June 19th, 2008

No More Heroes

Have you ever felt the need to kill someone? If not, you surely encountered only people you'd die for, instead of killing them, and I am really glad for you. Fortunately, the game I want to tell you now is not about random killings, because everything seems to have a purpose here, while the main goal is to kill other assassins. I know this is not completely original, but the story managed to make me smile, because I am sure a lot of gamers will identify themselves with the main character, as we're going to see right away...

No More Heroes, previously called only "Heroes," is an action game for the Wii console, directed by Goichi Suda, also known as Suda51, developed by Grasshopper Manufacture, and published by no less than 4 companies: Marvelous Interactive Inc., Spike, Ubisoft and Rising Star Games. Now, let's get to the story, shall we?

Your character is Travis Touchdown, a stereotypical otaku(a Japanese term used to refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime and manga, and I think we could also add gaming to those, don't you agree?), who is living a poor life in the No More Heroes motel of Santa Destroy(yeah, right!), California. I wonder how come he didn't rent a room from a old gramma, instead of paying a motel room and living near poverty, but nothing is perfect, so we should also add that Travis Touchdown wins a beam katana in an Internet auction, so he becomes a hitman.

Once this starts, there's no way back, because the first job he accepts is to kill Helter Skelter, nicknamed "the Drifter," an assassin ranked 11th by the United Assassins Association, taking its place. Now, Travis has just became a target for other beginners, so the safest thing to do seems to climb up the hierarchy, and secure the top assassin position!

Handling the game is not extremely hard, since the Wii Remote is in control of the beam katana, while the Nunchuck attachment helps moving Travis. While playing, despite of using a katana, you should be careful to reload it. Why? Remember this is a beam katana, so it works...on batteries, which I can't say is extremely believable. Killers on batteries? Come ooon!

When talking about all the characters in the game, apart from the UAA assassins, there's Silvia Christel (is it possible for Mr' Suda to be a fan of the Emanuelle series???), a "mysterious" and "cold" woman providing ranks and setting up matches. Those helping Travis are a weapons maker named Doctor Naomi, the former pro-wrestler Thunder Ryu, and a drunk, Randall Lovikov, each with his own part in the larger picture.

No More Heroes is a title that you must try, if you're into manga and wrestling, but I think most Wii users will surely find something attractive in this title, so go ahead and give it a try as soon as you can spare enough time to dive into the universe!