Wii - No More Heroes

Reviewed By: Mindesyn, Byronic Gaming, Canada

No More Heroes for the Wii is the brain child of video game designer Suda 51 whom is also responsible for other titles such as Killer 7 for the Gamecube and Moonlight Syndrome for the Playstation.

This mature rated title for the Nintendo Wii stars the protagonist Travis Touchdown (voiced by Robin Atkin Downes) who is a 27-year-old American assassin and stereotypical otaku – his motel room decorated with professional wrestling and anime collectibles – living in near poverty in the motel "NO MORE HEROES" of Santa Destroy, California accompanied by his kitten Jeane (most likely named after his long lost love). He appears to have interest in Lucha Libre icons, as well as a moe driven anime series called Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly; his apartment is filled with such mentioned merchandise. After winning a beam katana in an Internet auction he becomes a hit man. When he runs out of money to buy video games he accepts a job to kill Helter Skelter, also known as "the Drifter," which earns him rank 11 by the United Assassins Association, a governing body of assassins. Realizing that he has now made himself a target for aspiring assassins, he sets out to secure himself as number one in the UAA. He gets around on his exaggerated motorcycle, dubbed the "Schpeltiger." Located in the city of Santa Destroy where all the locations are named after pro wrestling moves.

This psychotic, over the top, action packed video game, was something I felt the Nintendo Wii needed to attract that 'hardcore gamer' audience. With all the blood and gore, crude humor, intense violence, sexual overtones, and strong enough language to get your TV banned by the authorities. It caters to even the most discriminating gamer. If you think the Wii library of games is for little kids and casual gamers, I suggest you pick up this title developed by Grasshopper Manufacture.

The graphics have a cell shaded style, that I think looks real sharp, combined with the cell shading, are blocky 8-bit style components such as the health bar, in-game menus, and the over world map (Which was troublesome at times)

The characters and the voice acting was superbly well done. I personally enjoyed every character in the game and Travis Touchdown's short yet humorous encounter with each one. Every assassin proves as the boss of a particular location, and each boss fight is diverse and interesting. Always working sarcasm into the violence of each fight kept the feeling light hearted yet intense enough to start sweating during the battles. Difficulty levels were about the right level 'Sweet' was Easy, 'Mild' was Normal, and 'Bitter' was Hard.
Sound effects were well done, the musical score was unique and memorable.

Control was one of the things that stood out for me, a lot of developers feel the need to force 'waggle' controls and use the motion sensing technology in ways that really makes the Wii look like a gimmick opposed to a respectable game console. No More Heroes, did it right, you swing the beam katana by tapping the A button, and when you want to finish off said opponent, a direction icon will appear, swing the Wiimote in direction showed on the screen and viola! Chances are you just decapitated a bad guy.

The entire game has a tongue in cheek, smartass approach to things, when you save the game, you save on the toilet (which made this gamer use 'save my game' as code for going to the bathroom) when you batteries die in your beam katana, you furiously shake it up and down (including the gamer shaking the Wiimote) in the fashion of masturbation. One of the most inventive and neat uses of the Wiimote was when you receive a phone call on your in-game cell, you put the Wiimote up to your ear, and the speaker acts as a phone where you can hear Sylvia give you advice on the boss. No More Heroes is always true to its own perverse logic - always proud to be a video game, always stealing liberally from the best of other genres, always loud and obnoxious. The mishmash of visual styles, music and the world’s most flamboyant dialogue has no comparison to anything else; it’s impossible to put the game in a box, except to say that it is unquestionably, undeniably, unequivocally No More Heroes, and you have never played anything like this before.

Santa Destroy has alot to offer when you aren't in the mood for mindless killing or advancing the plot. Its a GTA styled sandbox style, you can shopping and buy new clothes for Travis to wear, go to the gym and improve your stats, with his mentor Thunder Ryu. Go collect Lokitov balls scattered all over the map and take them to a drunk Russian who teaches you new moves. Do mini games, and missions at a place to work, or hang out in the NO MORE HEROES motel where Travis lives.

No More Heroes has minor flaws, some might say the game play is repetitive and the frame rate can get sloppy when you are hauling ass on your motorcycle, the graphics can look jagged and rough. Overall though, the cut scenes, and just the overall experience should be more than enough to make up for any small flaws the game regrettably has.

For Byronic Gaming I give this game 4.2 beam katana decapitations out of 5.