Image from IGN.com

I bit the bullet and finally gave No More Heroes a rental. I'm going to have a much longer critical analysis on my personal blog, but for the purposes of House of Nintendo, I'm going to focus this on the its gameplay merits for the most part.

No More Heroes has a good number of excellent ideas. The frantic pace of its combat is its strongest point, with a seemingly endless barrage of special "modes" and extra "stuff" that envelopes the player and helps keep a relatively simple fighting engine (and even simpler AI) interesting. You use bullet time, you'll shoot fireballs(!), you'll karate kick and suplex and even play a little baseball.

I also like the combination of precision button pressing and motion control. Some critics have complained about a lack of third person action adventure on Wii. No More Heroes partially scratches that itch and at the very least shows us how combat can be implemented. Initial attacks are done by pressing A, and finishing moves are done using simple motions. Doing the finishers with real motion is a great move, and provides some real gusto.

And that gusto, as shown in the picture above, will come in America with a huge gout of blood. I'll talk more about the content issues of this game on my personal blog, but I'll say this much: while certainly a title for the mature (please parents, for heaven's sake, do not let your kids have this), it isn't quite as bad as the hype says it is. Honestly, I have a much bigger problem with the scumbag main character that you play than in any of the game's scatalogical humor and over the top violence.

The problems with this game lie in a certain too-quirky for its own good weirdness and the complete clunkiness of the engine. Underneath the outrageous style is a pretty basic game engine, with lots of draw in, bad framerate, and very basic enemy AI. I'm not one to get too bent out of shape over perceived technical slights, but this game is definitely a bit less than what American gamers are used to when it comes to sandbox games.

Ah, the sandbox aspect. I actually love the idea of doing really boring, stupid tasks, only because I understand that this is a sort of satire the Koichi Suda (the game's designer) is trying to impart. However, for most gamers, the sandbox activities that you need to advance the plot, such as mowing lawns and picking coconuts, will seem, well, boring and dumb!

Overall though, the game delivers its offbeat premise: a game with Suda's bizarre sensibilities that is fairly playable and fun. While probably too weird for its own good, No More Heroes is, at the very least, interesting.