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Now available with a very budget-orientated price, No
More Heroes is a Wii release that may have slipped by
under-the-radar for many Wii owners. While those fans of Killer7,
Contact
 and
the soon-to-be-released Flower, Sun and Rain: Murder and Mystery
in Paradise will no doubt have been following the title
throughout it’s pre-launch press coverage, and many Wii-owning
Hardcore Gamers will have most likely picked-up the title mainly due
to an unfortunate lack of alternatives aimed at their most demanding
of demographics, those having only recently acquired a Wii or simply
having missed the title earlier in the year at it’s original release
may now be looking towards picking-up Rising Star Games’ most
eccentric European publication – yes, even more so than
Bakushow.
The peculiar nature of No More Heroes extends
beyond its Cel-Shaded aesthetic. Playing as Travis Touchdown, a
lowly Otaku (or nerd) turned Hitman, players will find themselves on
a mission to assassinate the top ten assassins in accordance with
the rules of the United Assassins Association. Travis’ universe is
one filled with comic books, videogames and anime – as is that of
No More Heroes itself. Rarely is a game so conscious of breaking
the suspension-of-disbelief it creates.
 While
never remotely attempting to remove the player from the feeling that
No More Heroes is a videogame, the title avoids breaking the
illusion of its world at all costs - right from the Menu Screen,
just two button presses allows the scene to become the game. All of
the activities reflect Travis’ low social standing and every
character has their own unique place within the mad world of Santa
Destroy.
The game lends itself more to the traditional
Free-Roaming formula than has previously been discussed. While far
from the likes of Grand Theft Auto in effect, the foundations
appear similar: based in the open world on Santa Destroy, the player
must travel between locations completing a variety of minor missions
and meeting various colourful characters, before engaging in what
would best be described as a Dungeon. Dungeon’s lead to the next on
your list of assassinations, known as Ranking Battles, and generally
require players to down all the enemies in a room before accessing
the next, working their way to the final confrontation.
Between Ranking Battles, players must accumulate the required
entrance fee by partaking in a variety of the above mentioned minor
missions at locations throughout Santa Destroy. As stated above,
these challenges generally reflect Travis’ social status, and
revolve around manual labour. Mini-Games involving mowing lawns and
collecting coconuts will reward the player with cash, with which to
buy new items and fulfil the entry requirement.
The combat is both more accessible and more enjoyable than that seen
most Wii games, including the highly-anticipated launch title Red
Steel. Rather than basing the combat directly on the motion
sensitive aspect of Wii’s Control
System – as has lead to many Wii Remote-waggling combat elements in
Wii games – No More Heroes uses the feature decisively for
additional combat gestures. Finishing moves and wrestling grapples
are performed by swinging the Wii Remote in the direction of the
on-screen prompt after downing an enemy, and different fighting
stances are enabled depending on the verticality of the Wii Remote.
Mini-Games, minor missions and even driving Travis’ Schpeltiger
motorcycle utilise the motion-sensitivity in a variety of inventive
ways and never feels intrusive.
The world of Santa Destroy operates much like that seen within
Bully: Scholarship Edition. While small and well formed,
there’s little to do in the Free-Roaming town that isn’t
orchestrated by Missions, but does feature a healthy amount of
collectables and bonuses littered throughout waiting to be
discovered.
The game as a whole is brimming with character and each personality
within is believable in their eccentricity. There’s no denying that
Wii is creaking when compared to offerings of a similar production
standard on PLAYSTATION3 and Xbox360, such as
Heavenly Sword or
Dark Sector, but as we all know, this was never the
intention of Wii. No More Heroes delivers one of the most
visually exciting packages on Wii, with very few blemishes to spoil
the immaculately detailed world. The sound quality is also of an
incredibly high standard with equally remarkable snippets of
inspiration. A pseudo-Eye of the Tiger plays during the
Training Missions, the voice acting is of the highest standard and,
above all, the Wii Remote Speaker is used as a mobile phone at key
locations – with remarkable clarity.
No More Heroes is quite simply a triumph. A strikingly
imaginative world scattered with intelligible in-jokes and clever
uses of the Wii Remote’s unique functions
 amount
to what could easily be considered one of the best Third-Party
releases on Wii to date, perhaps second only to the mighty
Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition. Rising Star Games made an
incredibly smooth move signing Grasshopper Manufacture’s Wii debut,
and have since earned a reputation as playing well for the most
Hardcore of gamers. Baroque furthered this reputation and
Flower, Sun and Rain: Murder and Mystery in Paradise – an early
title from the studio ported from PlayStation2 to NintendoDS in the
wake of their recently earned popularity – is likely to do the same.
No More Heroes is a game built for gamers, born from a love
of games.
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