Head for the Garden of Madness - No More Heroes Review
Developed by Grasshopper Manufacture.
Published by Ubisoft.
Wii.
Released January 22nd, 2008.
Purchased copy.
PREFACE
I haven’t picked up No More Heroes in years, but when I first played it, I did three 100% runs on all three difficulties.
I played this game to death, so I’m going into this review with the question, does No More Heroes still hold up nowadays?
I recommend either the Wii verison of this game, or the Dolphin version with 1080p/60fps, etc., and motion controls for the optimal gameplay experience.
Unlike the PS3 version, all the game’s content is intact in the Wii and Dolphin versions, and with Dolphin one can still play the game in HD.
This game is very story focused, so I will do my best to avoid major spoilers.
GOTTA FIND THAT EXIT
No More Heroes is the story of Travis Touchdown, a broke, geeky loser renting out a motel full of anime, pro-wrestling, and porn VHS tapes, among other nerdy memorabilia.
His goal is to become the number one ranked assassin in the United States, and his weapon of choice, is a light-saber like weapon, referred to as a “beam katana”.
Travis’ true motives remain unclear through out the story, but they begin to unravel as the player encounters the game’s bosses.
Travis has to work his ass off at a Temp agency doing odd jobs to pay an entry fee, which climbs in cost as the game progresses.
It just goes to show that achieving one’s goals requires a lot of hard work, and this game nails that sentiment through it gameplay seamlessly.
They couldn’t have found a better voice actor than Robin Atkins Downes as Travis Touchdown, the creepy sex-starved loser comes through, but when Travis gets serious, he actually sounds threatening.
The audience can tell that Travis is a total dork, but when the story calls for it Travis will say some dark unsettling one-liner to close out a boss fight, No More Heroes is very quick to remind the audience that Travis is a killer.
The other important character is Sylvia Christel, the person who forces to Travis to keep moving forward.
She has a reputation as a manipulative bitch, and she is, but I’ve come to realize that she cares about Travis more than people give her credit.
Sure, she spends all of Travis’ hard earned money on herself, but I’m not sure I wouldn’t have scrapped a little off the top of Travis’ fight money either(I would have been more subtle about it and invested and traded stocks, and whatnot).
I think of it as payment for molding Travis into the man he needed to become in order to face his real opponent at the game’s climax, she saw this drunk loser in a bar, and went out of her way to help him.
I think it’s fair for her to be rewarded a little for everything she does for Travis in the story, don’t you?
The story in No More Heroes is an excellent fusion of gameplay and narrative, even if the player doesn’t relate to Travis, they will have almost the exact same reactions and motivations as their player character, and that’s tough to pull off in video games.
WILD SWINGS
I’m covering the Wii version of this game, and the Wii has a reputation as being filled to the brim with shovelware waggle garbage, and while that’s true, No More Heroes is one of the few exceptions.
No More Heroes relies solely on the Wiimote & Nunchuk combination, as the Wii Classic Controller Pro came out a year after this game’s release.
The motions required of the player involve simple directional swipes, or rotations, nothing the Sensor Bar is likely to fuck up, though this is all dependent on one’s set up.
The motion controls are used intelligently and not leaned on during gameplay, the developers understood that the Wii’s features are a compliment to normal button inputs, similar to how the touchscreen is used with Nintendo’s DS/3DS line.
Those who are biased against motion controls entirely, or anyone belonging to the large demographic of Americans who clog up our health care system with perfectly preventable diseases caused by a life time of high caloric intake, will likely turned off by a game like this, but for everyone else, it’s worth a shot.
LET THE BLOODSHED BEGIN
No More Heroes is a combat-focused game, and while the combat isn’t very complex, it’s remarkably satisfying.
The player has one dedicated weapon attack button, melee attack/grapple button, and a lock-on button, and the D-pad is for directional dodging OR moving the camera.
Weapon attacks are done with the signature Beam Katana, where Travis swings his weapon until the player stops pressing the attack button.
The beam katana is Travis’ primary method of dealing damage, but he also has a melee attack that can guard-break or stun enemies and leave them open for more damage.
Enemy health bars are visible when locked on, and when they’re depleted the player can finish them off with a motion-controlled QTE finisher.
A standard finisher with the katana will quickly kill the enemy, or the player can use a wrestling finisher to suplex them onto the ground.
Grounded enemies can be killed with a tap of the attack button, but a grounded Travis requires that the player mash buttons to spring him back on his feet.
The D-pad normally controls the camera, as it does with the right joystick of a standard controller, which works better than one might expect.
