No More Heroes is one of Suda51's best games and by far his most popular one compared to his previous games such as Killer7, The Silver Case, and Flower, Sun, and Rain. Two of which were not released outside of Japan when this game came out. No More Heroes was a game deserving of its popularity not just because it was one of the few mature games released on the Wii, but also because of its simple but fun gameplay, creativity, and good story.

The game starts off with a badass introduction to Travis Touchdown and a first level & boss that give you a feel for how to use Travis's beam katana in combat and some of the game's other mechanics like the quickstep you can do by dodging at the right time or managing & charging your battery for the beam katana. It's a fantastic introduction as not only do you get straight into the action almost immediately, but also is a fantastic setup for the game's main story.

In contrast to just about every other game by Grasshopper, this game's plot while not completely devoid of serious moments is mostly pretty goofy. Up until the fantastic twist at the end of the game, No More Heroes is about a broke dork who enters a tournament where he kills people for money to buy the typical things an otaku would buy and to get laid. However, in order to progress in the tournament, he still needs to earn money by taking jobs around the town of Santa Destroy.

The open world of Santa Destroy might not be the best hub world to exist, but with the odd jobs around town you'll need to do to get money or the places you'll need to visit to get various items and enhancements it still is successful in getting you immersed in the world of No More Heroes. There are a handful of different jobs including lawn mowing, collecting coconuts, or filling up cars with gas. Some of these are more enjoyable than others, but they are all a unique, alternative way to earn money besides just killing goons.

Over the course of Travis's battles, we get a look at who Travis is as a character and how he grows in his journey to becoming the assassin he is. One primary example is when Travis expresses regret for not killing Holly Summers after she berated him for his hesitation. It adds a level of realism and depth to his character that I enjoyed seeing unfold.

Over the years No More Heroes has become a successful franchise with a handful of games. The series even managed to get representation in Smash in the form of a Mii costume for Travis in Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Given the amount of creativity and care that went into making this game, it is very much deserving of the success it has received. It is a fantastic hack-and-slash that is more than worth your time and money.

The combat and enemies and openworld are on the basic side, but Travis himself, and the game's immense charm and style, addicting gameplay loop, witty writing, damn solid music and unique and fun boss fights (except Speed Buster lmao) outweigh the previously mentioned negatives by tenfold.

So in short; It's Suda51, what can I say? That guy's an enigma on the level of Hideo Kojima or Yoko Taro, and all of his unique ideologies and worldviews certainly carry over here, and that makes the game and the experience of playing it unlike any other.

No More Expectations

Alright, third game I've played from the twisted mind of Suda51. You know, I'm starting to know why people are obsessed over him and his games. It's just "him", he's like Kojima's younger and unhinged brother (in a good way though). Just replace cinema references with geek culture references and there you have the big Suda51 energy, at least in No More Heroes. I couldn't really start this review without talking about it's mastermind, it's plastered everywhere and the "Punk" energy of professionally not giving much of a fuck and surpass any realistic expectations are without a doubt present in this game. Very authentic, to say the least.

No More Heroes is in it's very soul a hack and slash game. We take the control of an "Otaku", which is the term equivalent to nerd in Japan. Travis Touchdown is our protagonist, and our mission is to scale up in the rankings. The Assasins Association is our ticket to get to the top of the world of killers. But what does Travis search for really? What is our objective? Money, fame ...women? All of them? Won't answer that, it's a secret. But what do you really expect at the end, something deep? Or plain stupid fun? Both? You can interpret this game layers and layers of complexity the way you see fit.

There are two types of gameplay. The main one, which is the action focused hack and slash formula and the other one, taking a secondary role in the grand scheme of things is the open world in the same vein of any GTA game. The open world is needed to earn money to enter the next big fight and scale the aforementioned ranking. We get money by making odd jobs through the city of Santa Destroy (yeah, that's the city's name and is specially weird knowing I'm playing this game in particular after christmas). Law mowing, collect coconuts, scorpions among others activities. Alongside it there are plenty of shops to spend our money in, mostly in things that will help us on battles. These part-time jobs are in fact minigames in disguise that made an extensive use of the Wiimote, but as you may know I played this on PC and the novelty wears off a little. Fun Fact: The PC port was so lazily done Switch prompts can still be seen. A tutorial screen that is meant to teach how to play a minigame, has still a joy-con graphic attached to it. And you can't play this game with a keyboard either, which sucks.

In a way, No More Heroes makes me appreciate it's structure around what can you expect climbing up the ladders to the top. It's a constant reminder of your position or how close you're to the objective itself. I started to feel fatigue by the 7th boss or so, it gets repetitive doing the same odd jobs and earning money to then kill the next ranked assasin. Won't lie it was compelling at first, but it's really just superficail level stuff at the end of the day. Serves as a good rest after every bossfight, which can be lengthy and quite intense.

