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The confirmation of a sequel to this year’s encouragable
Wii exclusive
No More Heroes may not have come as a huge surprise. The
title’s developers, Grasshopper Manufacture –
 and in particular, the
company’s founder and CEO, Suda Goichi (aka Suda51) – have achieved
a considerable degree of awareness amongst consumers in the last
three years since working on the easily misjudged one-time GameCube
exclusive Killer 7. And No More Heroes itself, though
now widely available at a budget price, performed well at initial
release, being the perfect solution for Hardcore Gamers having
obtained a Wii and running out of options in the space between
Super Mario Galaxy and
Mario Kart Wii.
However, in the few days since the unveiling of
Grasshopper Manufacture and Marvelous Entertainment’s latest project
– due to arrive on European shores courtesy of oddity-favouring
Rising Star Games, the team responsible for bringing many
misinterpreted gems to Europe including recent releases
Bakushow and
Baroque – has received some rather obscure commentary. An
interview with Suda51 at Eurogamer revealed the news that there
would in-fact be two versions of No More Heroes: Desperate
Struggle produced. However, the details of these two releases
have since become somewhat misconstrued, and exactly what may differ
between them has become a rather hot topic for internet debate.
Electronic Theatre has today received clarification of the
finer details of the release of No More Heroes: Desperate
Struggle. Firstly, Europe is the only territory which
shall receive two separate retail products, and so it is Rising Star
Games’ responsibility to relay such details. And that they did.
With the release of the first No More Heroes, two
versions of the game were created to satisfy the marketing
requirements, including (though not mentioned by Rising Star Games,
Marvelous Entertainment or Grasshopper Manufacture) attaining the
age certification on various Rating Systems worldwide that would
allow the title to achieve it’s maximum sales potential. The
Japanese and European releases were considered to be “censored”
versions of the title, with the US receiving the version that had
originally been demonstrated to the press. The only difference
between the two titles was that of the blood enemies would gush when
struck – or rather, it’s absence in the Japanese and European
releases.
For No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, a similar decision
has had to be made. However, in this case, that decision had been
made by Grasshopper Manufacture and each of the parties responsible
for publishing early-on. The US will receive an uncensored version,
while Japan’s release will not feature any blood during its combat.
Europe, however, will receive both.
Commenting on the finer details, Rising Star Games’
ever-reliable Product Marketing Assistant, Yen Hau, stated, “The
European release will just be two SKU’s available in Europe, one the
European (Japanese) SKU and the [other the] US SKU. There’s no
difference bar the blood; if you remember the differences of the
first game it’ll be just that.”
Much like the first title, the changes that are being
implemented are purely an aid to the respective marketing strategies
for each territory. Many games featuring such violence often feature
an option to turn-off the bloodshed, or even the infamous videogame
convention of turning the secretions green. When discussing why
No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle chose not to follow this
path, Mr. Hau stated, “It was a marketing decision…it’s not
something that will be implemented at the development stage.”
Of course, including the more adult extremes of violence
on the disc at all would require a higher age classification –
configurable or not. Although many may simply see the option as a
design to entice more press coverage, retail space and, in-effect,
more sales, with a little more thought it’s not hard to see what
kind of doors this may well open for future productions. Videogame
violence and, in the UK especially, age classification are hot
topics of debate – now more than ever. Could Grasshopper Manufacture
and Rising Star Games have found that elusive middle-ground? Or will
the two versions simply cause confusion at retail? Nothing is yet
known as to what kind of presence the two releases will have in the
retail space; whether they’ll have different packaging, cover art or
perhaps even some sort of additional subtitle all remain open for
debate. However, one thing that is certain; any gamer would be hard
to lament the freedom of choice that has been granted to European
gamers, a territory that is often considered overlooked by
key players in the videogames industry. Rising Star Games may not
have been featured particularly prominently on the videogame
publisher radar previously, though any European gamer with a taste
for social politics will now be offering Rising Star Games a
proverbial pat-on-the-back. |
