No More Heroes

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When No More Heroes first arrived in our offices, we had no idea what to make of the game. Its unique art style and irreverent sense of humour definitely stood out, but its pixelated graphics and bizarre gameplay were hard to get used to. But the more we played the game, the more we bought into the game's inherent charm.

Pros

  • The most enjoyable sword combat on the Wii yet; the finishing moves are oh so sweet and satisfying; the game has a ridiculously unique sense of humour; everything from movies to 8-bit gaming gets referenced, and wait until you see the save system!

Cons

  • Doing odd jobs to earn money is boring. That's not a video game: it's a J-O-B. While the art style is cool, the graphics are sort of ugly. If this game had true new-gen graphics, it'd be winner winner chicken dinner in every way possible. The boss fights are a tad wonky. Just wait until you try it for yourself. You'll see what we mean

Bottom Line

No More Heroes easily ranks among the Wii's finest titles, busting a bunch of myths along the way. You say sword-based combat peaked with Twilight Princess? Wait until you slice a suit-wearing crony in half. The Wii can't do mature games? This game does it without the dark dreariness of just about every other violence-laden M-rated title. It could use a bit less filler, but No More Heroes is still a fine fight from the first blow to the last strike. Sorry LucasArts, but the bar for the next Wii Star Wars game has just been raised through the roof.

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    Selling at 1 store

With an utterly unique sense of humour and an undeniable swagger, No More Heroes is like the cool kid in high school who was listening to bands you didn't even know existed. Sure, maybe he wasn't the most popular kid around but five years later, you looked back and realised just how cool that kid really was.

LucasArts, this is what happens when you dilly-dally. While you pondered how to create a true lightsaber game for the Wii, another company came in and completely stole your thunder. For every gamer who's felt disappointed by tacked-on motion controls, we present the game that has completely captured the essence of the Force. No More Heroes? Try No More Competition.

Assassins, bleed

No More Heroes presents a simple story -- in order to impress a girl, Travis Touchdown, a geeky hipster-samurai engages in a duel with and kills the 11th ranked assassin in the United States. Since he's already on the muddy trail, Travis decides to work his way down the list to become the best damn assassin this side of Altair and Agent 47.

With a set goal in mind, No More Heroes is refreshingly straightforward. You know your ultimate objective from the get-go, and it's always at the forefront of the game, but it still includes some neat twists and turns along the way. While drawing on a multitude of excellent pop-culture sources including Star Wars, anime, 8-bit gaming, and Kill Bill, No More Heroes still manages to create its own unique story and memorable characters, to the point where it could have its own pop-culture impact if the game catches on with the gaming public. Thankfully, it's got great gameplay to ensure that happens.

The sword is mightier than ever

Having disappointed legions of gamers with the wonky controls in Red Steel, Ubisoft must have realised that less is more when the company agreed to publish Killer7 director Suda 51's latest off-the-wall action title. Instead of making the gamer swing the Wii Remote and Nunchuk around like a hopped up idiot and failing to deliver true 1:1 movement on-screen like nearly every other sword-based Wii game -- we're talking about titles like Soulcalibur Legends, Dragon Blade, and yes, even Twilight Princess -- No More Heroes boils down sword fighting to its basest elements. In doing that, they may have just perfected it.

During the course of the game, roughly 90 per cent of your attacks will be performed by simply hitting the A or B button. While that sounds like a recipe for button-mashing mayhem, a few simple motion sensing tweaks make the fighting amazingly immersive. For starters, you switch between high and low attacks by tilting the Wii Remote up or down. A lot of strategy comes out of finding openings in enemy attacks, so evading attacks by using the directional pad and locking on/blocking with Z make the game a lot more than brainless slashing.

A slice of heaven

Immersion and enjoyability aren't mutually exclusive, though. Thankfully, the most inconsequential of combat additions makes it the most fun. When you've nearly depleted an opponent's energy, the action will slow down and a direction icon will appear on the screen. Swing your Wii Remote up, down, left, or right in accordance with the prompt, and you'll perform a devastating, bloody finishing move in the aforementioned direction. The prompt also allows you to perform throw moves on stunned opponents, using both the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to unleash deadly suplexes that would freak out even WWE superstars.

Over the course of the game, you'll literally perform hundreds and hundreds of throws and finishing strikes and yet, you won't get tired of it thanks to the ingenious game design. The game's ability to entertain over the long haul is also a testament to its unique level design.

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