a game made for grasshopper fans (not for nmh fans), i can greatly appreciate how personal this game is for suda and how open he is about his emotions and his journey in his life and the gaming industry. a love letter to indie games too, i love how there's a whole level about how awesome hotline miami is lol. maybe its a skill issue but i found this game to be pretty challenging at points (in sort of a bad way). art style is really cute. soundtrack is amazing, one of the best in the kill the past series. enjoyed this alot but i feel like its close to being something really incredible.

Travis Strikes Again is a game that I appreciated way more than I personally enjoyed. It's a loving tribute to not just indie games but indie developers, Suda51's previous projects, and gaming as a whole. You truly feel that love in its sleek presentation as it takes you through the worlds of several fictional video games that are both subtle and obvious homages to existing titles.

However, I felt that the core gameplay itself left a lot to be desired, especially coming hot off the heels of the previous two games in this series. I know fans of this entry will roll their eyes reading this, but... it is pretty repetitive. While yes, they do try to spice things up with 'chip sets," which provide rechargeable special attacks with different powers and bonuses, it's not quite enough to sustain interest over 10+ hours of gameplay. Perhaps co-op makes this more palatable, but it felt like a step down nonetheless.

Story-wise, there wasn't much going on here for me since NMH1 was the first Suda51 title I played less than a week ago, and so much of this adventure relies on you following his work throughout the years. While, yes, there were some funny moments and lines of dialogue, as expected, even without context, it was still a shame to be out of the loop for so much of this.

It's a charming tribute to countless things that mean so much to so many in the gaming world, and you really feel the love that went into the presentation of Travis Strikes Again, and if it wasn't for that, there wouldn't have been much incentive here to see the credits.

Still, it got me pumped for No More Heroes 3 so mission accomplished either way I guess!

Travis Strikes Again is both a passionate love letter to indie games and a celebratory comprehensive look into Suda51's history as a game developer.

Let's get this out of the way first. I see people complain about the gameplay of Travis Strikes Again all the time and say it isn't fun and I could not disagree more, I was kept thoroughly entertained for my entire 15 hour run and I wasn't even playing it co-op either.

TSA is in a top-down isometric POV, but much like the older No More Heroes games it is a hack-n-slash where you have a classic light and heavy attack control scheme alongside a dodge as well, but now since there's a stronger emphasis on platforming you also have a jump button and there are skill chips you can find which act as various powers from a telekinetic grab to a lightning bolt and more. Yes it is repetitive, but No More Heroes always has been a repetitive game and TSA is meant to be so in a classic and simplistic arcade-like way and even then there's still a lot of variety and depth to it, even more so than first 2 No More Heroes games thanks to the new additions to combat.

In TSA we follow Badman the father of Badgirl as he goes to get revenge on Travis Touchdown for killing his daughter in the first game, but during their fight they both get sucked up into a cursed video game console called the "Death Drive" and learn that if they can find all 6 of the game cartridges known as "Death Balls" and complete them it is rumored that any one wish of your choosing can be granted and naturally Badman wants to wish his daughter back to life, so Travis and Badman set their differences aside and work together to strive towards this goal.

TSA has truly phenomenal presentation. The set-up of having various game worlds to go through leaves the game open for so many creative and experimental style mixups in truest Suda fashion that keeps the game fresh and fun. From a cyberpunk city to a Resident Evil style mansion, racing mini games to a level that is "under construction" in the Unreal Engine and even a major homage to one of Suda's other games, I never knew what was going to be in store for me when I loaded the next Death Ball world. That isn't even mentioning how in between Death Balls there's a Silver Case style ADV section (Which is a great way to break up the combat and gameplay so it doesn't get too repetitive) that shows how Travis gets each Death Ball and in this section he even gets to interact with many characters from past Suda games from Killer is Dead to the Silver Case and more.

Hidden within the meta comedic narrative of "a game within a game" Travis Strikes Again has so much introspective subtext about Suda51's own personal experience about how his vision as a creator has been mangled and twisted countless times by big name publishers and how for the first time in a long time Suda was able to go back to his roots and make a game that was completely in his own vision with TSA by developing it with a very small team of about 10 people in the same fashion an indie game would be developed.

Travis Strikes Again is a game that you can tell is very personal to Suda51 and it wasn't just made for the fans, but for himself too. This is a deep and often existential look into video game development itself. A work of art that is a celebration of art as well. The kind of experience that is meant to stick with you long after you put the controller down. It certainly won't be for everyone, but for the people who truly understand what makes this game as special as it is, you'll find very few games capable of matching how rich the character writing, story, themes and aesthetics are in Travis Strikes Again.