1. What makes Travis' Schpeletiger new is that it is now twice as long (in addition to the better controls).
2. This has already been verified, but there have been doubts and concerns as to how Grasshopper is going to have 50 unique bosses, from their appearance to actual fighting capabilities. Suda explains to EDGE that basically there is nothing to worry about as they incorporated both the original NMH development team and the NMH2 team (many members being of both teams including the character creator) to brainstorm and according to Suda they had no problems shooting out several ideas and characters from that.
3. The name of the "schoolgirl assassin" we all know about is Kimmy. How appropriate. Suda also mentions that Kimmy wants to keep Travis "all to her self." Possible Misery references?
4. At the end of every boss fight, a 2D image of Travis will walk from one end of the screen to the other to hop onto the Schpeletiger and drive off, accompanied by some new piece of midi music.
5. The idea of Travis using other weapons, even projectiles, was considered by Suda, but ultimately canned as Suda says that the sword/beam katana is what Travis should always use. Suda calls Travis the "modern samurai."
6. It was implied that Bishop actually does not die or get killed off, as the article explains that Bishop will have a bigger role to play in the game. At the same time, Suda says that "Travis is fighting for himself" not for anyone else. Travis is fighting for revenge, but perhaps for someone else other than Bishop?
7. Speaking more specifically on the city, Suda explains that Travis had actually left Santa Destroy for those three years, and it wasn't until he came back that he had seen how much it had changed. Where Travis had gone is not said. Only a portion of the original city will be traveled, based on fan responses on the first game. The streets and sidewalks will be much more busier and cars will "get out of the way" of Travis' bike. There are construction signs and lights everywhere. One of the fighting grounds will be a "new school", "construction yard", and a graveyard. Not sure if the school is new in the sense that it is an additional one to the Santa Destroy High School or if it is just a remodeled SDHS.
8. There are still side jobs such as coconut collecting and a new one involving plumbing. Suda explains that he still wants the player to feel like he has to work hard to play the game as that is what it means to be a punk. Otherwise, he says, there is a disconnect between the videogame world and reality. Still, the side jobs are still improved and provide humor as well as entertainment.
9. It is confirmed that Destroyman comes back as a cyborg as wanting revenge against, who else, Travis.
10. Finally, the bosses themselves: it will not be as difficult, time consuming, and at times boring to collect enough money to advance to the next boss fight. In fact, Suda purposely wanted to mix things up to keep it from getting repetitive by having Shinobu and Henry as playable characters and, at times, fighting more than one boss fight, sometimes one right after the other, and sometimes simultaneously.
No More Heroes 2 IGN Review
The original No More Heroes on Nintendo Wii set a precedent during its 2008 release. Here was a game that pulled no punches, broke the fourth wall, and catered to the sliver of hardcore players that looked for bloodshed, sex, and violence on Nintendo's otherwise squeaky clean console. Franchise creator and longtime game designer Suda 51 invented a world that felt halfway pulled from his previous works – most obvious Killer 7 on GameCube – and mashed-up with Japanese cinema, punk style, and classic spaghetti westerns. It lacked polish, and the game had its not-so-impressive moments, but it found a fanbase and became a classic.
Well it should come as no surprise that No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle follows in the blood-soaked footsteps of its predecessor. Travis Touchdown makes his triumphant return to the world of ranked assassin battles. After winning the #1 spot two years ago, he walked away from it all. During his absence, the world of Santa Destroy – and those that call it home – have gone through one hell of a metamorphosis. Oh, you'll tear through the ranks in Desperate Struggle, but as he title name indicates there's more at stake here than a #1 spot. Santa Destroy has changed, and Travis is out for blood.
For the most part, Desperate Struggle doesn't stray away from the No More Heores formula. Combat can still be a bit too frantic, lacking a way to roll or guard-break out of any situation, so you're going to trade hits with enemies. It's just a fact. You don't have camera control, the core mechanics are virtually unchanged, and those looking forward to the playable characters of Shinobu and Henry will have to come in with an open mind, as they're more of a parlor trick than a fully-realized extension of the game. This isn't meant to push you away – you're going to want to play it – but it's important to note that far as the core gameplay goes, No More Heroes is as it always was.
As for every other aspect of the game though, Desperate Struggle turns the No More Heroes design on its head. Gone is the clumsy overworld of Santa Destroy, and while the optimist in me remembers the moments of fun I had blasting through the city on my supercharged bike and burning donuts in intersections, the move away from that design does wonders. Everything is streamlined, allowing you to head out from your apartment in the No More Heroes Hotel and instantly find what you're looking for. You still have load times from area to area, but with one easy-to-use vertical menu, you spend less time in transit and far more time ripping people to pieces or expanding your character.
