Welcome to the Garden of Madness!  Now hold on there a second!  That statement isn’t suggesting that No More Heroes, the latest action-beat’em up from Goichi Suda (or Suda 51 to the Grasshopper Manufacture faithful out there) is anything like the convoluted plot of his last game Killer7.  Suda may have resurrected the killer art style, but this time he’s brought a whole new game to the mix.  The result is a funny, self-referential, Tarantino-esque action adventure that has loads of wit, charm, and over-the-top gore.  Specifically designed for western audiences, No More Heroes is an enjoyable romp that should please any hardcore Wii fan that is desperately sifting through the currently meager list of third-party offerings.

No More Heroes follows the story of Travis Touchdown, a young Otaku that wins a beam katana off an internet auction.  Intrigued by a competitive league of assassins, Travis decides he wants to be number one.  As a protagonist, Travis is brash, arrogant, and determined to be number one, so it shouldn’t surprise that he’ll carve through a whole lotta’ henchmen to do it. 

10 Assassins, One Vixen, and an absurd plot add plenty of clever charm to this very adult Wii game.

A Self-Aware Affair

Artistically, No More Heroes employs a cell shaded graphical style which has been used in plenty of games prior to its’ release.  However the slick, stylized presentation found here is bolstered by constant self-referencing of itself as a game through a manner of devices.  So get used to seeing 8-bit graphics appear on the maps and HUD of the game, or the Galaga-inspired leaderboard that appears with each ranked assassin you slay.

It might sound absurd initially, but it presents an interesting mix that enhances the tongue in cheek antics ostensibly in between all the over-the-top gory action.  Of course there is more to the game’s charm than just 8-bit pixel art and sound, but saying too much here would spoil it for anyone (and no one wants that).

No More Appendages!

If there is ‘one thing’ there is plenty of in No More Heroes (besides style), its violence.  The gore here is completely unrestrained with heads and limbs flying into the wind after each swing of Travis’ beam katana.  As intended, the flow of combat in No More Heroes is simple and repetitive, but this button masher manages to slip in its own pop!

After each combo, player’s are prompted to swing the wiimote in one of four directions (up, down, left or right) triggering a final blow – which typically means someone is about to lose an appendage (and get a whole bunch of coins since corpses explode in a bloody haze).  Add off-the-wall-lucha-libre wrestling moves to the mix and you’ve got a silly formula for combat that manages to stay entertaining despite its repetitive nature.  It all fits great in the game; however it pains us that there is no middle ground between the difficulty levels here.  It’ll either be too easy or too hard.  Thankfully, the 10 bosses will always take you to task regardless of this setting by requiring strict observation and timing skills to beat.

In typical action adventure fashion, Travis’ fighting skills (and beam katana’s) can be upgraded with money he earns from assassinations and side jobs.  Before you start lavishly imagining a lifestyle befit of any contract killer, Travis has more to do than just ginsu-knife his way through scores of enemies and psychopaths.  How about the small, menial jobs?  Things like working at a gas station, cleaning up trash in the local streets, and picking ripe coconuts all contribute to Travis’ economic circle.  Now before anyone moans themselves to sleep over this, or starts dreaming of a follow-up to Shen-Mue, completing these missions unlocks more assassination contracts since seemingly everyone in this fictional town (named Santa Destroy) wants somebody killed, and fast.

A Big World But Not Much To Do Here

A few things hold back No More Heroes from what could’ve been perfect bliss.  First, the hub-based open world - inspired by the Grand Theft Auto franchise – does little to make the game enjoyable.  Normally an open world that makes you zig and zag to different destinations isn’t a bad thing, but there needs to be a wide variety of things to do (or at least ways to make your own fun) otherwise boredom sets in quicker than a flying boss in Shadow of the Colossus.  No More Heroes does little to remedy this, and the sparse population only compounds the problem, leaving little motivations to explore the city outside of  one generically typical fetch-quest.  

Sorry Suda, but a level select menu would’ve done just fine for us.  Besides some framerate issues during hot and heavy action on-screen, there really isn’t much to nit-pick here.

No More Heroes is a Japanese interpretation of many western ideas (in some ways), and so it’s understandable that certain elements could’ve gotten lost in translation.  Yet, the team at Grasshopper Manufacture deserves plenty of praise for such a bold effort that pulls no punches.  If only more games could be dripping with this much personality and absurd fun.  Maybe then we’d all learn to love illogical plots driven by brash, remorseless anime fans with a penchant for lightsabers and violence.  Otherwise traversing this 'garden of madness' would have never felt so satisfying.