Suda 51 and Grasshopper Manufacture, Inc. are back with a sequel to one of the most ridiculous, gratuitous, waggle-heavy games to hit the Wii. There were plenty of complaints with the first outing. In fact, it couldn’t hold my interest to the end. But has that all been addressed with the sequel? Get your otaku butt in gear and take a nice steaming pile of “save” before you slice past the jump with your Beam Katana.
If you’re reading this, it means you are at least partially interested in the otaku-rife world Suda 51 has created as well as anti-hero, Travis Touchdown — the crude, misogynistic, all around “too cool for school” character that you play in this refreshing take on the beat-em-up genre. However, what’s more likely is that you are reading this as a fan of the series and are just interested to read more about what others think of the sequel or how it stacks up.
There isn’t much needed to go into the background of the story especially since the game itself lampoons the idea with some 4th-wall-breaking dialogue at the beginning of the game. Not that it wouldn’t be entirely apparent right when you pop in the disk, but this is a game that knows exactly what it is — a video game — and doesn’t get stuck up its own butt with some highfalutin story.
The game can be best summarized as Kill Bill The Game. Swap out Uma Thurman and replace it with a male lead, whose sexual appetite is only equal to his thirst for vengeance and blood. Sprinkle in some awesome 8-bit styling, and out of the oven comes No More Heroes 2.
If you have played the first game, the combat is instantly familiar. The controls are pretty simple, accessible at first, but the longer you play, you uncover more elements of depths, which is a sign of a good beat-em-up.
As Travis Touchdown, you are competing to be the number one ranked assassin in a twisted league comprised of assassins killing assassins. This time, Travis has fallen way down the ranks to 51. On the onset, you may think that 51 boss fights may be a bit much, but the game finds clever and unique ways to get you catapulted to the top again quickly. Some of the most interesting missions involve playing as Shinobu, the blindly faithful “student” of Travis, despite his overt and apparent lack of caring to be her “Master.” This character was introduced in the first game, so fans of the series will be glad to see her inclusion as a playable character.
The Shinobu levels offer a perfect relief in the game. They’re one of the”tricks” the game uses to break up tedium and get you up the ranks faster. She plays differently from Travis, but not so much so that you feel like you’ve been thrown a curve and have to learn all over again. However, her controls are not so different that they feel unfamiliar after playing as Travis. Her ability to jump introduces a “Devil May Cry” type combo attack since you can air juggle enemies.
With the jumping comes twists on the boss fights which is the main staple of the game. However, her game play needed a bit more time in the oven. Her first boss fights teetered on infuriating to damn-near-broken game play. Dealing with having to jump quickly and accurately, an awkward camera, and undefined rules about what keeps you stuck on a ledge (and what allows you to walk completely off it) caused for more than a couple unnecessary deaths.
If you are familiar with the game, the save system requires Travis to find a restroom and pop a squat to save your progress. Playing as a female, you may be thinking, “Does she go to the little girls room?” Sadly, She doesn’t go about saving in the same way. While you do need to find a restroom, the game shows her from behind taking a shower, and conveniently placed ribbons cross the screen keeping the content very PG-13.
No More Heroes 2 addressed many of the issues with the first game. These issues weren’t addressed by improving the overworld and such but by completely doing away with it. To go to a new battle, you just pick it from the menu screen. Want to do side missions to earn cash? Go right ahead. The menu will plop you right into it. Though not actually required to progress in the game, they’re actually fun this time.
In my first play through so far, I tore through it like a bat out of hell, so I didn’t play much with the side missions, but I am very excited to go back and play them all. The side missions this time are mostly 8-bit style games. In fact, before you see the “title screen” of an 8-bit game, you can hear Travis blowing, followed but the rustling of inserting a Nintendo cartridge into the machine.
There are few major issues worth pointing out that I experienced during my first run-through. Since it has been awhile since I’ve played the original No More Heroes, I remembered needing to charge my Beam Katana by furiously shaking the Wii mote, which Travis mimics on screen in a unwarranted masturbatory way and caused some boss fights to just seem impossible. I ran into the same struggle with the sequel, but about 60% of the way through the game, I, instead of mimicking the motion on screen to charge up, started swinging the Wiimote in a circular pattern, instead of a side to side pattern that the in-game icon looked to be showing. This caused my charge times to go from nail biting “oh crap I’m not going to make it” moments, to minor inconveniences. This left me wishing I had done this from the start.
The final major grip comes with the last boss fight. I am going to do my best to explain the problem I had without giving anything a way. The final boss has some specific telegraphed attacks. Once literally drives right at you. So, the obvious thing to do is get out of the way, and find an better opportunity to attack him. That was all fine and good, as I was dodging and smashing the crap out of him like a mofo. However, after about 10 solid minutes of this, it appeared his energy meter was no longer depleting despite my various swings and mashes of the wiimote.
Starting to become physically exhausted in a battle that seemed I couldn’t win, I started to experiment with other ways to attack. Maybe I can only use punches now, maybe I need to switch my weapon, maybe only strong attacks work, etc… Nothing helped, despite my brutal beatings I was taunted by the enemy, and his life bar hadn’t budget for over 10 minutes beyond the half way mark.
Well, it seems the telegraphed direct attack the boss tries to do on you isn’t something to dodge, but to contest. This was counter-intuitive to the way I played most all bosses. If they charge at me, I get the eff outta dodge. Once overcoming this hurdle with the game play, the rest was smooth sailing, and over all, the game provided an enjoyable experience.
There is plenty here, in this game. I ripped through it, so I didn’t experiment with all the mini games, clothes, weapons, etc. But I can’t wait to jump in again, to try them all out. Unfortunately, the game sort of “starts you over” once you finish it. I was expecting to just be able to mess around, play mini games, do extra challenges and customizing my guy by picking to load my “No 1 Rank” save, but it just keeps taking me to the opening cinematic and starting me over again. Oh well.
The game is dripping with style. From its art direction, to its wall to wall blood splatter, to its 8 bit sprites sprinkled through out the game. This kind of style and sensibility is what makes this game, summed up in one word, fun. It’s just pure fun. Its sophomoric, scatological humor may wear on most folks, but taking the game at face value is all you need to enjoy yourself. You may be surprised at the end of the game that you had a bit more fun with the story than one might think at first sight. There are some truly interesting boss fights, and some that give just a sliver of background to make you wish you knew more about that assassin.
My real hope, is that if there is a No More Heroes 3, for it to be completely side scrolling, using the 8-bit graphics found in this game. Now, that would be sweet.
This review is based on a purchased retail copy of the game.
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