Another small detail that's worth mentioning is that the entire city is still as it was originally imagined. The coconut mini-game is still on the beach, for example. Instead of having to drive everywhere or stress out every time you screw up a battle-based revenge side mission, you can just use the menu to travel. Those that hated the cash system from the first game are going to love the changes made with Desperate Struggle. Ranked missions are free to enter, you can skip every cut scene if you want (though you'd be crazy to miss the game's antics), and there's never anything holding you back from progressing through the story if that's all you want to do.
But trust me, that's not all you'll want to do.
No More Heroes 2 oozes with personality. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find a game with more style and downright originality than Desperate Struggle. It took me two hours to simply get to the second ranked battle in my final playthrough, as so much of my time was spent checking out everything else the game has to offer. In your apartment alone there's plenty to do, including workout mini-games with your overweight cat Jeane, a free-to-play arcade game on your TV showcasing a fictitious anime called BJ5 (I'll leave any inferences to you.), complete with a fully-animated faux intro to the series as a reward for beating levels, and more. You can read up on wrestling moves, a dozen of which I was able to find on my first playthrough, and at any time you can run on over to your dresser, switch out your gear, and then hit the road. As you play, you also unlock new decorations for your apartment
And then there are the job mini-games. Just… wow. Save for one overworld mini-game I discovered, all the jobs around Santa Destroy are now played out via retro challenges, similar to classic games you'd find on the NES or TG-16. Not all of them are engaging, and the amount of cash you can earn is swayed in favor of a few specific games, but luckily those are the games I also had the most fun playing. Bug Out, a combination of Luigi's Mansion and Pac-Man is a blast. Coconut Grabber is also amazing, as is the space-themed Getting Trashed level. While some of the others are really basic, even emulating previous No More Heroes mini-games – Man the Meat is the same "hold A" mini-game as the original gas attendant game in the first NMH; now with a better style and digitized voice to help it along – I still found myself going back again and again. Once you earn cash, it can be used for whatever you want. Because you no longer pay to unlock story missions, that means you can afford dozens of clothing options, new weapons, and sink cash into powering up Travisat Ryan's Gym. As you'd expect, the two training games at the gym are also old-school retro designs. They, too, are both fun and challenging.
When it comes to the rest of the production, No More Heroes 2 is all about pushing style over anything else. While that's very commendable and far from the status quo, there are some downsides to the decision. On the plus side, the game is constantly flooding you with new areas, new bosses, hilarious story elements, new playable characters, and simply off-the-wall situations that'll have your brain screaming for equilibrium. Travis transforms into a tiger during battle, super robot fights occur over Santa Destroy, and the team has no problem switching on a grain filter or going into classic PSX jittery-frame animated sequences if they think it'll add to the game's outrageous style and humor. It's obvious that the game was fun to develop, and when the devs are having fun, you're having fun. I can honestly say I've never played a game with so much style. You know right away to expect the unexpected, and yet it still smashes you in the face like a Mac truck. My first playthrough ended in a cool 12 hours, and it's maybe the fastest 12 hours I've ever had reviewing a game.
Desperate Struggle is not without shortcomings, though. A lack of camera control really confines the battles, and while you can center and lock-on whenever needed, there are times when you won't know what you're looking at for up to five seconds during battle.
The fact that the No More Heroes series is essentially a straightforward beat-em-up at its core also means you'll be fighting many of the same enemies for hours on end, and that can lead to some stages that drag on with spawn after spawn. While I was never bored playing No More Heroes, I did occasionally wish a generic battle stage would end a few rooms earlier than they did. In addition, the inclusion of Travis's bike again pulled the experience down, even if only for a few brief moments.
And while the visual style is a complete feast for the eyes, the audio is mixed. Repetitive lines like "Mama!" and "Help me boss!" annoy. One of the gun-toting baddies has three specific lines, all of which contain vulgarity. There's nothing wrong with a baddie that swears in an M-rated game, but when it repeats the same VO string every three seconds or so – and when you've got multiples of each guy on screen at once – it gets pretty annoying. However, for every moment of questionable audi, there are dozens upon dozens of amazingly delivered lines, awesome rock and punk music, and hilarious retro bleeps and bloops that set the mood when in job mini-games. As with most other aspects of No More Heroes, you'll need to ignore some bad to really get to the awesome moments, which thankfully come en mass.
Closing Comments
The original No More Heroes was a fun game with obvious flaws that set the experience back. Suda took a step back, figured out what worked, and delivered on the game's original strengths. Desperate Struggle blows it out of the water with a more streamlined experience, far more charm and style throughout, and some downright amazing boss battles. You still run across the occasional weak boss fight, horrible camera situation or framerate crawl, but with as much pure fun as there is packed into the game, you forgive the downsides almost instantly. Suda and company have an amazing ability to deliver original, inspired stuff to players, and the shotgun blast of concepts and designs ensure that there's something fresh at every turn, be it a top-down shooter, a strict workout regimen with your overweight cat, a few rounds in the sparring ring, some hilariously fun retro mini-games, or the purebred ranked battles. This isn't a game that begs you play it. It's a game that knocks on your front door, waits for you to answer in a towel and your favorite pair of slippers, rips your head off, and shoves itself down your throat.
