I purchased and somewhat enjoyed the first No More Heroes game a few years back. I loved the style the game was trying to pull off, and I did put in quite a few hours into it. Unfortunately, I got stuck about 50% through the game on a particularly difficult boss and never finished it. When I heard No More Heroes 2 was coming, I was eager to give the franchise another go! Im pretty happy I did.
Loved:
- Batshit Crazy: Just like the first NMH, this game is pretty much insane. The art style, the story, the combat, the dialog, all these things are so over the top that I had a very difficult time putting the game down! This is what got me to come back to the series after not completing the first game, and it is what kept me steamrolling through the game this second time around.
- No More Open-world-garbage: NMH kinda shot itself in the foot by including an open world element. It basically amounted to a hub world with little to do besides driving around. Now, Im all for open world games ( see my glowing Just Cause 2 review! ), but if you aren't going to flesh it out enough to make it feel like an actual world, then it is simply just giant tedious space for the player to travel around in. I had heard in previews that NMH2 had done away with the open world aspect, in favor of a simple menu based system that gets you to where ever it is you want to go, and I immediately felt this would be for the best. After playing through the game, I still feel this way.
- Difficulty Sweet Spot: Like I said, the first NMH got pretty difficult about half way through.. I may have been able to eventually clear the boss I got stuck on, but I tried many times and the combat just started to feel a bit old and restrictive. The combat may not be radically different in this game ( it feels hardly different at all, save for some cool new weapons ), but the difficulty has been tuned to a sweet spot. I found myself dying a few times throughout the game, but I always felt that it was my fault and that I could do better ( this mostly applies to the game's numerous boss encounters ).
- Retro Cool: The NES stylings that are found all over this game are a great touch. Some of the NES style mini games you can play ( they act as your side jobs ) are legitly fun.
Didn't Care For:
- Spotty, Tired Motion Controls: This almost feels more like a fault of the wii itself, but I am just not crazy about motion controls being used regularly in action games. First I hate the goddamn circular motion you need to do when in a sword clash moment, I feel like sometimes I am doing it quickly and perfectly, but I lose ( Im guessing, Im going too quick for the wii? in such a high intensity moment, its hard to slow down enough for the box to recognize it, but stay fast enough to win the game ). Secondly, I just kinda hate it when swinging the remote is a substitute for a button press. Sure that worked every time, but my arms get a bit more tired than I would care for them to while playing games. Also, whenever it tells you to swing the wiimote or nunchuck in a particular direction for an execution move, you can totally just swing it in whatever direction.. lol
- Somewhat Repetitive: Just like the first game, this game can get a bit repetitive. The shear insanity of the game kept me going though ( and I imagine most gamers interested in the "mature space" would feel the same way ). Im just really glad I didn't attempt to clear the first game before the 2nd one came out ( back to back, like I was thinking when I preordered the game ), because I bet it would have put me off endless comboing and executions enough to not clear this 2nd one.
- "What the Fuck?!": My GF watched me play this game just for a bit, and pointed out how many times people say "fuck" in this game. Alot of games nowadays use this word ( in many cases, probably too much ), but this game really goes over the top with it. To the point where one of my favorite words starts to get a bit annoying.. Seriously, you will run down a hallway and slash up 20 dudes, you will probably hear the word "fuck" sprinkled in about 5 different lines of dialog that are all played about 20 times each.
- Retro Cold: It seems like they ran out of the good ideas for the NES games at a certain point, cause 4 or 5 of them ( out of like 10 ) are pretty weak.
Overall, I think this game was GREAT. It was such an original experience ( yeah yeah, its really similar to the first game, but I mean the series as a whole is such an original experience ) that I marathoned through this game like I hadn't done for quite some time. They took all the great bits that made the first NMH game so grand, and threw out all the tedious and unbalanced bits.
Can't wait to see Marvelous make a sick game on the next gen platforms! I own and respect the wii and all, but I feel like these type of games are better suited for a machine with a bit more rendering power!