No More Heroes Hype Center

Japanese Release- December 6th, 2007
US Release- January 22nd, 2008
Publisher- US: Ubisoft Japan: Marvelous
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture (independent)

Hello Gamers everywhere! I’ve created this blog post to essentially tell you guys about a Wii game coming out fairly soon that looks to be very promising for the hardcore gamer. Even more promising now that Super Smash Brothers Brawl has been delayed. No More Heroes is a game created from the brilliant mind behind Killer7, Suda 51. Developed by his studio, Grasshopper Manufacturer. There are a few common misconceptions about the game though, and I’ll be clearing those out of the way right now.

This isn’t a GTA clone. I’ve seen a few comments about how it’s basically “The Wii’s GTA”, or “GTA with lightsabers”. This isn’t the case at all. While you can freely roam the environments, Suda 51 has said that out of respect to Rockstar, you can’t steal cars and you most likely won’t be able to just kill anybody you want and have the cops chase after you. In fact, the town of Santa Destroy and the free roaming ability isn’t a major focus of the game, just a way of getting from point A to point B.

This isn’t Killer7. While the game was either considered a masterpiece to some (me for example), it was also hated by others because of its on-rails movement. No More Heroes allows free movement, a story that isn’t quite as complex, and if you hated Killer7, you won’t automatically hate this game because it’s different. Instead of an extremely serious story such as the one in Killer7, No More Heroes is meant to be a breath of fresh air and make you laugh.

This game aims to be different, to separate itself from the pack. It’s not a clone, and it’s story and gameplay won’t be the same thing you’ve played over and over again. This isn’t Madden *insert year here*; this is punk, this is….No More Heroes.

So, what is this game about? How does it play? Well, I’m here to tell you. Essentially this is the story, or at least what we know of it so far. An anime nerd named Travis Touchdown living in Santa Destroy finds a “Beam Katana” on eBay. Being the nerd that he is, he bids on it and wins. Now that he has it, he kills Helter Skelter, an assassin ranked 11th in the UAA, and Travis takes his spot. UAA agent Sylvia Crystal of course tells him that he has been ranked number 11, and it appears she tells him where the others are. Meanwhile, Sylvia looks to be an interesting character, as it isn’t known if her intentions are to help Travis, or if she has other things planned. More on the characters later.

Now, one important thing about Wii games are that, well, the controls need to work. Recently gamers have been kind of ticked off at developers for simply introducing waggle to replace a button press on Wii games. Not so in No More Heroes. It doesn’t have waggle to replace the A button, it just…uses the A button. That’s right, just simply pressing A will do your average sword strike. However, aiming could result to be pretty darn key to combos, so you have three positions to aim your sword. Up (tilt the controller up), or down (tilt it down, of course). Finishing moves will be done with motions guided by cues (for example, an arrow will tell you to move the Wiimote upward quickly, thus cutting your enemy in half…vertically) that because they are so context sensitive, always work. There won’t be times where you’ll try to do them, and they won’t. Though hey, sometimes your beam katana runs out of juice, so occasionally you might have to charge it up by shaking the controller up and down quickly, and you can imagine what this looks like. Funny? Yes.Oh, did I forget to mention that Travis takes lessons from a former Professional Wrestler? I did? Well, you can do wrestling moves by approaching an enemy and pressing the B button, then on screen icons will pop up and tell you what to do with the Wiimote and nunchuck to do a variety of wrestling moves, such as the videogame popular Suplex.

You might be wonder what you’ll be doing in between slicing and dicing up those assassins, and well, there’s a lot to be done. One thing you can do is hang out at your apartment, customize it a bit, change clothes, play some N64, or you could save by sitting on the toilet and, erm, release waste.That’s not to say that you can’t do anything in Santa Destroy, your hometown near the boarder of Mexico. Remember how I said you could change clothes? Well, where do you think you’d be getting those clothes? Well, you COULD go look in a dumpster (no seriously, you can), but maybe the store would be a better option. Hey, you could pick up a mask or two while you’re there as well. But how do you get the money? Well, it’s time to work…but hey, at least it can be fun.

Naturally, if you’re going to buy anything, whether it’s clothes or a new beam katana, you’re going to need some serious cash. Now, you have some options here, but to get to them you can ride your motorcycle, the Shpel Tiger. You can participate in motorcycle races, get a metal detector and search the beach, fight some assassins and see if they’ll give you cash, pick up trash, stamp things, be a human bowling ball, pump gas, or heck, some screenshots are making it look like you might even be able to work at a burger joint. How’s that for variety? So, there you have the basics of gameplay down for you, at least from what we know already. Let’s meet the characters in a closer look.

