No More Heroes, is what we can truly call, "Ode to Games". I've been expecting this game ever since it was announced, and after playing gems such as Killer 7, I consider myself a Suda 51 fanboy.
Let's be honest. The game has bad graphics. It's repetitive. The gameplay is kinda boring. And the controls are clunky, specially when you're riding the motorcycle. Apart from the boss experiences, winning money by consecutively repeating missions you've already done before gets pretty old, pretty fast. But no matter how many times I did these tasks, they never seemed like chores to me. I mastered the few little gameplay elements the game had. I bought every single item of clothing there was to buy, I bought every single move, discovered all the Lovikov Balls (kinda like the Hidden Packages in GTA) and basically got EVERYTHING there was to get in the game by the fourth boss battle.
I forgot to refer how the game was broken into. Basically, you play Travis, a geek otaku who loves games and anime. He bought a lightsaber on eBay, and now, he's on a quest to kill the world's 10 greatest assassins, in order to become the best. Basically, a videogame that screams to us "I am a videogame. And this is you."
The boss battles are one of the best parts of the game. Each boss is funny, witty, inventive, and provides us with a fine bout. The combat in the game is managed by simply hitting the A button, dodging with the d-pad, pressing the B button to stun enemies for wrestling attacks. But the action itself, although basic, is alluring. And the enemies you slash up go down in the most varied of ways. The wiimote is brought into action in these strikes, which, although seeming repetitive and basic, ends up being alot of fun.
The entire game is spent on the various areas of Santa Destroy, a Californian town where it's always summer morning, and the buildings are made out of stylized cardboard. The town itself doesn't play much of a role, but it fits Travis like a glove. You roll around in your hyper stylish motorcycle, drifting and jumping around, and taking odd jobs, assassination jobs, in order to
make money to pay for the entry fee of the next top-named assassin.
The game is a routine, one I was glad to comply, because it never stopped being fun. The story starts being basic, and ends up being half-complex, half- funny nonsense, and fully awesome. The game just never ceases to have style, because you can never get tired of the characters, or their humor.
The entire game manages to maintain a steady balance between hard enough to be challenging, and easy enough to be fun. Surprising how such a basic gameplay, free of complex combos, can provide such a varied experience. By now, I've finished the game two times, and I'm still taking it to the maximum difficulty level (Called "Bitter", the others being "Sweet and "Mild") in order to rack up some more bodies.
After finishing No More Heroes, we're almost heartbroken with the words that show up on-screen. "Too bad there won't be a sequel." The game got me hooked, more than any other game I've ever played on the console (which, about a four months ago, wouldn't be hard) and although it had the best ending it could have possibly had, it left me asking for more. In a way that I quickly reloaded my saved game, and loaded my "New Game +".
Now let's get one thing straight. As "New Game +"es all over the gaming world always fail to offer anything new to games, I have never played a single one. Repeating a game with little more than a tiny slurp of different juice without bringing anything new, is not something I'm fond of. A few new skins aren't enough for me to want to repeat an experience, no matter how memorable it is.
But when I finished the game, I found myself wanting MORE. Even if it meant I'd have to start all over again. Thankfully, the game has the option to start over with everything you owned intact. Only some new pieces of art, and new clothing. But even if it didn't have anything, this game is a celebration of videogames as a work of art, and as good fun.
It has considerably bad graphics. And this is the reason why it looks like a game. The enemies are generic, and all fall down the same way. It's a videogame. Bosses have different personalities, different weapons, and no backstory apart from "I'm here, and I'm gonna kick your ass". Backstories are used as jokes in this game, and the ending itself is philosophical. It has a very distinct message. That Travis is nothing more than a videogame character. And so, he has to follow the common, usual game plots and consistencies, in order to reach the end. And although he has reached the end... there is no way out. There never was. Game characters don't go to paradise.
It's this kind of game that makes me glad that I play games. It's this kind of art that makes me glad that I'm a gamer. No More Heroes, shows exactly how extremely kickass games can be. And how they SHOULD be.
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