When I first started working for Killer Betties, one of the first reviews I ever did was for the game Killer 7 for the Gamecube…and I ripped it apart. I absolutely loathed and hated the game, despite the fact that it had a very unique and stylish look. After hearing about No More Heroes – the first game since Killer 7 to be released by those same creators – I approached it with some apprehension, hoping that the game would carryover Killer 7’s unique style, but would elevate the gameplay and actually be a game worth playing. I’m thrilled to say that, despite the fact the two games share some similarities, No More Heroes is a vastly superior product, and actually one of the best Wii games to date.

THE STORY SO FAR
It’s strange, but you actually jump into the game mid-story, not having any idea from a player’s perspective why you are doing exactly what you are doing. However, soon you’ll find out (and actually get to view this narrative if you watch the trailer on your television set in-game, which we highly recommend you do for the full game experience) that the gist of the story is that you play as Travis Touchdown, a man who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, leading to you dueling a professional assassin and finding yourself in a twisted game where killers are ranked on a leaderboard much like traditional sports. You love to fight, so you don’t have any problem joining in on the game, plus, to cap it all off, if you can reach the number one ranking, you get to have sex with your contact. Score! And yes, that is the story of the game, and basically the only story…though that is far from being a slap in this game’s face.

Having been a big fan of the anime Afro Samurai – that had a similar killer ranking system story – I was really into the story of Travis Touchdown as he slowly advanced his way up the ranks to become the number one killer in the world. Instead of weighing itself down with endless side stories or complicated twists, the story is very focused on that one issue and one issue only. You really want to advance through the game just to experience this ranking storyline, and in the process get to see who the next killer is standing in your way.

GAMEPLAY
As Travis, your weapon of choice is a beam laser, which is basically nothing more than a Star Wars lightsaber given a different name. Instead of having you wildly swing your remote to issue slash commands – a mechanic that still hasn’t been perfected on the Wii – you instead press the A-button to issue slash attacks, with you tilting your remote upwards or downwards to make you perform high or low slashes. Also, whenever you’re close to killing an enemy (which you can lock-on to by holding in the Z-button) you’ll get a slow-mo Matrix prompt, telling you in which direction to slash your remote, giving you an amazingly powerful slash attack that can not only destroy that enemy, but any that get in your way as well. The thing about your sword, however, is that it isn’t all powerful, and so after you use it for so often in battle, you’ll have to stop and shake your remote, charging up the power so you can keep dealing death as quick as you can. You’ll also have to swing your remote in a circle whenever your weapon clashes with another enemy’s, having whoever overpowers the other win and get the attack.

Though your main attacks are sword based, you were also once a professional wrestler, and so you have several different grappling commands you can use to grab your opponent. Whenever your opponent is dazed (signaled by cartoon like stars floating around their head) you can press the B-button to grab your opponent, and then, depending on how strong or advanced the move is, you’ll have to move your remote and nunchuk in different directions to complete the move and deal the damage. The grapples are good for one-on-one battles when you can land them on the bosses, but most of the time you’re usually better off fighting with your sword than relying on your hands.

As we mentioned earlier, the main idea of the game is to work your way through the Top Ten killers in the world, but in order for you to qualify and have the right to fight that killer ranked above you, you’ll first have to earn the money in order to pay your entrance fee. The entrance fee goes up by about 50,000 every rank advancement, so you’ll eventually find yourself needing more and more money in order to advance and continue through the story. The two main ways you’ll earn money are through assassination missions (kill a specific person or everyone within a time limit usually) or jobs. The jobs come in the form of gathering cats; gathering garbage, finding landmines; jumping your motorcycle; fueling up cars; and several others. The jobs aren’t terribly fun, and you wish there was a way to bypass them so you could just get to the killing, but at least it doesn’t take too long to make the money you need; it will take you longer to make the money, however, if you go around spending it though.

As you roam around the game world (a mere HUB really and nothing like a Grand Theft Auto world) you’ll find that there are several stores you can visit, which will allow you to buy videos to learn new wrestling moves, new clothes to deck your character out in, go to the gym to train some of your abilities, or blow your wad of money on new swords and weapons to help improve their abilities. It can be hard to advance quickly through the game if you want to gather everything there is in the game, but if all you want is to experience the story and that’s all, then you’ll generally be able to make it through the game pretty quickly by simply playing the next job once and then doing the assassination missions that open up after it.

GRAPHICS
The graphics aren’t amazingly realistic and detailed, but they are amazing in terms of their cell-shaded styling, which will continue to impress you from beginning to end, especially watching the cutscenes that tell the game’s story, and seeing all the virtual blood spurt and gush everywhere like a fountain in a horror movie. Really, this is a game you’re unlikely to see for quite some time again on the Wii (or maybe any system for that matter).

AUDIO
The voice acting is a little too over the top for its own good sometimes, as the characters like to say everything slightly exaggerated than realistic (much like the graphics for that matter). The music and sound effects, however, are overall pretty good, though we’re not quite sure how someone can shout about their spleen once they’ve been killed.

IN CONCSLUSION
No More Heroes isn’t a perfect game, as the job missions and in-between stuff does become repetitive after a while when all you want to do is get to the next boss, but for the most part No More Heroes is an experience quite unlike any other, and one that you should definitely play for yourself - even if you have to look past some of the flaws.

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