Pretty neat beat em up. As long as you go in not expecting a proper no more heroes game, I think you'll have a good time. Has some cool surprises, each level having a different gaming aesthetic is nice and direction wise it feels like the most Suda game Suda has been attached to in the past like...decade. Downside is the game has zero replayability for a beat em up, combat starts to get dull half way through and the levels are WAYYYYYY too long. If they cut the levels by half I think this game would benefit a lot from it. Otherwise, it's good?...


------UPDATED 21/08/21 ----------------
Alright so I replayed this game two and a half years later with a lot more knowledge of Suda's previous games and his career. I will say this time around the last third of the game affected me more than previously and I found it to be really sweet! The idea of Suda killing his own past and examining video-games as a whole and also his past experiences is a really cool idea that I think he pulls off pretty well! Also after finishing The Silver Case/Flower, Sun and Rain/The 25th Ward I could now play the visual novel sections and point at the screen going "KURUMIZAWA POG!" where I couldn't before.

Whilst I was more positive on that stuff, if there's one negative that didn't change it's the length of these levels ohmygoddddd. I can put up with some laborious gameplay but man! Honestly if the levels were just a bit shorter/more varied this game would be stellar to me. But...it's still good!

It's in incredible how much tedious and poor (or lack of even) gameplay are we willing to ignore in order to enjoy such of cool characters and aesthetics out of SUDA's mind.

In this case it has gone too far and a fantastic soundtrack and characters can't hold such an awful game. Go throw rocks on a pond, or clip your nails while listening to the soundtrack on youtube and you will have a better experience.

Fuckin' hell SUDA, what the fuck and how do you even dare.

Even though the combat was samey, a bit repetitive (and maybe a bit annoying) at times, the skills and charge systems shake up things quite a bit, and i hope they add at least a version of it into NMH3.
But like my favorite suda51 games, the great bits are all around the gameplay. The fantastic and nostalgic cutscenes, the OST, the general vibe and style, are fantastic. The references to Silver Case, Killer 7, FSR and other Suda games turn this into an almost museum gallery of his works, but never indulgent. And the nods to indie games are like a love letter to gaming, a contrapoint to the general cynical retromindset on contemporary gaming.

Many don't like this game but hell I love it, the soundtrack is the best in the series and that's an insanely high pedestal, the gameplay is very simple and mashy but I'm fond of that mindlessness so no problem, every level is an entirely different world that experiments with different themes and music.
The story itself is another odd but relatively simple romp and there's a lot of banter I enjoyed reading.
but holy hell if you're a Suda51 fan then this game is a wet dream because there's tons and tons of callbacks to his older games eventually setting the strings for something mental happening in No More Heroes 3.
There's also a lot of thought provoking quotes in here and the collectibles (which are T-shirts from all different kinds of real games) are fucking insane
I love it. There's other collectibles like Unreal engine logos, and ramen reviews whenever you eat a new bowl every stage.
Its an experience two fold

like all of my reviews are jokes but i actually have thoughts about TSA so like lmao

i want to love this game to death because if i'm looking at it purely from a writing point of view, it is a 10/10 godsend because it is knocked out of the park in every imaginable way. if you're one of those people who was disappointed with how the writing was a little weaker in NMH2 compared to the first game, you will get a LOT out of Travis Strikes Again ooh i'm bringing out the capitalization i'm so cool

but gameplay wise? eh, it's like okay, which is such a shame because i'm honestly down for spin-offs that try new things with the formula. but it genuinely does feel really basic and you don't really experiment with the skills you unlock much since you find a combination that lets you win the game and then you just kinda use that the entire time, there's no real motivation to experiment, which just bums me the fuck out because the most suda aspect of this game is so good dude

if you're a suda fan you will love this shit but as a whole product it's got some downsides to it

Severely misunderstood game. While not the best gameplay wise, it more than makes up with writing and subtext. Basically a self indulgent love letter to any fans of Suda51's previous works.

Majority of people who disliked this game tend to have a history of not playing Suda51's other games beyond No More Heroes and Killer7, and while not to undermine their feelings, it just goes to show how necessary it is to truly enjoy this game to the fullest extent.

Whether that time investment is worth it or not is up to you.

For anyone who follows Suda 51, it's obvious that he puts much of himself and his life experiences into his own work. His games are filled with paralels to himself, his thoughts, ideas, opinions, and everything else inbetween, creating a very distinct series of games that are not only intertwined by a common theme (The past) but also by Suda.

