A series of notable changes which amount to nothing.
The beginning of 2010 is proving to be an odd time for video games. On one end of the spectrum is the group of new IPs with no ties to other series, like Darksiders, Bayonetta, MAG, and Dante's Inferno. On the other side is the collection of sequels to major releases of the past few years, like BioShock 2, Mass Effect 2, Mega Man 10 and Final Fantasy XIII. However, the truly weird part is that both sides lack creativity, relying mostly on the designs of games before them. In that sense, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is the same as the other early 2010 releases. This does not mean that No More Heroes 2 added nothing to the series; it just means that the changes introduced in this game create as many problems as they fixed in the first place, effectively meaning that they add up to nothing.
In fact, the amount of creativity in this game is present on the box itself, which proudly touts that you must regain your title of top assassin from rank 51. Cleverly excluded from that description is the mention of 50 boss battles, mainly because the game does not even come close to 50 bosses. Whether it is "some other assassin already killed them" or simply nothing, No More Heroes 2 often utilizes cheap plot points to reduce the number of assassins you will eliminate over the course of the game. While the developers had a perfectly valid reason to do so (having all the bosses would make the game needlessly long and drain the creativity of the designers), it still feels dishonest to have created the game in such a way. After all, the life of the game is its bosses, something which the game easily recognizes. All previous features that have stood between you and the next boss, like upgrading your sword or saving enough cash for the fight, have either been notably reduced or eradicated altogether.
Oddly enough, the method by which you gain cash is not only still present, but has been reworked into a series of appropriately old school mini-games. You choose which one you want to do, listen to Travis blow into the cartridge, and then engage in a simple mini-game for money. They are not necessary, since battles are accessible immediately and all upgrades cost next to nothing, but they're exactly what they should be: undemanding, old school distractions for when you become bored with the killing. By old school, I do not refer to a recent game designed just to look like something from the 1980s; I mean a game specifically designed to feel like it came directly from the 8-bit era, gameplay included. Of course, with this philosophy comes all the problems those games had. For example, they can be very unforgiving and frustrating, leading to failure time and time again. When you inevitably do blunder, you must start from the beginning, unable to quit and earn the reward for doing everything else at which you succeeded. Obviously, this means the games can become quite repetitive over time, especially since some of the levels in each game are either eerily similar or exactly the same. As was already mentioned, they are not required playing nor are they that long, but like the story, the game design seems to be rather lazy when one mini-game is just a 3D rehash of another, or a blatant knock-off of a well-known NES game.
However, aside from an old school feel, No More Heroes 2 is well known for (and successful at) its sense of parody. The game satirizes everything it can, ranging from animé and action films to shmups and stealth games. While it does achieve its goal quite well, when compared to the previous game, Desperate Struggle is noticeably less lighthearted. Travis makes less humorous quips at his enemies, and the enemies are often more serious, ranging from wacky concepts like robotic brains to more serious foes with little to no humor about them. This may seem like the game is trying to have its cake and eat it, too, but it somehow manages to strike a reasonable balance between sharp humor and its darker, more serious moments. If anything, the major flaw in the story is that it lacks any major sense of unity or cohesion; Travis' motivation for fighting is barely present throughout the game, turning the game into a series of boss fights occasionally broken up by a newly introduced gameplay mechanic.
Again, there is nothing wrong with the boss battles of Desperate Struggle; if anything, they've improved quite a bit from the previous game. While the strategies for the battles often consist mostly of dodging and rapidly pressing the A button, there is a certain rhythm to each one that, along with the more noticeable strategies in each, create a more satisfying experience. Yet, oddly enough, the very same thing that makes these battles great is also what may turn players off the game: failing to react in time can sometimes be extremely punishing, knocking off a significant amount of your health. This, combined with the (understandably) small amount of opportunities to heal mid-battle, leads to a plethora of deaths, which in turn leads to you fighting the same fight again and again, making a battle rely more on pure memorization than it should. It does not help that the beam katana still needs to be charged mid-battle, breaking flow and leaving you open to more hits.
This is only an issue during the boss battles; in the fights leading up to these skirmishes, charging is rarely an issue. More energy is drained when blocking attacks than when slashing enemies, and it is much easier to dodge enemies and their attacks than their bosses. In fact, it is much easier to mash the attack button frantically during these regular fights, since there is less worry about them dealing a deadly blow. While this may suggest that they are nothing more than mindless distractions which distance you from the bosses, the reality is that the battles have more strategy than ever. Subtle things like the elevation of your blade have a noticeable impact on battles, even if the somewhat unresponsive motion controls mar that sense of strategy. For example, when performing a wrestling move in which you've no choice, the game will prompt you to move the Wii Remote and Nunchuck in a certain way. The way the game reacts to your motions, however, is not very accurate, leading to several anti-climactic ends to regular battles.
In fact, the motion controls for No More Heroes 2 illustrate a general problem present in several of the gameplay aspects: while ambitious and executed well on their own, outside factors add to them a notable level of frustration. For example, Travis is no longer the only playable character; two more characters return from the original to become playable throughout the game (albeit for embarrassingly short periods of time). Each one controls differently from both Travis and each other, providing some well-executed variety to the No More Heroes formula. Yet the same cannot be said of the gameplay aspects that bring about the variety; one of the new characters can jump through levels, but lining up your jumps is difficult and can lead to you attempting the same jump repeatedly, again breaking the flow of the game. This is especially annoying in boss battles, where the added risk of a themed assassin trying to kill you can lead to more game overs than there already are.
While it may seem like the game has issues with delivering its over-the-top violence at a steady rate, this is not the case overall. No More Heroes 2 knows that its audience only wants to slash their way through the game, and it does everything it can to give you a well-rounded experience. Although it comes at the cost of the game's length, this is only because it has eliminated the artificial lengthening and open world aspects that brought down the previous game. Obviously, both of these aspects cancel out whatever they've brought to the game, serving as an apt analogy for Desperate Struggle: everything the developers included in this game to improve it has only exposed/created equally notable flaws, making it essentially the same in quality as its predecessor.
