Topic: Opinions on No More Heroes 1

Thanks Machu, but how many swords are there and how expensive are they, hereing all of this about the odd jobs and that the katanas are expensive makes me think that maybe going through all the trouble of unlocking Henry's fight might not be worth it.

I loved the first NMH even with its flaws (which I echo everyone here) but I didn't love it because it was the perfect game like say a Fallout 3 or Bioshock. I loved it, and I NEVER say this, but because I was in on the joke. The gameplay is fun, can get repetitive but always remains enjoyable if you get the joke. If you're a gamer who takes yourself WAY too serious and takes your game playing WAY too serious, you won't like it...at all...because it really does poke fun at just about everything a serious gamer cherishes. Me? I got it, I can laugh at myself, and this was probably the funniest and pure fun games I have played in a long, long time.

Well, I could go on and on, but I'll just save myself the trouble and post a review of No More Heroes that I wrote way back (ironically as part of an application to review games in the early days of WiiWare World):

No More Heroes Review by A. Knox

Grasshopper Manufacture has been described as a company who values style over substance, but that’s never been a fair characterization. Their previous opus, Killer 7, had a trippy art style stuffed with exaggerated gore and grotesque images. However, that’s not to say it didn’t also offer its fair share of unique gameplay and creative gunplay. Many were turned off by the on-rails nature of the game, but if nothing else it offered a glimpse into the companies M.O.—take established gameplay concepts, spice them up with a little LSD, tweak them with a little speed, and wrap it all around a plot as incomprehensible as it is thrilling.

This same formula applies to Grasshopper’s newest masterpiece—No More Heroes. At its core the game is little more than an eclectic blend of open-world exploration, mission-based action, and intense boss fights. You play as Travis Touchdown who, after going on an apparent bender, is thrust into a world of beam katanas, assassins, and f***teasing babes. No doubt, if you’ve played action games before this game’s structure won’t surprise you. (Unlock a ranked battle, earn money to pay the entrance fee, complete the mission, fight a boss, and repeat…) But it’s the visceral combat, outrageous characters, and sublime cutscenes scattered along the way that separate No More Heroes from any other action game released in recent memory.

Santa Destroy is like any other west coast pseudo-town. It’s large and full of activity that leads to nothing ever happening. It’s drab and mundane with scores of roads leading everywhere but always going nowhere. It’s exactly the kind of town where a guy like Travis can live out a fantastical killing game without being noticed. And beyond serving as a proper overworld, Santa Destroy lends a good deal of familiarity to Travis’s character. Truly, Travis is a metaphor for any gamer controlling him--a regular dude in a boring world full of pointless jobs and limited social contacts who dreams of little beyond sex and mindless action. In between each mission he's forced to venture out into society to fund his addiction to killing by completing mundane activities and driving around aimlessly. He lives for the action and excitement each mission brings and to this end the overworld serves as a sort of yin to the hyperactive yang of the missions. Oh, and what a yang it is! Hands down, these missions are home to the most over-the-top combat yet on the Wii.

Using the Wii-mote and nunchuk, No More Heroes is a rare example of a game that utilizes motion controls to enhance the gameplay without entirely relying on them. You use the analog stick to control Travis while the ‘A’ button attacks with his trusty beam katana (‘Z’ locks on to an enemy). You tilt the Wii-mote up or down to change your stance from high to low, which allows you to attack the upper or lower torso of an enemy and block his correlating attacks. This simple titling offers a lot of strategy to the combat while demanding little waggle in return. It’s brilliant, actually. Once you’ve whacked an enemy sufficiently with your katana, a ‘deathblow’ will trigger. Basically, an arrow appears over an enemy and after you wave the Wii-mote in the associated direction, Travis will turn those poor polygons into a fantastical display of gushing blood and dismembered bodies. Say what you will about other action games on the Wii, but there is no question that No More Heroes is one that gets waggly combat right.

That might not mean much, however, if it weren’t for such ridiculous-yet-compelling bosses. Characters like Bad Girl, Holly Summers, Destroy Man, and Speed Buster are the stuff legends are made of and your confrontations with them stand as some of the most offensive, sordid, and downright enjoyable scenes in the history of videogames. There’s not a lot more to be said other than unless you are easily offended/repulsed you absolutely must experience these deliciously grizzly scenes. There are simply few things in a gamer's life more rewarding than suffering through a grueling boss fight to witness it come to an awesomely gruesome end.

Conclusion

Ultimately, No More Heroes is shockingly raw both technically and thematically, with an unapologetic reliance on violent imagery, irreverent humor, and offbeat themes. But more importantly, it's an uncompromising landmark title for an industry where nearly all landmark titles follow an established progression of increasing reliance on powerful technology, bulging budgets, and melodramatic themes. Grasshopper Manufacture has created a piece of work that is destined to inspire nearly every gamer who plays it to dream about creating their own "videogame band". That’s the new definition of a cult classic.

It's amazing, one of the few examples of video game art. If you look for it. Most people don't...

NMH is easily a 7/10 for me....What breaks the experience(like everybody says) is the Sandbox gameplay, it's ugly and bland, terrible frame rate ect. The Jobs also become stale pretty fast. Thank god NMH 2 has a City Map where you can instead select where to go, AND there are 8-bit jobs which is awesome.

That aside, the Boss fights are golden. The combat controls are fantastic and as minor as the motion controls are they're satisfying. Love the characters, the voice overs, the storyline, the retro throw backs and the fact that you're some Otaku killer assasin, it's all very uniqe and fun....yet flawed and unpolished. if you can get past the bad stuff....The City gameplay and Jobs, you'll have a good time.