When locked on to an enemy the D-pad becomes a directional dodge button, in the form of a dodge roll.
The game never tells the player about this, but under certain conditions, the player can pull off a “perfect dodge” that slows down time, and grants the player free hits for short period of time.
I have no idea how to pull off this technique, but it always comes in handy, yet there’s no indication of how it’s performed by the game’s tutorial.
The combat in No More Heroes lacks complexity, but it makes up for it by how satisfying it is to kill even the endless goons of the game.
Killing them with the katana has Travis slicing them in two, and a fountain of blood and cash arcs in two directions, every single time.
The presentation of No More Heroes fills in the gaps of it’s shallow fighting mechanics, and will leave the player feeling euphoric after every victory.
BATTERY-POWERED MAYHEM
The beam katana is an extremely overpowered weapon, and the game mitigates this with several game mechanics, to prevent No More Heroes from becoming a cake walk, and to keep the fights entertaining.
No matter which katana Travis has equipped, all 4 of them have a rechargeable battery, that drains with ANY use of the weapon, but not when its idle, so it’s not constantly draining.
Standard attacks drain it slowly, but surely, as does blocking attacks; Travis can block just about anything that isn’t a big hit, including full-automatic gunfire at point-blank range.
A secret charging attack drains the battery drastically upon impact, and even more so if several enemies are killed in the process.
A secret jumping attack has the exact same effect, but it’s guaranteed to knock enemies on their ass if they survive, and all it takes to pull it off, is a swing of the nunchuck.
Travis can purchase and upgrade three additional katana’s from a scientist named Dr. Naomi; they have a standardized design, and serve as iterative improvements over the starting weapon.
The beam katana is one of the coolest looking and well executed weapons in a video game, it takes a film icon like the light saber and makes it even cooler and more grounded to create a signature, stylish identity of its own.
SANTA DESTROY
Santa Destroy is a fictional Southern California town, right near the US/Mexican border, with its own distinct identity setting it apart from the video game it’s derived from.
Santa Destroy is structured exactly like a city in the 3D Grand Theft Auto games, it’s an open-ended sandbox, where most buildings are just set dressing, but a few interactive places exist to craft the illusion of an American metropolis, or in this case a Latin-infused suburb.
There are shops where Travis can improve his combat abilities, alter his appearance slightly, or take on odds jobs, and assassination missions.
The town acts as an interactive connecting thread between what would normally be a bunch of menus, as the player can’t walk around the interiors of the buildings he enters.
Santa Destroy is tiny and barrel, lacking NPCs and vehicles, but it sort of makes up for it by being chalk full of little collectibles to find.
Exploring the city has the player hunting down extra clothing items, and 49 Livikov balls, yet these small rewards aren’t well hidden, and it took me about 2 hours to find about 95% of the collectibles by combing the map.
Santa Destroy isn’t well designed, but it’s a great foundation to build off of, and can be improved by making it a more interactive overworld with tons of clever secrets that are well hidden.
It’s not bad.
THE SCHPELTIGER
The silly-looking custom motorbike Travis uses to get around, which the player has access to as soon as they clear the tutorial level.
It has poor handling because it has trouble turning at high speeds, unless the player break taps or lets off of the accelerator.
It often gets caught up on objects it can normally demolish at high speeds, and tiny objects that it should be able to roll over can cause Travis to crash and fall off of it.
It has a recharging boost meter, which exacerbates the poor handling even further, and is really only useful when going in a straight line.
The Schpeltiger isn’t a trusty vehicle, but hey, it beats walking!
FITNESS GOALS
Much like an action-adventure game Travis Touchdown can become stronger through exploration and mini-games.
Collecting Lovikov balls and turning them in to a drunk Russian named Randall, unlocks hidden abilities and features for the player;
A U.I. enhancement to the mini-map shows the player where enemies are located, a secret overpowered jumping attack can be unlocked, and best of all, an overworld dash that dramatically speed on-foot traversal.
All of these additional features are incorporated into the standard U.I. and control scheme and feel like natural extensions of Travis’ abilities.
Travis can do some light exercises at the Thunder Ryu Gym, that involves winning three different motion-based mini-games;
30 dumbbell reps extends Travis’ beam katana combo, which means he can launch more attacks with the same button presses.
10 bench press reps which increases Travis’ attacking power, thus he does a little more damage.
20 body squats to slightly increase his health points, thus making him able to take more hits.
Travis can rent pro-wrestling VHS tapes from a video rental store called Beef Head Videos, and viewing them in Travis’ motel will replace the previous suplex finisher with an all new one.
