Like Quentin Tarantino, No More Heroes designer Suda 51 draws
heavily from trash culture when concocting his gonzo game plots. His profane,
violent, immensely fun Wii debut follows Travis Touchdown, an anime punk who
wins a working lightsaber on eBay. Urged to violence by French ingénue Sylvia
Christel, Travis embarks on a killing spree, targeting the world's top 10
assassins.
According to Suda 51, No More Heroes was inspired by Alejandro
Jodorowsky's hallucinatory Western El Topo. But the game's 10-fight structure feels
closer to Seijun Suzuki's Branded To Kill and Pistol Opera. Of course, the shadow of Star Wars
looms large. Suda 51 beat LucasArts to the punch in realizing lightsaber battle
with the Wii remote. And damn if the upstart's duels don't crackle like green
plasma.
Motion controls punctuate the face-offs with
lethal, combo-closing slashes. Weaned on a smorgasbord of violent pop, Travis
doesn't limit himself to staid samurai swordplay. Between slashes, he unleashes lucha libre-inspired
power-bombs and piledrivers, also triggered via visceral Wii-mote movement.
Game nods also show up in quantity. The city of Santa Destroy is Vice City
re-imagined as a SoCal border town. But instead of smothering players with an
overload of sandbox options, No More Heroes keeps non-mission
busywork to a minimum. Granted, Travis still gets sidelined with chump work.
Odd jobs, such as lawn-mowing, kitten-catching, and graffiti removal are a
mandatory, surprisingly fun, part of his climb to the top. Santa Destroy could
easily be in the same Thomas Guide as Tarantino's Los Angeles, a place where
the mundane and the grindhouse mingle. In Kill Bill, you only get to observe
the wacko world. No More Heroes lets you live there.
Beyond the game: Suda 51's Killer 7 used a similar cell-shaded
style, and was also plotted like a Takashi Miike movie. Some weren't fond of
the game's experimental controls, but it's still a must-play for anybody
interested in the creative fringes of video games.
Worth playing for: No More Heroes takes frequent left
turns. Surprise mini-games, plot twists, and changes in style and tone are the
rule.
Frustration sets in
when: Some
boss fights are damn tough. They aren't unfair, just demanding. Mastering each
enemy feels all the more satisfying.
Final judgment: Fucking awesome.