@Supermarioman: Dude, don't listen to 'the crowd'. If Sean and I say the mini games, challenges and overworld are fun, then they are. I could never get bored of picking up scorpions, or filling up cars, but I'm silly like that. Just get the game and enjoy it for what it is. Yeah it had faults, but not once did I care as I was having so much funking fun. Even if you don't get on with the side jobs, it doesn't matter, the rank fights are reason enough to buy the game.

And there's three swords btw, hardly a mountain.

Has anyone mentioned that killing henchmen over and over also gets old quickly.

What's great is the style of the game and the interesting characters and sense of humour. The jobs are ok. But killing hordes of henchmen is to repetetive and some of the gameplay mechanics don't work very well e.g the baseball bat. Also moving from one mission to the next gets tedious.

Guess it's a matter of taste, I never got sick of killing henchmen. In fact I'm playing through it for the 3rd time now, still loving the slicing. I do think they mixed it up a bit more in NMH2 though (added a Metal Gear Solid-esque level, etc)

We've had a lot of these threads before but I'll post it again; No More Heroes is my favourite 3rd party effort, along with Okami. I'd give both a 9.

great style, great bossfights, great controls (don't want to play this with a normal gamepad)... overall maybe my favorite 3rd-party-wii-game

I finished my first play-through of the game today and it was pretty great, especially the ending (love that Kari Wahlgren voices a character). Now that I'm finished at least one play-through, I still stand by my first post, regardless of knowing that they bleak sandbox environment and side-jobs were a parody--witty (though, that's arguable) though they may be, they're still tedious...

I've started a new game plus on 'Bitter' and made it to Shinobu, and the difficulty definitely ramped up quite a bit. I got wasted three times before I decided to call it a day (and she's only ranked eighth, geez)...

As for what people have said about the wrestling moves, they're definitely awesome, but not too practical when you're surrounded or your enemy has a melee weapon on him. Maybe if your opponent didn't have to be stunned beforehand you'd be able to use them more frequently, but, unfortunately, that's not so--which really is a shame since there's quite a few good ones (Power Bomb, Pile Driver, German Suplex, etc.)...

I'll definitely be picking up the sequel, but not until after it drops in price...

@Supermarioman: There's three beam katanas to buy, and two upgrades per katana (with the exception of the first, which has 3 [the additional one carries over to the other 2]). As for whether or not you need to buy the upgrades, I'd go with yes. The first increases its power while the second makes it waste less energy, so they're definitely beneficial. As for the difficulty, passing it on 'Sweet' is a piece of cake and you shouldn't die unless you make a mistake (such as not dodging attacks or being deceived by a certain boss).

@Metroid_Fan
If you think Shinobu is hard on Bitter, wait until you get till Henry. HE TAKES FOREVER TO BEAT ON BITTER!The reason he takes forever on Bitter is because he barely takes any damage from your attacks even if they are charged. I swear it took me more than an hour to beat him on Bitter! Not only does he take little damage, but you also have to dodge the one hit kill move he does by charging at you with his beam katana. The only bosses that have one hit kill moves are Bad Girl, Henry and Harry(his is that magic box which you have to press a button or shake the Wii remote to escape).

@Viper6391: I'm not looking forward to these other boss fights, especially not Bad Girl, she's the only boss that killed me more than once on my first play-through. Harry is also going to be frustrating, especially once he's down to his last shreds of health and keeps pulling the disappearing act followed by the parlor trick...

I'll probably take a break from this game and concentrate on passing MadWorld next, or Super Paper Mario--most likely the latter...

I rented it and found it entertaining it. Nothing else. Is not a 1M copies sold game but a very niche quirky one, which is not a bad thing. I liked the battles with the assassins but I hated the GTA-like parts. Is definitely Just for Rent.

<3

(love at first sight)

Her instant kill - as well as her death scene - are awesome. In the US version anyway.

Best bosses in any video game on the Wii? I would think so.

@tealovertoma: I'm more of a Holly Summers man, myself...

I never said the jobs were crap or the overoworld for that matter. But my patience for doing the exact same thing over and over again isn't exactly as high as I wished, if I play a Song on Guitar Hero or Rock Band and it has a very long repeating somewhat complex pattern I almost want to quit. However seeing as killing enemies in video games has rarely become a problem of redudance for me and mowing a lawn is what I do in the summer for $20 each, so that fine with me. So I doubt the jobs will be bad, but I may not have the kind of patience to do them as often as it may be required. However the overworld actually sounds kind of neat just to see the town! (Even if the Car Physics Make As Much Sense as Shaq Fu's hit detection) So thanks for the info and just 3 swords dosen't sound so bad. I would also like to think you all again for answering my questions. But I still would love to hear more opinions on the game and just an overall discussion for the game for all I care, I should have just called this the No More Heroes 1 Thread

Well, I just collected loads of scorpions and filled some cars full of gas (my two favourite jobs). Then I went to Gold Town and went crazy on 100+ mofo's in a back alley. I got 300,000lb's and it took me ten minutes. Off to the next rank fight I go, which happens to be at the beach...

Me too! <3

EDIT: btw, I'm collecting all the clothes and cards. I'll do it anyway, but is there something cool for doing so? Anyone know?

_{i need nmh2 baaaaad! D:}

@Machu: Good man. Also, not really, the cards don't get interesting until your new game plus play-through (they contain awesome character/weapon concept art/info)...

Yeah I thought so (some of the art is real nice). Managed to pick up 'em all on sweet, I think I got 'em all on mild, and now onto bitter. Cruising round town un-earthing Cards is fun, takes me back to those awesome Lovikov hunts.

btw, bitter, is indeed, quite bitter D:

Yes, quite...