Main Characters

Travis Touchdown-
Travis is the main character of No More Heroes. However, he isn’t your average character in quite a few ways. First off, he isn’t off to save the world, not going to save a princess or authority figure, and well, he’s a nerd.An anime nerd in fact. He has an obsession for it, and so he wears clothes with anime characters on them. Which of course leads to him buying a “Beam Katana” on a website similar to eBay. Now in some freakish way he ends up killing Helter Skelter, and he is automatically ranked in the UAA.

Sylvia Christel-
Wearing suggestive clothing and speaking with a French accent Sylvia is essentially a person from the UAA that helps set up the fights, or rather she tells Travis where the other assassins are.

Assassins

Helter Skelter-
Helter, deceased holder of rank #11, is seemingly what we in the business call a cut scene death. He shows up in the intro for the first time, engages in battle, and gets killed. However, wouldn’t some people find it a bit conspicuous that Suda would spend so much time introducing this character just to kill him off? Is it possible this extremely blue gunslinger may return? Unlikely will you have to battle him, but it is possible that he’ll show up to give Travis some advice or some odd action.

Holly Summers-
Holly is one of the games bosses, and she specializes in explosives. The first three videos on the official website are dedicated to her level and fight. The obvious thing that is different about her is the rocket launcher that replaces her leg. Homage to Grindhouse anyone?

Shinobu-
Shinobu is somewhat of a female samurai, even though she is only still in high school. Wielding a sword, she is in the UAA and Travis must take her down. Unfortunately, not much is known about her.

Destroyman-
Destroyman is also one of the game’s revealed bosses. Seemingly a parody of video game bosses in general, he yells out generic attack names of his attack, while using shock powers to harm Travis. Also something interesting is his oddly placed laser cannon…hmmm…. Recently through TGS, it has been revealed that before he goes all violent on you, he’s actually a mailman.

Death Metal-
An assassin that lives the fine life. Large mansion by the beach, fine wine, beautiful women, he seems to have it all. Underneath the life he shows you’ll see a body covered in tattoos, a cleaver of a beam katana, and rank number 10 in the UAA.

Bad Girl-
Not much is known about Bad Girl, other than that she is ranked by the UAA. Dressed in a too-too and swinging a bloody bat, she’s one crazy chick.

Supporting Cast

Doctor Naomi-
Doctor Naomi creates new beam katanas and sells them when she isn’t doing construction work (or so it seems to be her cover-up anyway, perhaps it is her profession). However they don’t come cheap, so Travis definitely has to save up some money if he wants to buy a new one.

Thunder Ryu-
Thunder Ryu is an ex-Yakuza member who also at one point was a professional wrestler. Not much else is known about him other than that Travis can visit him at his Dojo and learn new moves.

Randall Lovikov-
An alcoholic man from Russia, Randall Lovikov is actually of use to Travis. If Mr. Touchdown collects Lovikov balls that are scattered around the city, Randall will teach Travis a variety of special skills that seem to be based on those of the Killer7.

This is of course the area in which reviews will be posted as they come out, however, at the moment we do have a few import reviews, which the scores will be posted here.

Famitsu: 9, 8, 8, 9 (out of 10)
Another Japanese gaming magazine (sorry for not recalling the name): 90%, 90%, 75%
EDGE: 9 (out of 10)
CVG (Computer and Videogames): 9.4 (out of 10)

NOTE: I am planning on giving hands on impressions and likely a review of the game as soon as possible.

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4 Color Rebellion hands on- “I was very hyped for this game before I came to TGS, and now after playing it, I can say most, if not all of my hype, was justified. I still have a lot of questions about how fun this game will be after the one level I played, but as long as Suda 51 keeps the pace going and the story interesting, this is a must-buy game for me.”
http://www.4colorrebellion.com/archives/20…roes/#more-5298

Jobs of No More Heroes
http://wii.ign.com/articles/839/839844p1.html

IGN’s Video Preview
http://media.wii.ign.com/media/827/827358/vid_2224010.html

IGN’s Hands on report of US version
http://wii.ign.com/articles/839/839222p1.html

IGN confirms US release date of February 08, published by Ubisoft, uncensored, and developed by Grasshopper.
http://wii.ign.com/articles/821/821117p1.html

IGN’s first interview with Suda 51
http://wii.ign.com/articles/749/749899p2.html

IGN interviews Suda 51 again, more in-depth informationhttp://wii.ign.com/articles/765/765721p1.html

Suda 51 talks about the game, and his thoughts about the industry
http://wii.ign.com/articles/771/771974p1.html

1up’s video interview with Suda 51, discusses industry, No More Heroes
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=31580831

up previews the game
http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3160507

Gamespot previews No More Heroes
http://www.gamespot.com/wii/action/heroes/…eatures;title;1

Scan Archive:
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Special Thanks to…
-Soren 406 for creating the banners.
-Shvitzel for writing up the bit on Helter Skelter and having a masterful understanding of HTML.
-Grasshopper Manufacture for making the game.