No More Heroes Member Review for the Wii

Beam Me Up

No more heroes is a game I was excited about for ages, almost on par with the excitement for Zelda. The eye-catching thing for me was the fact that Suda 51 produced it (the same developers of Killer7), along with the anime-style graphics and character creation. So how did this puppy do?

You are Travis Touchdown (the coolest name ever?), who to put it simply, wishes to be Number 1 in the "United Assassins Association" (UAA).  In the beginning you get a mission to assassinate a drifter. When successful you meet a girl called Sylvia Christel (pornstar name), who is in charge of the UAA and tells you that you just killed the 11th ranked assassin! Thus making you Rank 11 - Sweet!

From here onwards, you assassinate every ranked assassin from 10th to 1st in order to become number one! But as you go along, changes occur, and you realise there is more to it than just a one-on-one battles!

In your grasp, you have a beam katana! A lightsaber with slightly more metal. And from the very beginning you are neck-deep in action. The controls are much simpler than you would expect. You press A to swing the katana, pointing the wiimote towards the screen offers a low slash, and pointing the wiimote upwards offers a high slash. Basically whenever someone blocks your attack, you change from high to low or vice versa! The same goes with "Beat" attacks. You press B to stun the enemy with high and low attacks.

Stunning the enemy gives you the opportunity to do a wrestling move, which is pretty damn sweet. Commands will come on the screen for you to move the nunchuk and wiimote, and you must execute the correct movements in order to perform badass suplexes and power bombs etc. You can also target your enemy by pressing and holding Z, and this makes it easier to aim and keep an eye on your enemy. Doing this also enables you to do an automatic block (in easy mode), which comes in handy when being shot at! You actually feel like Luke Skywalker when blocking the bullets, it's pretty satisfying!

Deathblows are amazing in this game. When you've hacked at your enemy until he is dead, an arrow appears on the screen and you must move the wiimote in that direction to perform a deathblow! It looks ridiculously cool, and gives you a bloodthirsty edge. Merely because time slows down whilst the action is performed and it does look really cool.

On every deathblow three slots roll at the bottom, much like a slots machine. Dependent on the set of 3 you get, you can perform special attacks in a "dark side mode". They are named after fine desserts such as Sundaes etc, and the special are great. some giving you automatic Deathblows, and special deathblows etc! - you can tell Suda 51 focused very much on the eye candy!

However, it's a shame they didnt focus more time on the gameplay. In the events of the killing of ranked assassins, it's perfect. You march through a certain domain be it a stadium, bus station or subway etc, and have a grueling 10 minute battle with the ranked assassins. In between is the problem, because to get to these battles, you need to contribute a set amount of money. To gain money you must do side-jobs, which are OK at first, but after that they can become a little boring.

However, there is much to do in the city of Santa Destroy. You can buy videos, upgrade your katana, upgrade your strength, buy new clothes (this game has the largest wardrobe in a game I have ever seen), along with other things. But being in the city takes away the kick of the story a little. The battles are quite spaced apart, and in the end you almost forget what you're collecting money for. It's a shame because they story is simple but effective, but to have a staggered way of executing it is quite annoying.

Design was the main focus in this game I feel. The characters are all brilliant, varying from an evil super-villain, to a high school samurai. The graphics are also executed in an anime-style, which makes the game look fresh and crisp. The soundtrack is fantastic, even though I think they over-did the main theme song a little since you hear it everytime you fight - but in a slightly different way. But overall, I will commend them for their graphics and design of the game, it's great to experience.

Overall, this game is a treat to play. To fight with a lightsaber but in samurai style in conjunction with powerful wrestling moves is pretty damn awesome! The action is amazing, and I cant get enough of it. It's just a shame they didnt focus on making the city exploration part of the game a little more exciting - it's almost as if they tried to make it like GTA but didnt really make it. But everything else does suffice! I recommend this game for sure, so instead of buying a beam katana, I suggest to use a wiimote instead!