Reviews
|
|
No More Heroes
By Ian Aaberg
Platform: Wii
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Grasshopper Studios
When you think of Wii you tend to think of a family friendly console with games like Mario Party and the all too-ripped-off Wii Sports. However, with Ubisoft’s newest creation, No More Heroes, Suda 51 and his team at Grasshopper Studios have provided something juicy for the more hardcore gamer and adult fan. Though not the most polished game out there, this over-the-top, violent, and stylishly retro piece should be in any serious gamers’ household. No More Heroes is good enough that it makes me want to check out the other games in Suda 51’s stable, most notably Killer 7.
Domi Arigato Mr. Touchdown
You’re Travis Touchdown, a former pro wrestler and current winner of an online auction for a Beam Katana (see also: Light Saber). Travis is currently the eleventh-rated assassin around and has predictably decides he wants the top spot. To attain this goal you’ll have to travel in a relatively desolate sandbox-style town named Santa Destroy. In this town you will complete odd jobs for money, lift weights and perform training mini-missions to get you prepared for your official fights, all arranged through the United Assassins Association.
The game is split in two parts, with both having their own distinct feel. The free roaming aspect provides training and progresses the overall story, but comes off as a bit tedious and boring. The meat and potatoes of the game are the actual fights and the insane boss battles.
Grand Theft Sucko
Within the “outer world” of the actual city you can’t really do anything. It’s almost completely desolate. Even if you do manage to stumble across a NPC, you can’t beat the snot out of them and steal their cash and you can’t turn them into a smear in the road with your bike. If you hit them they just run away. Even when you hit another car, it doesn’t spin or move and there is no damage modeling whatsoever. You’ll also find yourself getting stuck behind invisible barriers and areas that just seem like scenery fillers. At one point, I went too far off the road and my character randomly fell off a cliff and started over back at the hotel.
The mini games are relatively fun, but the game is in dire need of an option to travel fast to these mini games like you can in Oblivion. This part of the game needed more time and energy put into it, because as it stands it is almost useless (even as a self reflexive comment on sandbox games and American violence). It comes across as an incomplete after-thought, slapped on only to mare the rest of the game. It’s a shame because the fighting missions are pretty great.
There will be blood…
On the positive side, when the action finally does kick in it’s relentless. The controls are fairly intuitive and easy to use, though I was wishing for a jump option in certain circumstances. There are high and low attack systems for your battery-charged Beam Katana, an enemy lock feature, and wrestling-style kick and punch maneuvers. The motion sensing capabilities of the Wii come in handy, as you perform these wrestling moves by moving the Wii remote and the Nun chuck around. There are also some very violent “finishing moves” that you pull off using these remote movements.
The fights sound very violent when described on paper, but they are extremely tolerable in their execution. They are so over-the-top, with blood gushing everywhere, splitting people in half, it feels more like an anime joke instead of the gore-fest one would typically come to visualize. As far as the graphics go, they’re decent, reminiscent of older Playstation games. But you didn’t buy a Wii for its graphic capabilities. Again, visually everything is extremely fun to watch, even as a bystander. It’s like you are watching quality anime, or a really good live comic strip with a tongue and cheek sensibility and love for all things gaming related.
Keep plenty of TP handy
Humor plays a huge role in the entertainment here. With great one-liners like, “they’ll have an open mic night in hell,” side jobs that include mowing lawns and picking up trash, and the fact that your character can hang around his apartment petting the cat, lift weights, rent videos, and is all about getting it on with Sylvia (the head of the UAA), you’ll keep a light-hearted smile the whole time. A few other things I found great were the fact that they made this game to not only have the feel of a modern fighting game, but they also throw in sound effects and visualizations from the classic 8-bit and old school arcade games to keep with the retro feel. It is interesting that when you want to save the game you’ll have to go to the bathroom and your character does his business. Also, when you need to recharge your katana, you have to make a strange “jerking” of the Wii remote. And if you were one of the lucky ones that preordered I hope it was at least two-ply.
Blood induced coma
The game can tend to get a little repetitive, as the fighting doesn’t change or evolve much over the course of things. You may pick up a few extra wrestling moves to add to your arsenal, but mostly it’s the same situation over and over again. Maybe that’s why they added the failed sandbox aspect, to mix it up a little. The zany skits and oddball humor with the simplistic, yet engaging, combat system and over-the-top killings make this game extremely enjoyable and, in my eyes, way worth the lack of outer world traveling. Though it may not be the most polished title out there, it sure is a very welcome alternative to all of the mini-game fests and Mario related releases that have flooded the market.
Review brought to you by [8bitreview.com]
|
