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woot!

sorry for incredibly long absence. I was away because of trips to Iowa and first week of school! Now I gotten some break, I can relax and type in a new journal.

oh yeah, I got the new game called "No More Heroes", mainly because I want something new to play and I keep hearing how bizarre any of Suda51's games are. As a strange person I am, I dug in and played through all of the game. Damn ham man! I had load of fun thanks to the incredibly oddball premises, atmosphere, and gameplay. Now let get onto the review:


No More Heroes review

the extremely ambitious game from famed developer Suda51 thrust you into the world of Santa Destroy (odd, yeah and its get even odder) through the antihero Travis Touchdown. He recently purchased a spanky new beam katana (Star Wars reference, anybody???) through online auction bid and with his fund running extremely low, he took the job of assassin by Sylvia so he could kill for money. His first kill was none other than an albino cowboy who wield huges high-tech guns and blades and bullets (told you, it weird). Soon, Travis became 11th ranked assassin and he unknowingly thrust into the deadly game of survival where he have to continue competing for top spot as number one assassin or else he would be a target just like his target was.

Hope you caught up with what I am explaining because there are so much in the game that can make your brain go mush in PLEASURE and leave you both happily satisfied and confused. Yes, I mean in both good and bad ways and I will explain it further.


Graphic

Graphic is the mixed bag in this game. Sure the game have tons of ambitious style that harken back to good old day of the 70's and the 80's thanks to surprisingly enjoyable pixelated designs, heavy uses of colors, artistic directions, and niffy cel-shadings. In that area, the graphic succeed because its set the tone extremely and heavily unique from many other games we seen on the market. Also, character designs are some of most off-the-wall I ever seen in video game history and each one of them are exceptionally memorable.

on the other hand, the technical aspect of the game suffer major shortcomings in many areas. The city of Santa Destroy looks very lifeless and dated, even if they blend well with the artistic direction. Also, there are multiple ugly textures and polygon pop-ups all over the places. And there are frequent laggy framerate that stutter during intense combat and driving, it can be bothersome sometime. I know Suda51 and his team are ambitious people who want this title to delivers, but this area of graphic is forgetable from lack of polish.

I will give the score on graphic under 8 because while almost everything are enjoyably stylish, it have tons of polish missing from many areas. Also, environment looks pretty drab.

7.9/10


Sound

Bold, funky, retro, and absorbing.

Musics and sound-effects were implemented very well into the games. From intense bass playing over combats, relaxing funky song in Hotel, creepy ambient in K Entertainment Building and so much more. They may not be as memorable as I want them to be, they're extremely well made. Also, the excess library of blips and beeps can be found all over the places and they're extremely enjoyable to listen to. Its so hard to list them out, but I will try my best.

Beam Katana slashing at enemies
Cutting the game-over screen
Menu

yeah, it hards. You have to play the game to be totally immerse into the heaven of sounds.

9.4/10


Gameplay

I said this before in Metroid Prime 3 review... and I will say it again here

ADDICTING

There are tons of things to do in the games and almost all of them are extremely satisfying. You know with beam katana, you will engage into fast and frentic combats and once you get into them, they will never ever let you go. The combats are also extremely brutal and bloody and also enjoyably semi-deep. You attack with A Button and stun with B Button. Once you drop the enemy's health at 0, you will perform the finishing move with Wiimote and they always so satisfying to use that you will be rewarded with screen filling bloody fountains that pour from the slaughtered enemies. The wrestling move (after using B to stun) are also eye-candy because they're so damn creative that it very funny to pull off, resulting in painful looking results.

and I really want to go into boss battles as they offer the most intoxicating and fascinating fights ever envisioned in any video games. Almost each and every one of them are totally different from each other and are extremely memorable. Also, many of them are highly enjoyable to fight against and the are not easy to defeat either. Some will require your usage of skills and strategies at the highest as those bosses can be intense and nail-biting. They're never frustrating and overly difficult and they're not very easy either, they're finely crafted and balanced that almost no other games can match to this kind of levels. My complaints are that one boss lacks the excitement that all other bosses have and that one of boss ended in unexpected anticlimax that leave you groaning. Also, I wish there are more bosses to fight, but it only my wishful thinking. I really hope Suda51 will make "NO MORE HEROES 2" as he anticipated to only if the game sold well enough... I will explain more on the boss battles in next section of review.

Also, even traveling and doing missions in otherwise drab Santa Destroy have great pacing and sort of like relaxation between boss fights. I had to take a breather each time I defeated a boss just by doing errands and jobs and assassination missions and I feel so relieved and relaxed after some time earning money. The pacing are great and they never feel interrupted.

Nintendo is right about one thing: Gameplay is more important than graphics and NO MORE HEROES is a success because of it.

9.8/10


Plot

The plot is both epic and off the wall, almost like any of Quentin Tarantino's films you might seen, including my personal favorite KILL BILL. If the oddball humor and obsurb plot is in your preferences, you will love this game. If not... well, it up to you to play and find out. This is the kind of game that fits "hate it or love it" idea that many people will either like it or not.

as I explained, Travis Touchdown is the rookie assasin who have to fight his way to the top in order to secured himself as number one assassin to prevent himself from being easily targeted. With help from mysteriously dark Sylvia, he have to fight 10 higher ranked assassin before he could achieve the goal. Each of the assassin (bosses), as I explained, are extremely memorable thanks to their unique battle and heavy character developments despite their short on-screen appearances. I shall discuss each of the assassins and the battle they're particpated as well my ranking on how fun and enjoyable the boss battles are.