Travis Strikes Again is the most blatant example of this dynamic, putting Suda directly into the shoes of Travis Touchdown, a once rising star in the world of assassins, now a washed up and reclusive hermit jaded by his previous existence.
TSA is steeped in love for the primitive and wild west origins of videogames that Suda was lucky to be a part of, recontextualized through the modern indie scene that revitalized not only the uncharted territory of the videogame creation process, but Suda himself.

TSA is a myriad of references, introspections, observations and jabs at Suda's past work and his participation in the creation of those, constructing a surprisingly heartfelt and personal redemption arc for both Travis Touchdown and Suda.
To accomplish this feat, TSA is presented as a indie looking top view hack n' slash beat em up reminiscent of old school arcade titles, where Travis goes inside a videogame console to fight through stages and bosses of videogames he played at an early age and that made him the man he is now, this too interconnected with Suda's past.

The gameplay itself isnt anything worthy of writing home about, it gives you just enough to be entertained all the way through its length and provides a nice challenge to overcome. Of all the Suda action oriented games, it's probably the least interesting one gameplay-wise, functioning more so as an intersection between the the narrative meat of the game.

But if you have played Suda games before, you know that the gameplay is never the main focus of the experience, but a vehicle for something greater than the sum of its parts. And to be able to fully appreciate this title, you have to be already invested in the Suda 51 canon. Otherwise, this game might not speak much to you, understandably so.

A fantastic transitional step for Suda, and im looking forward for what's next to come.

damn

One of the most thought provoking games ive played in a while, a lot of great stuff to say about fame, failure, and isolation that applies to characters in TSA as well as Suda himself

definitely gonna have to let it sit for a while

the gameplay fucking sucked though LMAO

this game is echoing in the dephts of my mind for a long time.

it's both a letter of love from a passionate gamer, a letter of hate from a creator limited by big corporations and most important, a reminder that killing your past is not only an act of moving foward but also an act of respect: your past is what made you the way you are, even if you change, you only change because of who you were. if you gonna kill it, do it with dignity.

it's a game about killing our own heroes, our own projects and our own dreams, but also building a future to new heroes, new projects and new dreams. absolutely beautiful and introspective work of art.

would LOVE this if the actual gameplay were more engaging and interesting but also recognize that's not even the point nor the main draw this game has in the first place. does an outstanding job showing off suda51's writing style, once again proving that he's in the top 0.1 percent of elite video game writers, but without the esoteric and intentionally obfuscating style of most of his KTP games. instead he uses one of his most recognizable characters as a lens to reflect on his entire career up to this point, and it works insanely well. the ending got me in my feelings for sure.

Writing wise, I'd say this is the best No More Heroes has been bar none. It feels more like a sequel in that regard than even No More Heroes 2, showing a natural extension of Travis, rather than whatever happened in NMH2. Beyond that though, it's genuinely engaging and laugh-out-loud hilarious when it wants to be, too. I think this game got the most laughs out of me when it comes to the series. The aesthetics surrounding the levels are also immaculate. The fake gaming magazines giving hints and previews of levels, the specialized intros for each stage simulating a different niche of games, it's wonderful. The music has an otherworldly vibe, being groovy, chilling, yet also oddly calming at points. All things considered, this game had the potential to be the best of the No More Heroes games.

But then you get to the level design. What happened here? I assume this is largely meant to be played in co-op. But the thing is, with games like that, usually they're rebalanced to be easier in single player and Travis Strikes Again...does not feel like that. Swarms of enemies will strike you relentlessly, you'll navigate these hallways (not NMH1 "hallways", like literal hallways), all while having a moveset that while upgradable and customizable, never feels like quite enough to get through everything the game throws at you. The enemies hit like TRUCKS in this game sometimes, especially in the latter half. It's because of this that I struggled to get through this game. I did it largely for the amazing writing and to see what they'd spoof next, but it wore on me. I think the worst of it does come in the final level, where this labyrinth of enemies just tears through your health bar and it nearly took any good will I had for this game and tore it to shreds. But, as a whole, I can see the passion surrounding Travis Strikes Again, and I can appreciate it. It's a tribute to games, and a bit of a magnifying glass to see what goes on in series director Suda51's head. In that regard, I think it's very endearing. I mean, I still beat the game, and it makes me want to check out the rest of his work, for sure. I just wish that the rest of this game had as much passion injected into it as the window dressing.

(and I also wish each level wasn't like an hour long was that really necessary?)