Suda 51 does another excellent job at making a surreal game that makes little sense, but is incredible.

Okay, everytime someone sees me play this game they ask "WHat the hell is this then?" or something along those lines, and as a result, I should really tell you...

The main character is Travis Touchdown, a bloke who is an otaku. Which is basically a Japanese word for geek. He meets a girl in a bar, Slyvia Cristel, who gets him into a fight, as long as he wins he'll get cash, which he isn't complaining about because he's completly broke. He goes outside with his lightsaber he bought from eBay (for legal reasons the lightsaber is a "beam katana" and eBay is "internet auction site") and kills the dude. Turns out this bloke was the 11th best assassin in the USA, and Slyvia basically says that since Travis is now the 11th best assassin, why doesn't he kill the 10 above him and become number one, for money, babes, and an easy life. Travis being the shallow and easily pleased bloke he is, accepts. And there we have it, No More Heroes, a story of epic proportions kicking off in style.

Now I had heard nothing but good things about this game, one popular gaming publication that I frequently read said that it was "better than Brawl" so I had my hopes high. The art atyle looked great, I'd heard good things about all of Suda 51s games, despite never playing any, and I was excited. In fact, I made two trips into my local GAME store that day, just so I could get enough money to buy it. And I got home, put in the disc, clicked the disc channel and this heavenly tone came from my televisions speakers... It was the sound of 8-bit gaming. No, No More Heores is a 3D game, all the way through, but damn... This sound was brilliant... I knew I was in for something special.

Playing it was just as brilliant, Travis takes a few steps outside his motel and you gently walk him over to the stairs... A cutscene comes up, and runs you through the basic story to where he is now. He's on his bike, the only rideable vehicle in the game, on his way to Death Metal's house, Death Metal would be the 10th best assassin, and his domain is your first level. On the way there Travis explains that the game was starting up quickly because his buddy at Beef Head videos told him that most gamers are impaitient, and that they hate when games take ages to start up. Wait, Travis said that he was in a game? Oh yes, Travis and friends know fully well that they are in a video game, and make references to it frequently. It makes for some lovely satire, and brings a good few laughs throughout the game... When a game is actually funny, that's something else. Because they aren't in the real world they can do almost anything, for example, anytime they need to explain something very long and drawn out, they can just fastforward themselves until they are finished. Whenever that happens you can expect comical squeaky voices that just have to make you giggle.  The storyline itself is both linear and deep. How? Well I must say, I want to give you an example, I really do, but the story makes very little sense at all, but at the same time it's absolutly brilliant, you won't want to miss a single cutscene. Every bit of information gives a hint to what the game is about, so I can't say a thing. Let's just say you'll swear at the TV at the end, yeah?

The gameply is basic hack-n-slash action, target an enemy with Z, smack him up with A, swing the remote in the direction the arrow tells you to near the end, and with  one final smash one or two enemies have exploded into a shower of ash (or blood, depending on which version of the game you have). For some reason this gameplay never really gets boring. You can also stun enemies and use wrestling moves on them, but because enemies are easily dealt with anyway you'll rarely use them. Between each big Ranked fight you have little missions, this could be assassinate the pizza shop owner, or even mow the lawn, but these will get you cash, and medals for the next fight, or even better, free fight matches. Free fights have just one annoying thing about them; get hit once and it's over. The idea is to kills all the enemies in your area without getting hit once, which can be simple, because as long as Travis isn't moving, he blocks automatically, but this can be tough, because let your gaurd down for one second, ie: attack, and your enemies can smack you up. Free fights are unlocked by getting a Gold Medal on any of theJob Center missions. Job Center missions are the ones that include mowing lawns and collecting cats... Literally. And yet for some reasons those misssions are still great fun.

The game has a very arty flair to it too, which is what Suda 51 is known best for really. It's all a lovely brand of cel-shading, and all those people who said thet Wind Waker was for kids because of the art style should have a look at this and tell me if cel-shading is still for kids. It's all brilliant stuff, even though we have the cel-shading it's brilliantly detailed, you can see the facial reactions of every character, and you know exactly why. It really is beautiful.

Each cutscene has some lovely voice acting in it, and unlike most games, it really is brilliant. I mean, Slyvia has a french accent, she doesn't pretend to have a french accent, she actually has one! All those little 8-bit bleeps and the vwing sounds that spill from the remote, all of it is brilliant. One feature I particulary enjoyed was that just before each ranked fight Slyvia would ring you on your phone, and her voice comes from the Wii Remote, causing you to put it up to your ear to hear her, a lovely feature I think. There's this one song that plays when you walk into shops, and it has a little music video you can get to from the TV in your motel, it's a catchy pop-tune that I hated at first, but now I think is actually... Good...

Now will you come and back to play this game? Well I've completed it, and yet I still find myself wanting to play. After you beat the game once you get a new difficulty setting and a new set of "trading cards" to collect, you can find trading cards in the levels before your ranked matches. Another thing is Lokikov Balls. Lokikov balls are balls scattered about the city of Santa Destroy, collect seven of them and you'll be able to learn a new move of some kind. Wether this move is helpful or not is another thing entirely, choose wisely. You can get a little thing that lets you see your enemies on yoru mini-map, which is infinitly helpful, another thing give you bonuses of some kind... I never found out what these bonuses were, but they didn't seem to do anything...

But let's think about this, it sound like No More Heroes is an eccentric piece of gaming, but does eccentric mean good? Well I find myself hard pushed to find a fault with the game besides the fact that the sword swinging is the only thing you're going to be doing to kill enemies, unless you're in one of those "kill with only wrestling moves" annoying missions... This game, is excellent, I think you should buy it.

Score:

Storyline 8/10
Game Play 7/10
Graphics 8/10
Sound 10/10
Life Span 8/10