Combat is simple and mashy, but visually stimulating. There are no combo mechanics of any kind and the it's easily exploitable depending how much you love pressing buttons. Enemies explode in red, they bleed like their life depends on it while screaming like damn Looney Tunes characters. It's raw fun, totally in your face and is not afraid to show it's true colors. But as much as something raw is natural, nature doesn't forgive and is selective. What do I mean with this? If you can't swallow the jank that plagues this game's combat, you'll ended up like me hating some aspects of it.

What else is aunthentic? Travis Touchdown, main character. He's a loser, it's cool on it's own way and it is not afraid to show it. He knows is the protagonist of the story, and wants to give a good show to it's consumers. Has most of the attributes that defines a main character in an action game, it is a really good damn protagonist. Characters in general have no shame of being themselves in this game, they can be the most outrageous and wacky people alive as professional assasins and follows Suda51's tradition of making characters that are considered misfits by society shine the best they can, in a sadly short runtime before they get eliminated. The Bosses are very charming.

Just don't take it seriously, or you will lose. I'm not joking, No More Heroes is like going to the bathroom and take it all out. Won't be pretty, but it's authentic and natural at the of the day. I really didn't vibe with how it aimless it was, between being self-aware parodies of the media, or a wanting to tell an story in itself. Sometimes it even breaks most of those rules stablished before in seemingly "important" moments, just for comedic effects and laughs. Look, I don't know if the bitter one here or not but it didn't do much for me honestly it all felt pointless by the end. Was that really the meaning of it? You either love it, don't understand it or hate it. Thing is, I love shit like this. Dumb ass games that don't take themselves seriously are up my alley, as long as they've a good balance of course.

Love for what it stands for: "Punk". Don't play by the rules and do whatever you want. Even though I don't think Suda51 objectively makes "good" games that really appeal to the largest demographic group (doesn't need to either), I do feel he pour his heart out on each of his projects and wants to set a precedent on the industry as a whole. I just don't think is a good game in a otherwise very stylized and unique adventure. Or probably didn't fell into as much as the rest did.

Rejoguei No More Heroes e o jogo subiu ainda mais em minha concepção. Eu genuinamente acho este jogo um dos picos da sétima geração e vou listar os motivos:

Combate MUITO divertido. Agora consigo entender por que os viciados em cassino gostam do barulho quando ganham, porque o barulho da lâmina cortando cabeças é o equivalente para mim. O combate ganha MUITA profundidade se você buscar os upgrades e as beam katanas. Faça tudo e o jogo vai te recompensar MUITO por isso.

Dificuldade dificil é desafiadora. E digo isso depois de ser SURRADO pelo Henry 4 vezes seguidas. Para mim, a boss fight da Jeanne atingiu o pico de combate pela dificuldade, gameplay e nível de habilidade que eu estava no momento. Posso dizer que foi MUITO satisfatório vencer.

Trilha sonora perfeita. Não preciso nem elaborar, todos sabem.

Os minigames banais adicionam MUITO para a personalidade, não só de Travis, como também para o mundo de Santa Destroy. Então SIM, eles são essenciais. Não chore por isso.

Os contratos de assassinato são muito divertidos pela sua variedade e diversificam muito a jogabilidade.

História PERFEITA. Desculpe, mas NADA neste jogo é ruim em termos de história. Todos os diálogos com os chefes, com Sylvia e dos minigames mostram a qualidade da escrita de Suda.

Meu terceiro protagonista favorito de todos os tempos. Travis não só fala muito sobre a apatia à violência, mas também mostra como mesmo um otaku desprovido de senso moral pode se tornar uma pessoa boa.

Eu gosto de quase tudo do mundo aberto, mesmo a "repetição" que vejo reclamarem. Eu acho que se torna um empecilho que de NADA altera a experiência geral.

