More No More Heroes Please, but not on the Wii

We recently got our hand on a wii — we don’t really keep one in the office, no offense to Nintendo or anything, but it just isn’t a console for the hardcore, not by a long shot. Yes we are aware that the Wii sells like hot cakes, but just like cupcakes, we don’t get the appeal of it, simply to say — we recognize the fact that people who are different than us greatly outnumber us, thus explaining the sales statistics — that people who are not gamers suddenly get their hands on a toy, accounting for it being the best selling console which is turned on the least. Before we get out of hand not talking about the game, we will actually talk about No More Heroes 2.

The first one we played briefly, not at the comfort of our own homes and offices, so we didn’t really get a chance to finish it. It was an enjoyable game that we would like to experience fully, and after hearing that the HD version will be remade on “current” generation consoles (I wanted to say next, but that’s not true, the Wii is simply a prehistoric console), we were overjoyed. No More Heroes 2 on the Wii doesn’t really look as bad as other titles on a HD TV, it carries its own artistic style quite well enough. If you were fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to own a wii, and by the guess that you stumbled onto AGG and reading this article right at this moment, you are somewhat of  a hardcore gamer (or you desire to be one),  you should definitely get your hands on No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle — in fact this will be one of the 5 games you will have to play on the Wii before it fades into the history of video games, like its two predecessors. AND YES, I didn’t make a mistake when I said there would only be 5 games that’s worth your time. If you don’t own a wii now, are those 5 games worth your dime to get one? We will let you be the judge of that, afterall we bought the N64 just to play Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, and that was worth it. A piece of advice is that you could probably borrow a Wii from someone who don’t play games regularly, if you have friends you are bound to have a few acquaintances that fit into that category. It IS much easier to borrow a Wii than a PS3 or Xbox 360, for the owners are not going to be happy to be part with them.

No More Heroes 2 is Suda 51’s latest offering to the world, and if you have played Killer 7 or other Suda 51’s work you will know that he is a director afflicted with strange tastes, and you may not always “get” what it is that he is trying to say. If you have tried Sun, Flower, and Rain for even 5 minutes you will know how mind-boggling it is, that to some it is probably a very badly designed game, and to some it may not be a game at all, that is is a work of art, an insight to another world that you finally have a chance to glimpse at. No more Heroes is closer to Killer 7 in terms of its mass appeal, in fact it is much more main-stream and understandable than Suda 51’s previous works. We were great fans of Killer 7, with its quirky gameplay and its masterful plot-twist. No More Heroes 2 doesn’t try to be a literal masterpiece but plays just like any other brawler, with fluid fighting mechanics and stylish boss fights. Its writing is top-notch with its constant humor and sexual innuendos, obviously appealing to the male audience — you will never quite see any nudity, but the females are sexy (even in their native blocky non-HD polygons), like they are always taunting and teasing the player with his own frustration. No more Heroes 2 is a testament of the Japanese film industry — the evolution of Japanese samurai / yakuza films — flurry of light and sword and stylish movements and blows and gushes of blood fountaining out of bodies like trapped volcanoes in outbursts of ecstasy. No More Heroes 2 speak to the player on every level if they are in love with the Japanese cinema.

As a game, NMH2 improves upon its predecessors, by removing its sandbox-GTA-clone environment with its simple map devoid of any commute time (we hate commute), and the odd jobs from the first game replaced by 8-bit mini games that will remind you of your childhood, if you had one, some of them you will find tedious and some of them you will play with a quirky smile on your face, and the good thing is that they are all optional. No More Heroes 2 is packed with a lot of fun and excitement, and a simple tale of a hero who is no longer a hero, and intertwined with a parallel story of something far more complex which you may, or may not read into it at all, that it stinks of Suda 51, not at all in a bad way. And at the surface, the game flows like a dream, like watching Star Wars made like a Samurai film set in the modern setting, directed by an obvious Otaku — lovers of toys, anime, wrestling, video games, and sex alike while speaking to the minds of its players. No More Heroes 2 isn’t quite a masterpiece like Killer 7, but it reminds you of why you love video games, and will continue loving it even when you become a doddering old fool. We hope to see more No More Heroes in the future, but hopefully not on a dated system for causal gamers with its remote-like controllers making you waggle it foolishly like it was an oversexed prick.

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