In anticipation of the European launch of No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, Goichi Suda (aka SUDA51) paid a visit to our capital city last week to talk about the videogame project, his past career and his intentions for the future of Grasshopper Manufacture. Electronic Theatre was of course on-hand to meet and greet the CEO and director/designer, whose presence was as affable as it ever it was.

            Of the many different topics discussed, one comment in particular stood out as a genuinely spontaneous expression of the unconventional game designer’s personal philosophy. Long known for his many quirky traits – lucha libre themes, motels featuring prominently as backdrops and intentionally deconstructing the fourth wall by directly addressing the player, amongst others – it could be believed that, as a game designer working with progressively more capable hardware, SUDA51 is more susceptible than most to recognising the flaws of his past works. What may have been a relevant misdirection ten years ago could well be seen, through eyes now attuned to greater possibilities with visual descriptors, as simply a misstep today. But this clearly isn’t the case here, as SUDA51 admirably believes that all his previous works are pertinent to his current successes.

            When discussing his previous titles, and drawing particular attention to his mid-2000’s releases Killer7 and Michigan: Report From Hell, SUDA51 was visibly pleased with the recognition these works had earned him.

            “I’m very happy to hear that you enjoyed Michigan, and I think that it would be very interesting to create something like Michigan again in the future – it could be really good,” stated SUDA51. “I still talk to Sakurai-san, who is the president of Spike Games which was the publisher of Michigan. They’re also interested in making a game like that again in the future.”

            A very positive reaction for a game that was met with a mixed response both critically and commercially, but while the sentiment remained for Killer 7, the hopes of revisiting that world seemed much further from view. After a sigh and a little laughter, SUDA51 offers; “If I had the chance, that would be great too!”

            Killer 7 is known to be videogame marmite, and though there are many fans that would jump to the game’s defence – Electronic Theatre being a collective one of them – these same gamers would also be the first to admit the commercial viability of a sequel would rate pretty low. Knowing that, despite more recent and greater successes, SUDA51 sits in the same place as his audience with Killer 7 might add a little comfort.

            You can read more on this, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle and other interesting topics in Electronic Theatre’s full interview with SUDA51, accompanied by Video Games Daily, in our full transcript coming tomorrow.

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