Whether if it's for the story or characters, or for its style; No More Heroes isn't a game you should miss.
- Cool story and characters
- Combat is outrageous fun
- Plenty of fun missions and customizations
Negative
- The European version (PAL) has absolutely no blood
- Poor free-roaming
- Some technical issues
No More Heroes is one of the most original, outrageously fun, and possibly most addictive I've played for some time. This imperfect and flawed action game has some truly awesome moments, but it's plagued by some minor technical issues, poor free-roaming and some repetition. This shouldn't hold you from playing this incredibly fun joyful game.
The story follows Travis Touchdown who finds himself broke and caught up in ranked assassination fights in the city of Santa Destroy after meeting Sylvia Christel. The game will follow Travis as he fights memorable opponents and slash his way through countless enemies to rise in the UAA rankings. The story has some mature humor and the concept of the game, which may not be 100% original, is quite interesting. Ranked fighters aka bosses are pretty cool people and the stages themselves are fun. The paying fee isn't an issue as you take honest jobs or assassination missions; you'll be getting the money you need quite easily.
The combat itself is incredibly repetitive, but somehow incredibly addictive and fun. It's simple and straightforward. Travis uses a beam katana (a light saber from Star Wars) and he will use it to slash his way through dozens of enemies in his way. The combat is very rewarding to add to that. The controls work fine. As you fight and swing the beam katana by pressing the A button and not swinging. The swinging is required to deliver a powerful death blow to the enemy when their health is almost zero. This appears each time you keep hitting an enemy with melee and the game promotes you swing the Wii remote left, up, right and down to deliver a death blow. A secondary mode, the Dark Side activates when three icons line up in a slot machine after a successful death blow appears. The secondary mode makes Travis practically invincible. One of them allows Travis to shoot fire balls; another slows time, and more which give you advantage in battle. The game starts very easy but the difficulty ramps up. Enemies will start blocking your attacks, but you can stun them to break their guard and gives you the chance to perform a wrestling maneuver. These including the German suplex, normal suplex and even a tombstone pile driver. Not all enemies can be stunned easily. Plus, wrestling moves don't finish the enemy off; you need to press A when they are down to kill them. Your beam katana uses battery and if the battery dies you can't deal damage. The game introduces the idea of pressing the 1 button and shaking the Wii remote left and right to recharge the battery. The combat bits are really fun and absorbing for quite a while.
But some issues hold the gameplay back. One that is something that won't affect everyone, but it did to me. The European version or PAL has no blood; unlike the bloody USA version which makes the EU version not mature, aside from some mature humor. When killing an enemy he will disappear into a cloud of black pixels and a ton of coins instead of the blood. It's unfair. Not even dismantled bodies of some bosses don't appear. And there is no option to turn the blood off and on. PAL games are slightly slower than NTSC, making some minor technical issues something to be aware of. The game occasionally freezes for a few moments, especially when you go in Dark Side mode and the game allows you to move in the next area. It's not the first time my game crashed and had to repeat the whole level.
One of the worst, weighing down factors of the game is the free-roaming. The open-world involving much and it's a blessing since almost all of it is awful. There is the unbelievably horrendous collision, which is none existent. You will not only not hit the car but it is as if the car you "collided" against has a protective barrier which prevents you from dealing damage. The city of Santa Destroy is lifeless with very few people and cars. It's just a GTA rip-off. You do get to ride a cool motorbike to travel around. Beware of some sudden pop-ins. The city doesn't look good from afar either.
There are some good things that come from the free-roaming. Taking jobs earns you more cash, which you'll need in order to fight ranked bosses. Missions vary from doing simple task and assassination missions. Honest missions can be taken from the job center which you have to travel to. Honest missions don't involve killing, but some good minigames. There is collect the coconut, fueling cars at the gas station, and even picking up trash. Assassination missions at K-entertainment vary as well and including killing as much enemies as possible within the time limit, "baseball practice", and other such activities which will make you use your trustworthy beam katana. These are incredibly rewarding. You can spend money on clothes and stuff at the Area 51 shop, or upgrade your weapons at Naomi's lab. The game offers no shortage on how to spend your cash. Once you clear an assassination mission, that stage becomes a free mission. Free missions are supposed to be free, but this mission design is pure awful. One hit from the enemy and you are out of it, and what's worse is that you can't reenter right away.
The game's unique sense of style is very appealing, even if the game could have used some more polish overall. Camera is a little troublesome, but it's ok after a while. There are plenty of interesting and cool bosses to meet, but not as much fun to confront. Boss battles rely on the same combat you use against normal enemies, and since they are bosses, it takes quite a while with button-mashing to take them down. One of the minor things the game offers is one of those "why didn't I think of this before?" things. Even receiving a phone call before the boss, you will listen to your Wii remote as if it was a cell phone. It's also nice to note that No More Heroes has some respect to the classic stuff. The health bar is in the form of a heart with small boxes like in the old games, some of the music resembles some of the classic platformers from the 90s, and even the map will remind you of the past.
The overall visual quality is great. The pop-ins and some minor, rarely noticeable frame-rate drops drop the score. The cel-shaded visuals are catchy, despite most of the time these are dark and shadowy like silhouettes. The character models are sharp, but sometimes in cutscenes the quality seems to be slightly off. It needs more enemy variety in a single stage. Good level design overall but the great boss design. The music swings in the right way as well, with some good old school music, solid voice acting and a woman with the French accent. The sound effects are as much solid, with only some repetitive VO from Travis that bogs it down.
The end result is an outrageously fun and slightly repetitive action game. It looks great, and plays even better, and an amusing story and cast of characters will keep you playing. Some issues like the poor free-roaming thing and minor technical problems lessen the fun. PAL users will have a hard time swallowing the fact that their version doesn't have any blood. This is one game those who love quirky, mature games should buy.
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Graphics = 8.0
Overall great. Each level is different from the previous and the environments look quite good. Repetitive enemies in a single stage though. Open-world looks ok, but there are some pop-ins.
Sound = 8.2
Solid voice acting from every single character, and great music to back it up. Sound effects are loud but awesome.
Presentation = 7.5
European players will be let down by the fact that there is no blood in their version. No blood no gore. Great cinematics and fast loadings. Some technical problems mar the overall package. It's stylish and fun. Some good, mature humor.
Gameplay – 8.4
The combat is really fun despite its straightforwardness and relative ease. But it's a blast. The gameplay suffers from the poor free-roaming part especially the collision. Missions are structured well, but the one that you get kicked out when you get hit once. Lack of boss battle variety can make fighting them a chore sometimes
Story = 8.3
The story may not suck you, but it will suck some people right from the beginning till the end. Cast of characters is quite good. Plenty of customizations and upgrades. I just love the bosses' personalities.
OVERALL = 81 / 100
Whether if it's for the story or characters, or for its style; No More Heroes isn't a game you should miss. It's also one of those games you'll want to keep playing even after you finish the game.