These finishers don’t seem to vary in damage, but Travis uses a different one on each boss.
No More Heroes has unique and thematically appropriate ways to improve the player character, in my opinion it is the best method to make a player avatar stronger.
HOME SWEET HOME
The Motel NO MORE HEROES is a hub menu disguised as Travis’ home.
Like someone’s real-life home, it acts as a place where both Travis and the player can take a breather, because it’s full of familiar and comforting things.
The player can save, heal, change clothes, play with Jeane the cat, or look at Travis’ card collection, among a few other things.
One can tell from looking into Travis’ motel, that he prefers a life of comfort and solitude; his place is filled with things that require someone to stay in one place for extended periods of time.
What makes Travis feel so alive in the story is rooted in the fact that he is finally getting out in the world, and leaving his comforts behind for a little bit.
But no matter what, like most of us, he returns to home: after ascending in rank the player saves in Travis’ bathroom, when he pays his entry fee, he returns home to check his messages.
Our homes are the catalyst and launching point for everything we do in life and it’s no different in No More Heroes.
THE DAILY GRIND
Due to the entry fee requirement, poor Travis has to scrape up enough money to pay it, by digging through dumpsters, in peoples backyards, and public lawns.
He takes on odd jobs from a temp agency, but also assassination jobs and free fight missions to pay the bills.
These odd jobs are usually motion-control focused mini-games, where the player has to perform a simple repetitive task under a time limit for meager payouts.
All of these side jobs have varied gameplay, and intuitive controls based on the tasked required of the player, such as using a scooping motion with the Wiimote to pick up garbage with tongs.
The assassination missions require the player to kill under certain conditions, almost always with a time limit.
Free fight missions are challenges where the player has to eliminate every enemy, under a time limit, where their health is at 1, so failure is very likely, but the rewards are decent enough.
The game’s story grinds to a halt if the player doesn’t have enough money to pay the entry fee for the next ranked match; meaning they will have to money farm until they can afford to progress.
I detest grinding in video games, because I see as filler that gates progress without providing a challenge: It’s just work.
No More Heroes manages to force me to tolerate the daily grind of Travis Touchdown, because it’s a vital part of the game’s storytelling
The player will most likely find the jobs that they prefer, excel at, or are the most lucrative.
The player will most likely go for the assassination route because the gameplay is more fun, and the payouts are far higher.
Travis clearly prefers the killing missions because killing is a hidden talent he’s slowly discovering, and the player mirrors this as well because it speeds up his ascent, and progresses the story faster.
There’s a razor-thin line between what is designed deliberately to annoy the player, and what constitutes bad pacing.
Said entry fee increases by 50% of the previous amount, so by the end I really start to question if all this hard work is worth the effort, but maybe that’s the point?
RANKING UP
The 10 Ranked Assassins are the highlight of No More Heroes.
They act as the payoff for all the hard work the player has to go through, because every single one of them has a hidden untold story, just oozing off the screen.
None of their boss fights could be mistaken for each other, all of them are completely different; with their own attack patterns, stage gimmicks, and signature looks.
One rule I’ve noticed is that, all the male bosses are a joke, and all the female bosses are a serious pain.
They each add a memorable piece of the story and reveal more about Travis as a person, some of them reflect his future, while others teach him about the world he’s diving into.
BAD ACT
The push towards the last 3 Ranked fights, stretch the limits of my patience with this game, with the amount of grinding and the lead up to the story’s resolution.
The story starts throwing a bunch of stupid plot twists that make all the build up seem meaningless.
The final ranked fight is against an asshole who effortlessly dodge all of Travis’ attacks, or worse counter-attacks and deals damage.
Only one move seems to work, and that’s the charging attack, which isn’t taught to the player, it’s a hidden move.
The fight against the 1st Ranked Assassin gives me the impression, that all of Travis’ training was completely useless, and nothing could have prepared him.
The last stretch in Travis Touchdown’s race to the top leaves me with a negative impression about the game, I suspect it’s what the developers intended, but I can’t shake this feeling of dissatisfaction.
WHAT A TWIST
After the credits the player can view the “real ending” and challenge the secret boss.
The plot twists and revelations presented here are so stupid they belong in a joke ending.
The downside, is that the secret boss has all the worst traits of the game’s boss fights, all rolled into one character.
They have super armor, which gives them invincibility, even when the player capitalizes on an opening, they just won’t take damage if they’re glowing orange or yellow.
They have an instant-kill move that ends the fight if it connects, no matter how much health the player has.
