No More Heroes – Bizarre and Touching

STRAP YOURSELVES IN and keep your hands close to your posterior, because No More Heroes is unarguably one of the most bizarre games ever produced. You save the game by going to the toilet. And that’s pretty tame compared to most of the stuff you have to do. Never mind the fact that our erstwhile (anti)hero Travis Touchdown is some odd mixture of an Elvis clone and the campest Anime fanatic this side of Dusseldorf, because even that fades into the background before the first cinematic has finished rolling.

Though, I assume for legal reasons, Ebay was not named directly, it’s pretty clear that Mister Touchdown purchased his first “Beam Katana” (aka Lightsabre) from one of their innumerate auctions. And after getting very drunk and meeting a painfully French young woman in a pub one night, he randomly decides to take her up on her job offer of killing off the top ten assassin’s in the world so that he can become number one. Again, this is rather odd. Because you have to pay an increasingly high amount of money (LB) for the right to challenge the next one up the ladder. And surely the point of having a job is to receive payment. Not to make payment?

Regardless. Along the way you will find yourself engaging in a number of part time jobs such as lawn mowing, pumping gas, finding lost kittens and throwing yourself off the pier on your bike (which earns you a higher wage the farther out to sea you manage to propel yourself). However, having said all this, there are some surprisingly serious, and quite touching moments along the way as well. Like Travis’ complete aversion to killing women. No matter how deranged and deserving they may be. And believe me, he meets some truly warped individuals on his travels.

Add to this some unexpected, but blindingly obvious, plot twists along the way and you have yourself a great game. There are also a number of unlockable costume changes split into the areas of Sunglasses, jacket, T-shirt, trousers (pants to our American cousins) and belt. And a series of fifty Wrestling cards to collect during the ten ranked fights. As well as a series of Lovikov balls which are used to exchange for extra abilities. All of which add to the replay value of the game as you spend your time searching for everything. And lets not forget the masterful application of cell shading which makes this one of the best looking games across of the current platforms. Granted, it may not have the overly polished look of the current high definition craze, but this in no way diminishes it’s charm.

The main storyline is, admittedly, rather short. Keeping you going for only a couple of days on your first play through, and then little more than six or seven hours in subsequent attempts. Though after the first completion there is the option of a higher difficulty level which adds a little extra challenge. And the quality of scripting makes the game thoroughly enjoyable even after multiple re-plays. And don’t forget, once the game is finished you have the ending. And the real ending. The latter of which being a bit of a bugger, but well worth the extra headache to complete it. The ending cinematic alone is worth the hassle. Not to mention the satisfaction of actually doing it.

In closing. No More Heroes is an engaging, thought provoking and surprisingly touching, thought thoroughly bizarre game. Well worth a look, and a fine addition to any collection. Seriously, it’s one of those rare games I would advise buying a console for, something which I have only done on two other occasion’s. Try it. It will not disappoint. And don’t forget to watch the Genki Rockets.

Graphics : 9
Gameplay : 8.5
Audio/music : 8
Plot/scripting : 9
Overall : 9