barbell which comes between the lows and highs, hovers at a point halfway between Ryan and Travis and goes either low or high. If you can make it through the time limit without getting hit more than 3 times Travis hits harder.
Suda 51's satire is both heavy-handed and covers a broad scope. There are sequences in which it lampoons artsy noir pieces (the peep show booth bits topping this list), testosterone laden action flicks, video games as a whole, and even itself. The series of UAA ranked members whom I have forgotten are designed to be forgotten. They were like the waves of enemies you slay on the way to the final fight, or the mindless grunts that Segal, Stallone, or Schwarzenegger blow to bits on the way to their final confrontation. They're fodder. Travis is often the satire of a gamer, ceaselessly fighting to be number one, only for the sake of being number one. He doesn't think about the people he kills after they've fallen to his blade, much like the gamer doesn't think about the fight once they've won. He also has elements of cliché action movie heroes. When The Agency attempts to get involved with the end of a fight (in one fight Sylvia brutally and repeatedly shoots a vanquished fighter as he submits to die like a warrior under Travis' blade) he reprimands her for attempting to bring bureaucratic red tape procedural nonsense into an honorable clash between two warriors. Other fights often end with satirical and overly dramatic cinematics commonly seen in some of the more artsy attempts at action films (John Woo, anyone?).
All of this is helped along with plenty of humor. Everything from self-depreciating humor, plenty of wit, and a hefty dose of toiler humor and dirty jokes. Yes, at one point Travis' nose does start bleeding "for no apparent reason" (FYI: in Japanese culture, particularly anime, when a conversation or situation is getting extremely perverted characters' noses start bleeding. As an example, see Naota's "bat" vs the satellite in FLCL when the entire crew simultaneously suffers nosebleeds). You may or may not laugh as hard at this one. In a lot of cases the game does have a fuller plot than the last game and some of you may feel that the game might sacrifice jokes in cut-scenes to make it work. A lot of the humor in this game springs from the game itself, like the 8-bit sequences.
I have to recommend this game. Aside from being an over-all improvement over the first game it stands well on its own. The ability to use the Classic Controller and eliminate any Wii-mote waggling is a definite plus. It may make it easier but you're going to have a find a way to switch weapons. I waited until that lull before a ranked match (the sort of peaceful bubble around the save area) swapped controls, switched weapons, then swapped back. It may have some flaws, but I feel those flaws are only so obvious because the rest of the game is executed so well. If you liked the first one then this is a no-brainer. Buy it and enjoy. People looking for a mature action title on the Wii should definitely give this one a go (and the first one). Titles like this, especially ones which allow you to dispense with the Wii-mote waggling, are hard enough to find. I must advise all of you mature gamers out there to consider snagging this game.