10
Death Metal
an old man with full body tattoo and HUGE collapsable sword.
straight-forward sword-fighting battle, but Death Metal is brutally fast with his sword despite the large size and his age. He can also create image-clones of himself to confuse his opponent and surround with more barrages of quick slashing. Excellent immersive beginning battle that jump-start the game, following with even more impressive battles, even if depth isn't really there.
grade: B+

9
Dr. Peace
another old man who happen to be corrupted cowboyish detective who wield golden guns loaded with explosive bullets. Also like to sing karaoke.
Sorta easy match, though he's tough with guns and explosive bullets. He's quick with guns and excellent with guarding himself. Not really intense, yet excellent battle that consciously teach you the means and importance of strategy.
grade: B

8
Shinobu
young female teacher (or student?) at high school with huge afro in dress suit who's also talented samuari.
This is the boss battle to beat. Extremely and enjoyably difficult that require tons of dodging and strategy necessary to defeat her without falling under her devestating attacks. One of my favorite bosses :3
rank: A

7
DestroyMan
rather disturbingly insane split-personality postman who love to become sort of superhero-type assassin (or supervillian?). he is extremely dirty at fight and deception and will do anything to stay alive and kill his opponent, even if he can die trying.
Even if the battle is very balance, this lacks excitement that many other bosses have. His attacks are devestating yet can be easily dodged yet hitting him can be hard. Plus, he can "fly" and shoot lasers from his crotch belt for goodness sake!
grade: C+

6
Holly Summers
highly trained beach-infantry woman with prosthetic left leg that shoot rockets who specialized in traps and explosives and shovel.
extremely fun battle with insane explosive uses and traps. She can summon flying knives laced with bombs, throw grenades into traps, wielding shovel as weapon or defensive, and using bombs to propel herself away to gain distance. Plus, its so funny to see yourself fell into sandtrap and climb yourself out. She even shoot rockets from her leg! x3 One of my favorite boss battles.
grade: A-

5
Letz Shake
Bizarre scientist or something with huge weapon silo-like transport imbedded with gigantic brain (huh?).
a total letdown. This is not a boss fight because a mysterious assassin named Henry eliminated this supposedly epic boss with clean stroke, bringing ranked 5 match to untimely end without even getting a chance to actually fight him. UNCOOL.
grade: F

4
Harvey Moiseiwitsch Volodarskii
a showy respected assassin who happens to be a magician. Owns a large theatre where no one attend to. Skilled with magics as means of execution as well as double cane blades.
a semi-enjoyable battle. He may be good with swords, but his magic tricks are humorously entertaining as he can teleport himself, unleash deadly barrage of doves, turn your vision upside-down, and even trap you in one of his deadly magic tricks.
Grade: B+

3
Speed Buster
a very old obsese witch whose shopping cart can transform into giant laser cannon that obliterate everything (LOL).
as one of top three assassin, she delivers some brutal whoopings. She's fairly weak herself so she use her trademark signature cannon to attack any opponents she meet. Set in desolated city, the battle is extremely intense as her laser is deadly should you happen to confront it. Dangerously fun and epic battle and one of my favorites.
grade: A

2
Bad Girl
Dangerously drunk, sexually kinky, and psychotic girl, suffering from traumatic depression from many of her assassination missions, dressed in bright and colorful maid dress while wielding a baseball bat.
Do not take her as easy just because she's drunk and insane, she is extremely dangerous and is very willing to kill you just to prove that she is very capable killer despite her broken mind. She can use her bat to her great offensive and defensive uses and it take lot of strategy to even get a good hit on her. She even add advantages to herself by dousing her bat in flame and hitting her slaves at him x3 one of great epic match and very intense and nail-biting too. If she cry, get away... She will beat the heck out of you. One of my favorite
grade: A

1
Dark Star (actually, its Jeane)
Not lot can be said about Dark Star, he's just a weird knight in huge armor who wield the massive energy whip. He was killed before the match was even started by Jeane, mysterious assassin who's happened to be... Nah, rather not say.
All in all, she is fairly respectable and difficult boss in the climatic battle. She is the fastest you'll ever encounter, she even can dodge Travis' barrages of super sonic fast slashing! She only let her guard down when she finish her attack. A hand-fighting expert, she don't need any of weapon to give Travis some good beating. Could be something more since all she have are 4 different attacks and is fairly predictable.
grade: B

Told you that the plot and characters are downright bizarre and off the wall and yet they all fit together greatly. Nothing can come close to this, maybe except for Metal Gear Solid series :3

9.7/10


From what I played, Suda51 had a great vision and ambition for this game and what his team done was unparalleled in gaming market. There may be some serious shortcomings in the game, the ambitious efforts and heavy styles are profoundly felt all the way and it oh so satisfying every single minutes. I highly recommand everyone to at least try tis game, no matter if they might enjoy it or not. It have to be played to be bewildered and confunded by intoxicating surreal depth the game have to offer.


Final Score: 8.2/10


Some of you might be thinking that I should score this higher, but there are lot of shortcoming that it hard not to miss them. They are noticeable and can distrup your gaming experiences. Despite that, I found huge amount of entertaining value in NO MORE HEROES. Now let there be sequel, if Suda51 can commit his time for that.


Thank you and peace, Avek Vaer ^.=.^