Nota 10/10 e ter rejogado fez ele entrar na lista de favoritos.

divertidissímo, toda a estética e estilo gráfico do jogo envelheceram bem mesmo nos dias atuais, a gameplay é ótima e o sistema de execuções é bem legal, cada luta contra chefe é extremamente única e o jogo introduz diversas mecânicas ao longo da jornada pra não ficar cansativo, até as missões secundárias por mais bestas que sejam tipo pegar coco em árvore são agradáveis e a história apesar de simples é bem instigante com várias referências a star wars mais pro final. únicos probleminhas foram esse mundo aberto meio vazio e alguns bugs que eu acredito serem do port pra pc

wasnt sure how this would hold up on a years-later replay on a maligned pc port, but thankfully my technical issues were minimal and the game is Enduringly Weird And Compelling! so many little moments and choices add up to a world of complete abstraction, sophomoric sexuality next to comic hyperviolence next to Prank On The Player self-deprecation next to operatically emotional samurai pulp, with no attempt to reconcile them into a cohesive world or tone. instead the glue that holds everything together is the numbness of Ritual, establishing a constant language spoken by the game and the player to eachother, repetitions on repetitions, endless inescapable cycles. this hypnotism makes the game compulsively playable and quietly horrific all at once, while also teeing everything up perfectly for moments where the momentum is intentionally thrown off. despite all its theoretical (and practical!) player-hostility, its no wonder its so widely beloved and effortlessly compelling. rules of games, stories, and codes....unsettling and crushing, but adopted and followed without question anyway to provide definition to the things within the boundaries of play. kinda similar to southland tales in weird places

How do you even judge a game like No More Heroes ? The brainchild of weirdo author Gōichi Suda, better known as Suda 51. No More Heroes is on the surface just another typical action game original released for the Wii. You play as Travis Touchdown, a young hot head Otaku rising through the ranks of an assassin organization to become number one. Everything from the box art, to the marketing and the opening cutscene presents itself as a prototypical action game. If you happen to be only slightly familiar with Suda 51, you will quickly pick up that everything on the surface is a lie. No More Heroes is in fact a both a giant love letter to nerd culture as well as a middle finger to how serious we tend to take that culture.

Travis Touchdown itself is the thematic center. Both a skilled swordsman that can dispatch his foes effortlessly, and at the same time the biggest loser you could think of for an action game. A sexually immature nerd, living in a shitty Motel, getting by with low rate jobs and hopelessly chasing a sexy blonde who's clearly only stringing him along for his money. Quite frankly, Travis is pathetic and on all accounts, is hard to sell as a relatable main character. But why do people like Travis ? To the point that No more Heroes has endured as Sudas most popular series with 4 full games. I think its the genius fact that you embody Travis in every aspect of his life. You see his most badass moments, at the same time having to commute to his shitty jobs every day. You can hang out in his tiny apartment, play with his cat Jean, then head over to Naomi's Lab to get the most powerful Beamkatana in the game. The entire game is build around being Travis Touchdown, warts and all.

And the gameplay also consists of this daily routine. Drive around the dead end beach town of Santa Destroy, get a job, go to your favorite stores or go to the Gym. The hub itself is probably the game's biggest criticism, and I'm not sure if its meandering nature is intentional or not. What can not be denied is that the frequent commute between places tends to slow down the game's pacing to a crawl. Between Rank fights, you need to pay large sums of money. That money comes from doing less than fun odd jobs and assassination missions. Its original release on the Wii had to of course simplify the controls. There is a skill level here with high and low sword stances, perfect dodges and wrestling moves, but overall it's not a deep enough system to carry the 10-hour story mode. The go-to strategy seems to be to grind the Death Match 100 mission as soon it becomes available. A pretty easy 100,000 rewarded from it, that will carry you through to the end, getting you to eventually max out all of Travis stats/gear and fight the secret final boss.

The bosses of course are the highest high point of No More Heroes. Always interesting and flashy, they will push you through the worst parts of the game just so you can see what's next. You'll be hard-pressed to find a game that is less predictable than No More Heroes. I love pretty much every one of them for how widely different they are in both gameplay and tone. Some are completely despicable like the insane Harvey Moiseiwitsch or Destroy Man and then others seem like they could have been allies in a different life like Holly Summers or Shinobu Jacobs. Of the 12 bosses, I can say only 2 didn't do anything for me: Speed Buster and Bad Girl. They really felt like empty filler with levels that seemd to have been short-changed on the budget side, although Bad Girl at least has a great design.

In the end No More Heroes remains maybe the most unique 7th Gen game and by the time that you're face to face with the final boss it has fully shattered the 4th Wall with a planet size sledgehammer. I'm still kinda shocked just how bold it's willing to mock both itself and its audience. Art is the only word I have to describe it, and I implore anyone interested in video games as art to play No More Heroes.

NMH Is one of the most annoying games I've ever played. Its one of my favorite games ever made.

That sentiment is really hard to explain without experiencing it for yourself. This games flow between its hack and slash gameplay into menial part time jobs is jarring. I hated it. I hated that I couldn't fast travel, that I had to ride this horrible feeling motorcycle, that I couldn't even sprint without finding the lovikov balls that are literally marked on the map so it's not even hard to find them. It's insane to me that SUDA51 did all of this, and made me miss it all when it was over.

