No More Heroes lives up to M rating

No More Heroes is a stylish game. A game that isn't aimed at the kids by any means but the adult gamer instead.

No More Heroes is a stylish game. A game that isn't aimed at the kids by any means but the adult gamer instead. It manages to do so. The humor is crude and the game is incredibly violent. Parents, that's your warning.

In No More Heroes you play the role of Travis Touchdown. As Travis Touchdown you are the newest member of the United Assassins Association. After the battle with the rank ten assassin, Travis decides that he has to be number one. Your goal is pretty simple. Defeat all the assassins and become the number one assassin in Santa Destroy.

No More Heroes lives up to its M Rating perfectly well. Much of the core gameplay is centered around slashing through the levels to the boss at the end. Your main weapon is a Beam Katana. Despite how some third party games have faired in the past, No More Heroes makes excellent use of the Wii's controls. The A button simply swings your Beam Katana while B is used to make kicks. Whenever you reduce an enemies life gauge down, the game enters deathblow mode. In Deathblow Mode, an arrow appears on the screen and you must wave the Wii Remote in that direction to execute a killing blow. Despite which way the arrow points you can really swing the Wii Remote anywhere. There's more to the motion sensor controls. You can grab enemies and perform wrestling moves by shaking the Wii Remote and Nunchuck, and you can get into weapon clashes where you must wave the Wii Remote in order to win. These moments are involving. The game has a fine balance between the motion sensor controls and the normal everyday gameplay.

After your first mission and you're officially admitted into the UAA, you'll have to start paying to partake in the games main missions. This is where No More Heroes slows down considerably. The rank missions are expensive. There are ways to make money around Santa Destroy by doing part time jobs for people, but they're hardly fun. They're mundane jobs like collecting coconuts or mowing lawns. You can do assassination jobs for the UAA which will allow you to be involved in more action, but these missions go by quickly. Finally, there are missions you can go to where the objective is to kill all the bad guys without getting hit once. These missions, however, are over in a flash.

Even worse is exploring Santa Destroy itself. You can cruise around on your stylish bike but there's really nothing to do in Santa Destroy. You can go train around or buy some clothes to change into or you can buy parts for your Beam Katana. Unfortunately, Santa Destroy is a pretty boring place. You can't interact with the denizens and the city is actually relatively empty. You can also hang around your apartment and watch videos to learn new wrestling moves or play with your cat and the like.

However, when you get to play the main missions, the game is a lot of fun, and the missions are long and satisfying, especially the boss battles at the end. The bosses are some of the most fun to be had in the game. They aren't really that hard, however. In fact, the entire game isn't that hard. It's also pretty short. Any devoted gamer should be able to finish the game within a couple of days.

In terms of graphics, No More Heroes opts for style over substance. The cel-shaded graphics look good. A few nostalgic 8-bit moments come out as well, which is obviously part of the style. Despite how good the graphics are, much more could've been done with it. Particularly with the outdoor environments. At least the game sounds good. With some catchy tunes and good voice overs. There are moments when the dialog can be grating but it's tolerable nonetheless.

No More Heroes is one of the best titles you can buy on the Wii. While the moments in between missions are slow, the main game itself is fantastic with some good production values. A little more could've been done to improve the game overall, but the end result is fantastic.
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Source / Author / Credit: Anonymous