Platform: Wii
Developer: Grass Hopper Manufacture
Genre: Action
Pros: Immersive combat is best on any platform, plenty of winks and nods and self-referential humor, no softening of main character’s attitude
Cons: loses some edge in a move toward accessibility
Verdict: Buy it
Price: $49.99
Acquired: Developer Provided Review Copy
Bleach, by Nirvana – angry, lo-fi, insane new sound screaming out of Seattle to take the punk cogniscenti by storm. Made very little money.
Nevermind, by Nirvana – angry, hi-fi, accessible rock album by the band of the same name creating the “Seattle Sound” copied by dozens of successful and hundreds more unsuccessful bands. Made lots of money.
If No More Heroes (the first Wii game from Grasshopper Studios and gaming auteur, Suda51) were a punk rock album, it would be Bleach. If No More Heroes 2: Desparate Struggle were the followup, it would be Nevermind. I can remember friends of mine ranting, “Nirvana sold out, man. They fucking sold out!” when Cobain and Co released their mainstream album in 1991. None of those friends took much time to notice the dollar bill on the cover next to the naked baby. Yes, Nirvana sold out and they did it on purpose. Punk is dead, boys and girls, and it’s about time.
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is the iterative follow-up that strips away the odd, funky, outrageous gaming moments of the original and focuses on core gameplay mechanics and colorful characterization. It refuses to make players drive around an empty city on a poorly-controlled motorcycle and turns awkwardly designed side missions into 2D mini-game masterpieces.
Grab the Wii-mote and pop this disk into your Wii, just make sure there are no faint-hearted youngsters around, for there will be blood. And by “blood”, we mean TONS of blood, sprayed in buckets across the screen. No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is all about the F-Bombs, butt and crotch shots, crude sexual innuendos and fire-hose levels of arterial spray. Oddly enough, that’s what makes it so much fun! Unlike many modern anti-heroes, Travis Touchdown has no softer side. He is a cardboard cutout raging with the fire of sex, violence and a Mexican luchadora mask collection that would put Nacho Libre to shame.
The meat of the game? Boss battles. Fifteen of them, to be exact. There’s the first battle with Helter Skelter, the brother of an assassin Travis killed in the first game. Does Travis care? Does he even remember the guy’s brother? No, in fact he rubs it in the current assassin’s face. This sets the tone for the whole game. The only thing that seems to get Travis anywhere near human feeling is Sylvia, the hot chick in some sort of ultra skimpy nurse’s outfit, who arranges battles and waxes philosophical while the camera wanders across her Wii-graphic rendered body, pausing at all the naughty bits. It’s pre-adolescent longing at it’s best or worst, depending on your perspective.
Fight 15 bosses, and Travis becomes number one again. Along the way, play as Shinobu Jacobs, an assassin Travis saved in game one, as well as his newly revealed twin brother, Henry (found frozen in carbonite, a fun nod to the geek-creed of Star Wars). The best part of this game is the combat; the motions required to activate special wrestling moves and killing strokes are a masterpiece of active Wii controls. Players will find themselves actively engaged in all the combat, most notably in the boss battles, where strategy becomes the way to win. With Matt Helms, the rotund, fire-throwing ax wielding, clown-masked boss near the beginning of the game, managing resources is the key. Don’t use up those batteries or pizza health refills too soon, or Travis will end up dead, dead, dead.
The 8 bit mini games are the true stroke of genius here, as they’ll amuse and entertain far beyond the combat and story-line. Play Bug Out, Lay The Pipe, Coconut Grabber, or Pizza with a Vengeance and revel in the sounds and sights of a bygone era. Man the Meat is one such game where players must cook a steak for customers, according to their preference. If a customer asks for a rare steak, hold the button down just long enough to turn the meat from red to slightly less red. If the customer wants a well done steak, hold the button down until the color is more BBQ charcoal, less meat colored. It’s a simple premise, but lovingly rendered in 8Bit graphic and sound. When the customer receives his order, he’ll vocalize it in nostalgia-laced, horrible-to-understand, poor speech synthesis sound. Each game is a joyful callback to the early console game era, with all sorts of updated thematic concepts. Retro gaming with a modern twist, plus cuss words. It’s win/win!
Bottom line? This game is a blast to play, and accessible to modern gamers without giving up its creative core. Travis is a fun misanthrope fueled by nothing more than boredom and hormone-induced puppy-dog lust. Even better yet, the boss fights and retro games contain nods to games, anime and other geek culture aplenty. No, it’s not the punk masterpiece of the first game, as the rough edges are all but smoothed away. What’s left is an equally important contribution to the genre, especially as it resides on that little console that could, the Wii. We need more games that challenge our assumptions about consoles, gaming, and fun, regardless of their thematic content. Grass Hopper Manufacture and Suda51 have made a game that’s more accessible, but still contains the punk attitude that informed the first game. Kurt Cobain and Nirvana did the same with their second album, and purists still hate them. Same with a band like Weezer. My contention is that the more people who can hear these songs, or play in this game-world, the better. I applaud the developers and Ubisoft, the publisher, for making this game the way it is, rather than the way the hardcore original fans want it to stay – stuck, with no growth possible.
Popularity: unranked [?]
