Review: No More Heroes (Wii)

Getting the basics out of the way first, No More Heroes puts you in the role of Travis Touchdown, an unashamedly geeky otaku to the unsuspecting eye, but after the first five minutes of the game you discover he’s also an amoral contemptuous assassin with no regard for human life what so ever. That’s part of the reason he’s so likeable. It's your role to control Travis as he uses the ‘Beam Katana’ his way, slicing through the ranks to become the world’s top ranked assassin. The story has much to offer, but we'll leave it at that.

In terms of gameplay, No More Heroes makes use of the Wiimote in a spectacular fashion, making the sword fighting in Zelda: Twilight Princess look dull and uninspired by comparison. While most attacks are done with the A button, once an enemy has become sufficiently damaged, an icon appears on screen indicating how to move the Wiimote, which will unleash a death blow corresponding to that movement. On paper it sounds less involved than Zelda’s system but it works far better feels incredibly fluid and natural. Combat isn’t limited to this, as you also have the ability to pull some insane wrestling moves by pressing B while facing stunned opponents, which again make use of the motion controls as moving the nun chuck and Wiimote in the corresponding directions delivers different moves. There’s more to the combat including different stances and moves, and temporary super moves, but they are all simply icing on the cake of the excellent main combat system.

Getting a quick handle on the controls while fighting the multitude of generic enemies will stand you in good stead for when you have to face the ten main boss characters in the game. All of which are wonderfully written and memorable, a personal favourite being the assassin Destroyman, who combines a postman, Saturday morning cartoon supervillain, and anime character all wrapped up in one homicidal package. Various support characters also round off the cast and help keep the story fresh and exciting with every encounter.

Unfortunately despite these frankly amazing instances, No More Heroes does have its fair share of problems, all of which seem to stem from when you’re doing things other than hacking generic henchmen to death. Before you can go after each main boss, you have to earn money to pay an entry fee to the battle. Every time you kill an enemy you get some cash, but it nowhere near enough the amount needed, so this involves taking Travis to the local job centre in the free-roaming Santa Destroy so he can earn the money. While the jobs themselves range from the mediocre to oddly entertaining, they all feel like time that could be spent killing baseball uniform wearing lackeys. It’s not a complete waste however as the money you earn can also be used to buy new moves, Beam Katanas and clothes from the various stores around the Santa Destroy...

Another problem that becomes quite prevalent when roaming around the town doing jobs is it is during these sections when the games graphics are at their worse. Even on a Wii plugged in to a HDTV with component cable and running at full 480p No More Heroes is full of jaggies. This isn’t much of a problem during the fight scenes as they are full of colourful vibrant foes and you’re usually too busy to notice, but in the town itself looks terrible. Bland textures, jaggies on straight lines, and dull colouring makes it seem all the effort went in to designing the main levels and the town was left to the last minute and rushed.

Yet despite these shortcomings, No More Heroes remains a brilliant game that belongs in every Wii-owners collection. Faults do exist, but the core gameplay more than makes up for it and finally confirms that Nintendo aren’t the only development studio who can make a stellar Wii game.

Rating: 9 / 10

Words by Garry Webber