The hyper-stylized violence fest that the first game introduced has made a return in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. Fortunately, most of the annoying elements of the first game have been removed, and left with a more streamlined and fast paced experience.
You’ll return as Travis Touchdown, who is drawn back into the UAA for revenge after your best friend (the video store guy from the first game) Bishop is brutally murdered. All the familiar characters make a return and you’ll also be treated to a few moments where you will be able to play as these characters (although they don’t play too different than Travis). The story is just as zany as the first game, however I found they seemed to have a little less fun with it as it’s quite a bit more serious at times. Despite that, you can expect plenty of laughs as you work your way up from rank 50.
As I mentioned earlier, they did a good job listening to the fans and revamping the game to alleviate some of the tedium. The whole open world from the first game is gone, replaced by a menu so you can get around quickly. Also all the gesture based mini-games (except for one) have been replaced with old school throwback style mini games (think NES type games). These mini-games are considerably more fun and provide a reasonable challenge that will actually be worth going back to more than once. Even the annoying gym exercises have been replaced by these kinds of mini-games, and the change is for the better.
A couple things that I wish were revamped better would be the camera and the combat monotony. The camera still gets in the way too much, especially in tight spaces, which makes it difficult to get around and makes it easy to get blindsided by enemies off screen. Although at the beginning of the game the combat felt fresh and exciting, as you get near the end, the droves of enemies you must dispatch gets tiresome. I definitely felt the beginning of the game delivered lots of momentum and variety, but around the midpoint it tapered off and became too repetitive. I also felt there was a missed opportunity with the revenge missions you unlock, since it could have been a cool side story thing to explore. Yet instead the revenge missions are just fighting more of the same enemies you’ve been fighting over and over again in repeating environments. They didn’t seem to be mandatory however, so you can skip them if you choose.
One nice thing to say about the variety though is how different the boss fight experiences were this time around. I found each fight’s strategy to be quite a bit different than just the standard attack-dodge-attack that I was used to from the first game. It was a definite welcome challenge considering how easy its predecessor was.
Visually this sequel looks pretty much the same as the first game. The main difference I noticed were the breast jiggle physics added (trust me, it is IMPOSSIBLE to miss). No More Heroes is definitely one of the better looking titles on the Wii, and without the open world to look nasty, it definitely looks and runs smoother than it did before. The same style of music returns as you get 16 bit pop mixed with grunge/punk rock. It all sounds great and suits the style of the game. The unfortunate thing is you’ll hear the same death screams and enemy taunts far too frequently. Sometimes they even overlap each other making them even harder to ignore…
If you enjoyed the first No More Heroes, this is obviously a must play. If you are interested in something a lot edgier than party games on the Wii, this is a fantastic third person action game. There are still a few problems and it can get a little repetitive towards the end, but it will likely provide you with a good 8 hours of fun. Perhaps don’t play this with the kiddies around though, unless you are okay with geysers of blood and constant foul language being seen/heard.