But in a good way.
8.8
Gamespy review No More Heroes 5/5 Dvader! Do you hear that?!
Gamedaily reviews No More Heroes 2 "a game that surpasses the original in every way possible"
Gamesradar review No More Heroes 2 9/10 Did you hear that? It's the sound of your wallet groaning
G4TV reviews No More Heroes 2 4/5 "Undoubtedly, it's one of the finer games to be released on Wii in some time"
Gamepro Video review No More Heroes 2
Gameinformer review No More Heroes 2 "this is yet another third-party Wii exclusive of which Nintendo faithful can be proud"
Gamepro 4.5 star review: No More Heroes 2 "slashes its way onto the Wii with even more boss battles, much-improved gameplay, and loads of worthwhile
Nintendo Life No More Heroes 2 review 9/10 - BUY IT
VGChartz No More Heroes 2 review "While the original No More Heroes set the bar high for action games on the Wii, Desperate Struggle absolutely surpasses it in every way imaginable"
1up review No More Heroes 2 A - "Desperate Struggle is now a must-buy, and at the very least, finally makes the series deserving of the evangelism surrounding it"
VGChartz No More Heroes 2 review "While the original No More Heroes set the bar high for action games on the Wii, Desperate Struggle absolutely surpasses it in every way imaginable"
VGChartz No More Heroes 2 review "While the original No More Heroes set the bar high for action games on the Wii, Desperate Struggle absolutely surpasses it in every way imaginable"
I'd rather buy Endless Ocean 2. (Ok I'd rather buy neither)
You know what that picture is so totally me.
And the ghosts are you lot.
The tag line is perfect:
He sees dead people...
...and they annoy him.
meh.
Gamespy
"NMH2 carries with it a constant swagger, a decidedly lo-fi marriage between grime and prodigy. It's one of the best-paced games I've ever experienced, stringing together hilariously over-the-top "oh crap!" moments from beginning to end. Ask the random editors that amassed around my desk as I played, all of whom yelled, "what the f***?" about as often as my in-game character did in his deluge of ad-libs. "
Gamedaily
"No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is incredibly entertaining. A few of the problems that plagued the first are long gone, while the crazy combat and presentation are still present and accounted for. Kudos to Suda and his gang for giving us a game that surpasses the original in every way possible."
Gamesradar
"A bizarre, wonderfully trashy sequel, No More Heroes 2 adds a ton of cool new activities and boss fights without messing too much with what worked the first time. It wears thin toward the end, but until then it’s one of the most brilliant experiences the Wii has to offer."
G4TV
"No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle makes some big improvements on its predecessor. It’s more funny, it looks better and the 8-bit minigames are a fantastic addition. It's not an exceptionally long game, but it's a tight, lean experience that trims away a great deal of the first game's bloat. It has a few big stumbles on the way to its bombastic finale, but it's still a very satisfying experience at its conclusion. Undoubtedly, it's one of the finer games to be released on Wii in some time."
Gameinformer
"All the bad stuff from the original is gone or fixed in some way, and all of the good elements are magnified and improved. This is yet another third-party Wii exclusive of which Nintendo faithful can be proud. Finally, Suda51 delivers a game that almost anyone can appreciate"
Gamepro
"Quirky, crass, and incredibly fun, Suda51's stylish sequel to 2008's No More Heroes slashes its way onto the Wii with even more boss battles, much-improved gameplay, and loads of worthwhile new content"
Nintendo Life
" It’s all about looking cool while slicing fools with beam katanas and cracking skulls with piledrivers. This is a game where you can turn into a tiger and bite the limbs off panicked enemies and cause blood geysers."
VGChartz
"While the original No More Heroes set the bar high for action games on the Wii, Desperate Struggle absolutely surpasses it in every way imaginable. Refined gameplay, stellar presentation values and hours of extra content past the main campaign all come together wonderfully to make this a must own for Wii gamers with a slight taste for carnage. Despite some slight technical miscues, Suda 51 has delivered a game that is loaded with his unique personality and one that Wii owners should not look over."
1up
"Superficially, Desperate Struggle is amazing: The first game's muddy, low-detail, harshly-shadowed characters are completely refined here, boasting greater detail all around. Throw in better animation, flashier effects and even nicer-looking environments as you run around the city, and Desperate Struggle makes itself one of the best-looking Wii games in its category. "
"you'll find that Desperate Struggle is a fine sequel that takes the fun parts of the original (the combat, the characters, the dialogue) and tries to make those the focus while practically quartering off the weaker parts. By being the high-quality, consistently enjoyable action game it wanted to be the first time around, Desperate Struggle is now a must-buy, and at the very least, finally makes the series deserving of the evangelism surrounding it."
Sounds like it will make a great rental.