REVIEW: No More Heroes (Spoiler Free)
By Jacob Bond
February 14th, 2008

Suda 51 has no luck at all.

Despite Killer 7 being considered a cult classic, the game was a total failure. However, fans rejoiced at the news that he was hard at work on another project, this time exclusively for the Wii. The promise of a quality mature game on a system that has been lacking both was enough to stir up buzz among Wii owners. Surely if third parties would make quality games fans would show their support.

Unfortunately, the Wii doesn't appear to be so friendly to third parties. On a system flooded with horrible mini-game compilations and the only games sitting on top of the system's sales charts all belonging to Nintendo itself, games like Zack & Wiki have been lost in the shuffle. And despite the fanfare it has received, No More Heroes is at risk of the same. Japanese sales have been abysmal, and while North America has shown love to the game, Europe has seen yet another delay of their edited version.

While it's too early to tell what the North American and European sales will be like when it's all said and done (although the NA sales have been pretty strong for a game with little advertising), the game has already hit a major roadblock in Japan. An embarrassing launch left Suda 51 sitting alone at a table for twenty minutes, surrounded by NMH promotional toilet paper and no sign of fans wanting their copy signed. It summed up the game's reception in Japan pretty well: the game sold only 10,000 copies, a total failure considering what they were hoping for.

So it's up to us to determine if the game is a success or failure. The question is: is this a quality AAA title for the Wii, or did it deserve the scorn of Japanese fans? Should we follow suit?

If you've read my first impressions, you already know how I felt with the initial two hours of game play. I've been pushing for people to buy the game because those two hours were that enjoyable, plus most of the major reviews highly praised it. Having completed the game, I'm confident in making that recommendation.

The game is interesting to say the least. As Travis Touchdown, you are ranked the number eleven assassin. Your goal is to climb your way to the top, killing your ranked opponents. Guiding you through the ranked matches is Silvia Christel, representing the United Assassin Association. The other ten assassins really make the game. While you have to hack and slash your way through countless generic enemies, it's the thought of reaching that next ranked fighter and experiencing their part of the story that propels you further. Even ignoring the boss fights it's still fun taking out hordes of generic baddies. The game makes sure your moves and weapons are constantly changing to keep what's an otherwise basic fighting controls interesting and fun. For the most part it's just hitting the 'A' button a lot. But even though it's pretty much a button masher for most of the levels it never feels like it. The difficulty levels do make a huge difference in enjoying the fights, though. I originally started on the Easy level, but by the time I won the second ranked match, I started over on Mild for the challenge. Easy felt like I was going through the motions, while on Mild I actually had a chance to die. And die I did, especially when it came to the bosses.

The ranked fights really made this game. Each assassin was so unique and quirky in their own way, and the fun was figuring out the right strategy while facing each one. It wasn't uncommon for me to die two or three times while I learned what I was facing and the best way to approach the boss. The nice thing is how different each assassin had to be fought. The variety and cleverness was impressive to me. It could be as simple as knowing the right moment to attack or it could be knowing how to use the environment to combat your enemy. What made me realize how great the game play was, though, happened while fighting Shinobu. I'm almost ashamed to admit it but I played her alone for over four hours. So many times I was a hit or two away from beating her but I got cocky and tried to force the win... and it cost me. Normally I would be frustrated having wasted so much time and get that close. I certainly wasn't happy, I can tell you that but I never once felt frustrated. It was a challenge trying to figure out the strategy and the desire to see the next cut scene kept me going.

While I really was digging the story, if you're expecting something deep you will be disappointed. This more like the first Kill Bill rather than the second one. You're killing people to become number one. That's it. There are hints of a deeper story, but I won't comment about that in this review.

What I will comment on is how the game uses style to help the story along. The writing is filled with funny comments and references. Maybe it's making fun of Travis' sexual habits or maybe it's taking a jab at anime. Maybe it's inserting a classic video game reference. Or in the case of ranked fights, it's over-the-top dialog as two bigger than life characters face off in a duel to the death. The style oozes over into the art as well. Considering the Wii's limited graphical abilities, this might have been necessary to make the game look interesting.

Graphically the heavy use of shading looks good, but there are times when the Wii's limitations show. Parts of the city might look great while others look horrible. Cut scenes, however, make up for a lot of it. It's not what the early 2006 trailer promised us, but I almost like this better. In a way it fits with the retro parts Suda 51 inserted into the game.

But with the good there unfortunately is bad, with a game that was never really treated like a AAA title there's bound to be some missteps here or there. I loved the story, although some people looking for a deeper meaning might be disappointed. I think if you take it for what it is it actually makes the overall game more enjoyable. It's the graphics and lack of content that ultimately are this game's sour points, however.

I mentioned earlier about the retro style. It works along side the other elements Suda 51 put into the game, but I couldn't help but look at the rougher parts and think of what the game could have looked like if the maker's had spent a little more time on it. It could have easily kept the style they established while doing away with the pixelated parts.

While the ranked matches are fun, the overworld gives a sense of being rushed. There are a handful of people wandering the streets and only a few buildings that can be entered (only after defeating certain ranked assassins). The only thing that can be done is kicking open dumpsters for t-shirts and cash and finding Lovikov Balls. You can dig for cash and cards if you have the patience and a lot of time to kill, but I gave up on that a long time ago. Otherwise the only point of the overworld is to get from Point A to Point B. There's so much that could have been done to give it some purpose, such as interacting with the people on the street. That could have opened up a lot of different options, such as learning new information, taking on assassination gigs, finding objects or weapon upgrades, etc. It's neat to have such a big city to explore, but without anything to actually DO there's no point. Hopefully if the game spawns a sequel this is something that can be worked on.

The assassination gigs are also something of a mixed bag. Performing menial tasks (such as collecting coconuts or mowing lawns) opens up assassination missions to earn the big bucks. Unfortunately there is only one real assassination mission (with three different versions), while the rest are fighting random bad guys in parking lots and alleys. It isn't bad but it's so generic. Considering these are the same type of baddies in the ranking missions, I was kind of hoping for some variety. It also doesn't help that half of the missions usually are, "Kill all the bad guys within three minutes, but don't get hit!" Those ended up being the most pointless parts of the game, because inevitably after all the hard work of taking out the bad guys someone would get in a cheap shot and the mission was over. If you get hit once, it was all for nothing. For your sanity stick to the Pizza Competition assassination gig or something that doesn't involve Travis having only one square of health left. Even for people who like hard challenges I can't imagine anyone actually enjoying it.

The game is not perfect. The plain overview world and the lack of anything to do in it keeps this game from being a true AAA title. That's unfortunate because everything else about it is quality and if it had a world with more to do or even simply a smaller area to explore, it very well could have been included in that exclusive "AAA" category. The game is so close to it that had Suda 51 took just a little bit more time, it could have made all the difference in the world.

Despite all of this, the game is amazing. The good make up for the bad in every way, and it's easily one of the best games on the system so far. It might not be a Mario Galaxy or Metroid Prime 3, but it deserves to be considered in the top ten. The graphic violence, language, sexual themes, and game play won't suit everyone, but if you're a fan of Kill Bill you will find this worth your fifty dollars. Everything it does is over the top, and that is the strength of the game.

SCORE: 8.5 / 10