The worst part, is their massive health bar, that barely goes down even when Travis has his strongest weapon equipped; the fight just drags on.
It’s just asinine from a story standpoint, and an absolute chore from a gameplay standpoint, because it punishes experienced players with more waiting.
PINK-SOCKED
No More Heroes has some notable flaws, many of which I’ve already covered, but here are some I wish to go into more detail with;
The player will be barraged with frequent, but short loading times, so this game isn’t the most seamless experience, and I begin to question why the Wii couldn’t handle this game very well, when plenty of PS2 games look better, and have very little loading.
The Wii is slightly stronger than a Nintendo Gamecube, which was way stronger than the PS2, so what gives?
Failing a side job or assassination mission will force the player to drive away from the client’s location, all the way back to the vendor, then restart the mission, then drive back to the client.
A simple retry option is all that’s needed to fix this, and I’m no video game programmer, but I think it’s easier to load a failed mission, than an entire open-world map.
Consistently pulling off katana executions will reward the player with special modes that make Travis immune from damage, have one-hit execution attacks, and/or slow down time.
The issue here is that it takes a while to get 3 matching roulette symbols after executing enemies, so by the time the player does, there’s no one left to kill, and the player is stuck in super saiyan mode until it wares off.
There’s too many gun-totting assholes in this game, and projectiles that can’t be seen or dodged are the bane of beat ‘em ups and/or hack and slash games.
Blocking gunfire will force Travis to stand in place, leaving him open, and fully-automatic gunfire will quickly drain his weapon’s battery.
The only way to switch weapons, is to visit Travis’ motel, he can’t do it in the middle of battle, this is offset somewhat, by the fact the player will likely stick with just one preferred weapon.
No More Heroes succumbs to the modern gaming trend of forced slow walking segments, where the player’s momentum is halted until a conversation is completed.
Once the novelty of hear a phone call from the Wiimote’s speaker wears off, it’s just another pace-breaking waste of time, when heading to the next boss fight.
A few of the game’s bosses have mid-fight cutscenes that interrupt the flow of the fight, and some of them can damage the player or instantly kill them.
The only real punishment here is having to push the skip button, on repeated attempts.
Every boss in the game has super armor, where the player can land hits, but it won’t do damage; this isn’t when the boss blocks an attack, or the player is hitting their armored spots, the boss just doesn’t take damage even though they shouldn’t be able to defend themselves.
The worst bosses are the ones with instant kill moves, these are moves that when landed on the player, they end the fight, no matter how much health the player had.
The player is being punished for making one mistake in this instance, and that’s just unfair in a game where the player can take several hits.
I think all these flaws are worth pointing out, because even though I have praised this game, it’s important to include everything, when examining a video game.
I don’t think anything I’ve listed should keep one from trying this game, I just think it’s fair for me to make sure anyone who wants to play this game will keep these flaws in mind.
YOU LOOK SO SWEET
In most cases I’d prefer not to recommend choosing the easiest difficulty for a game, but Sweet Mode is the best way to play No More Heroes, It cuts down on most of the filler, and things don’t drag on as much.
Enemies and bosses don’t have ridiculous health bars, and take forever to kill, it’s just a smoother experience.
The Mild & Bitter difficulties simply ratchet up all the core issues with the game, and make the player work harder for the exact same reward.
There’s no way in my mind to justify asking someone to put themselves through that.
Taking on a greater challenge should bring higher rewards, but none of the content in No More Heroes is locked behind the game’s difficulty modes, it’s all available to the player regardless.
The New Game Plus feature, cuts down on the filler even more; everything from the original save transfers over to a new one, so the player can get the cash they need even faster without the need to upgrade Travis anymore.
One’s second playthrough will always be better than their first in No More Heroes, as the experience becomes even smoother, thus eliminating the need to crank the difficulty up.
The higher difficulties don’t offer a legitimate challenge, they just force the player to deal with more filler and down time, because when one knows this game’s tricks, it can never beat you.
CONCLUSION
No More Heroes is a flawed but fun experience, and it made me fall in love with an entire genre of games, beat ‘em up/hack and slash/character action, whatever one wants to call it.
No More Heroes is a great entry point for people who want to get into God of War, Metal Gear Rising, Bayonetta, Ninja Gaiden, etc..
It teaches the player all the basics of timing attacks, blocking, dodging, and positioning, and provides a really great story.
The New Game Plus feature makes every subsequent playthrough better than the last, and cuts out a lot of the fluff.
No More Heroes is a game worth playing at least once, don’t miss out, and head for the garden of madness!
RATING;