No More Heroes from Suda51, one of the fairly mainstream pieces from his vast creations of creatively wild games , was my first proper taste into the weirdly cool worlds that he creates . Originating on the Wii in 2007 and being a byproduct of the era and among the list of one of the first properly M-Rated violent games on the system, it is still a wickedly interesting game with bat-shit craziness , a main protagonist with a cute kitten named Jeane and an obsession with anime media and collectibles , meta elements, a power hungry race to the top , and over the top to an almost comedic extent violence; reminiscent of the likes of something that feels like Tarantino probably would’ve made it . I first played it on the Nintendo Switch during the experience of a personal drought during gaming. After seeing this ‘crazy’ violent Nintendo game , I decided to purchase it as I didn’t use my Nintendo switch as much either. I happen to regard it as one of my favorite games and I enjoyed my first play through of it , replaying it to a near finishing on Bitter difficulty. NMH is a wildly provocative hack ‘n’ slash , brimming with personality with it’s cast of rankings assassins and it’s sadistic and geeky protagonist. It’s a game with a silly premise , but it wears those violent character action elements and story on it’s sleeve and it can either be taken seriously narratively, creatively , or you can outright throw any of that deep philosophy out of a chase the girl , be number one sword slashing video game window and just laugh with it and have a great time; I happen to enjoy seeing it within both of those aspects .

No More Heroes is set in the fictional city of Santa Destroy, CA. It follows Travis Touchdown, the otaku ‘beam katana’ wielding , dingy motel living, anime girl media consuming , and to put it bluntly; a loser and pervert protagonist that becomes a ranking assassin for the UAA (United Assassins Association) with his auction won katana , after given a promising offer of revenge by a french woman named Sylvia Christel in a bar. Before No More Heroes even actually begins, Travis already adds a kill to his list of formidable foes lore wise, taking the 11th ranking spot off of an assassin named Helter Skelter, who was killed in a teaser trailer when the game was first revealed. The game actually begins on an already exhilarating footnote, with Travis leading us into his world and personally introducing us to his new life and all that is to come on the journey we will experience with him; then proceeding later on crashing his motorcycle into a mansion and slicing a guy in half. The first level in this mansion with these suited up goons serves the purpose of being the introductory, showing you the base fighting mechanics which can be somewhat easy to understand and pick up for the average player and understand from the get go without knowledge of any other advanced tech in the game. The game can be played in either handheld/with controller on the switch (My personally preferred experience; to each their own) or can be played faithfully with motion controls like the original 2007 Wii release, in which you are to use the Joycons/Nunchucks to swing your sword in the directional arrow for a sweet finishing blow , or moving your arms during combat to change between a high and low stance. Your arsenal of combat is also accompanied with a guard breaking mechanic, sick wrestling moves, charged attacks, and a plethora of other tech and features as you discover what NMH offers. The level introduces the first boss , 10th ranking Death Metal; who has a sick tatted and pierced up character design and gives Travis the first taste of the miserable and deadly world of assassins. The level ends with the humorously stupid cutscene with an exchange between Travis and Sylvia , attesting to the notion that Travis is kind of a loser virgin; but an exceptionally deadly and somewhat cool one.

This crazy of a beginning had already set a stage for the game. It only continues to flourish wildly after this, and it gets ALOT weirder. It’s a weird game for sure, It does have an understandably repetitive gameplay loop, with fittingly mundane side jobs in between the real meat of the game which can either serve as a pace breaker or in favor of it. The game shines within it’s art style being a cell shaded title with vibrant color pops and vibrant red blood, customization to create your own outfit combos , a fairly minuscule ‘open world’ , and including banger boss soundtracks. The game has it’s mundanes, but it pertains it’s fun wickedness to extremes, it makes you understand that it’s a video game and it serves those purposes. The bosses are the biggest stand outs of the game , which I personally believe is one of the reasons for why it’s such a memorable title . The combat gets repetitive at some points, and some bosses may kick your ass at first (Especially on bitter difficulty) , but it is worth it for the exposition, conflict, and the bickering between the bosses and Travis . The role of Touchdown shows what a marvel voice actor Robin Atkin Downes is when giving life to the protagonist, and makes it all that more believable on how cocky , geeky, cool, perverted, and angry the guy can get. Robin adds a great deal to the game and personally is a reason for why Travis is such a memorable protagonist for me. The soundtrack contains music director Masafumi Takada produced bangers, and an overload of remixes of the No More Heroes whistling tune. It’s an experience that shouldn’t be underestimated, and it served it’s silly and ferocious purpose with a lot more to delve into narratively and gameplay wise. Is it the best game ever at the end of the day? Maybe Not. There is probably more to be desired out of a hack ‘n’ slash title and it wouldn’t rival the likes of Devil May Cry [ ;) ] or the big character action games. This is more of just a personal and minimized recollection of the game for me, and I believe this is one of those weird titles in which I can spew and spew words out about this story and this world that was created. In spite of it all, It left quite an impression on me, and I enjoyed my time with it and continue to think about it and Suda51’s awesome worlds, and it is best experienced, rather than told .