Throughout my play through I had so much to say about how the game could be better. After finishing it, I wouldn't change a damn thing.

Smells like Suda spirit.

This game is loud, crude, in your face, and maybe even a little obnoxious at times but I love it. It almost constantly maintains this super goofy over the top tone, and it never takes itself too seriously, opting to go all in on it’s satire of what I believe to be the entire video game medium.

The gameplay is an often disliked part of this game, but I feel it works incredibly well. In that classic Suda fashion, it chooses to purposefully stray away from something “fun” in favor of using the gameplay thematically. The game follows this super tedious, super linear format of grinding money, paying the United Assassins Association all your hard earned cash in order to set up the next rank fight, play a level to get to the boss, kill the boss, wash rinse and repeat. It isn’t very fun, especially the money gathering.

It seems pretty amateurish to have such a system, but under the lense that the game is a satire, it becomes a bit more meaningful. Think of a solid 80% or more of the games you’ve played and think about their gameplay loops. How much you do this gameplay loop under the runtime of the game. I don’t know about you, but for me I quickly realized that for a lot of these games I’m basically doing the same thing over and over. I just never notice it since these games strive to be fun and that masks the monotony.

By removing the “fun”, No More Heroes gameplay highlights how extremely repetitive so many games are. It laughs and makes fun of them.

Even the combat is like this; both the bosses and you only have a handful of moves and the bosses have A LOT of HP (especially the final boss) so you’re going to be going in cycles of dodging attacks, blocking attacks, counterattacking, and so forth over and over until eventually you or the boss dies. When I fought the final boss for the first time, my hands actually started hurting from how long I had to fight them.

And of course, it’s really impossible to talk about this game without talking about it’s protagonist Travis Touchdown, who is honestly one of my favorite video game protagonists ever. If I met him in real life I’d probably hate the guy, but as a character I love him. Travis perfectly encapsulates both the satiricalness of No More Heroes as well as it’s commentary beautifully.

If the gameplay and its format is satire of video games, then Travis, the one who’s actually rising up the ranks and doing the fighting, would be a satire of us, the players.

When we first see Travis just outside of the intro, he’s easily decapitating some guys and doing cool poses and the like. He seems like the most badass guy ever. Then we see his daily life and find out he lives alone in a motel, has no stable employment, has shelves of anime girl figurines, and his walls are plastered with Mexican wrestling masks (classic Suda).

Frankly, he lives a pretty pathetic life. He’s a very not subtle satiricalization of many video game players and anime fans, some guy who surrounds himself with fiction rather than attempting to improve his life. So when he’s a super cool badass it’s really an illusion masking this patheticness, and it’s really an illusion we would all want to be in reality. We would all want to be the cool guy destroying enemies and saving the princess and all that, and so in order to live out this fantasy we play video games and surround ourselves with fiction, just like Travis.

The game indulges in our fantasy with the rank matches, but after the level is done and the boss is slayed, we are forced to return back to the motel and our real lives. From there the only thing we can do is work and then blow off all our money towards more fantastical fiction…it’s kind of a depressing loop, and one I could easily imagine many people becoming entangled in. Hell, I could end up in that situation to be honest.

But despite some of its more saddening comments on modern consumerism, it still maintains a silly tone throughout. Messing around with Jeane the kitten in the motel, hearing about the ridiculous DVDs Travis rents, driving around town in an uber custom motorbike, it’s such a goofy and lovable title. In order to save the game you have to take a dump in a toilet for Christ's sake.

I haven’t played any other No More Heroes game just yet, but in the near future I’d love to play No More Heroes 2. From what I’ve read online it’s a somewhat less fondly loved game, but if it maintains at least some of the spirit this game has I know I’ll enjoy it, to some extent anyways.

Stylistically, Suda51 is a master in his own right.
I have to clearly separate gameplay and story/presentation. Suda manages to make the protagonist Travis Touchdown seem cool, but also like the loser he is. The mechanic of having to pay a fee for each fight against the 10 assassins by earning money with boring mini-jobs is great. They are not fun, but that's the point. It shows perfectly how boring his everyday life is, when he is not fighting to prove himself.
The fighting itself is a bit clunky with a gamepad. It seems a bit more intuitive to control with a Wiimote.. Also, their implementation, such as the recharge motion or the Wiimote as a cell phone, fit the basic style of the game very well. In the end, fighting was simply the means to an end to get to the next cutscene.
The story/presentation with its over the top violence, juvenile humor, and familiar troupes that borrow heavily from pulpy American B-movies is clearly the highlight here for me. Garnished with Sudas wackiness, No More Heroes becomes an entertaining overall package.