Still don't have my Wii back, almost two weeks now... Have money for a couple games but if they end up repairing or replacing it then I guess it'll go to that instead. But going by their last e-mail they'll probably be unable to find the issue and just ship it back, the morons, wasting my shipping money and time, twice over since the issue will most certainly get worse over time so eventually I'll have to send it again, when it's so obvious the morons there can spot it a mile away. Anyway, I'll probably get NMH2 when it's cheap. Its release has been handled so bad, even though they could have built it into something great after the first's success (for its caliber) but instead ubisoft and whoever else has killed the franchise dead, so it's gonna be in bargain bins soon, whether I support it now or not. So, with the result being the same, I'd rather get it for cheap... Hopefully Grasshopper gets better publishers for 3.

Played almost 4 hrs of this at the weekend.

It's oh so sweet. The opening had my jaw on the floor, the music, the directing, the cutscenes, the graphics. Visually it looked so much better than the first game it looked incredible. I still had that CG cutscene of the first game that never made it in, stuck in my mind. How ridiculously cool was it that they let you re-enact it?

Then the game sort of dipped for a while. It's not consistently polished, there are some assy textures, copious amounts of slowdown - in the cutscenes of all things!

The first proper boss, the irish dude was irritating as hell with his lasers and moving floors and rockets. Suddenly the game felt like the first No More Heroes, warts and all.

There is no open world in this game, there is this map and it's so hassle free to use it actually feels pretty amazing - a mark of how shitty the N64 openworld of the first game was. At the same time you lose something by cutting out the overworld, you lose a sense of cohesion, of progression. When you are selecting levels off a list you get that.

If you remember the first game, it wasn't until Shinobu that the game lit up for me. In the technically shoddy game, among the boring side jobs, you were suddenly in this pitched battle that felt more like a lightsabre dual than any other game. There was a rhythm to it, there was strategy involved, it was badass.

I got to that point in NMH2 with a similar boss. The section is littered with descrutable scenary and you can hack through pillars and furniture and walls. So can he. I got beat down probably 6 times or so but kept coming back for more. This was EXCELLENT fun.

It's almost impossible to talk about why this game is so awesome without spoiling the fun for everyone else coming into the game. It's best played with no foresight. Unfortunately I spoiled some of the game for myself by watching videos.

The game is just outrageous at times, when it pulls the unexpected out of its hat as a complete suprise it can have you grinning from ear to ear. When it's mundane, it's mundane, but when it's at its best it had my jaw on the floor on several occasions.

Some of the dialogue, the lines uttered by the characters are just RIDICULOUS. Ridiculously cool, quoteable and unexpected - these guys should be making films. Most good games have wow moments, some of the freaking dialogue here are wow moments.

I started playing as Shinobu. I thought I would hate these sections as I wanted to play as travis, but her two levels are so far the best of the bunch. Her animation is particularly great. It reminds of when you first saw the 3D Prince of Persia doing his thing in the Sands of Time. It's archaic now but the impact then is the same thing I feel about Shinobu.

She jumps as well, adding some verticality to the levels, a boss fight in a Scrooge McDuck type vault has you going up and down in a large chamber with tiered levels. One of the levels reminds of call of duty, starting from a low point and working your way upwards, seamlessly whilst being able to see where you started. Holy hell one of her levels is huge and you can see the cliffs in the vista and there are no loads. Very impressive.

The combat is the same as the first game for the most part. I was worried it was going to be cannon fodder but the difficulty ramps up and once you save there is no quitting levels. You can't go back to the overworld to power up or buy a new, stronger sabre. You just have to plug away at that boss and use all your skill. Which makes it very satisfying.

There is this running dash move that is freaking awesome, where you swish the remote to use whilst running. It's as powerful as a charged slash and saps your batteries just as much.

At first I was thinking that this was no better than the first game only with slightly improved visuals. But the more I play the more memorable the game becomes and it's not saddled with the horrible overworld and boring minigames of the first game.

The game just hits you with so many memorable moments -gah! - can I spoil them for you or what? I have to say something. Well, I'll just say that they play subtle homages to a couple of well know franchises as well. And ----- GAH! I can't say or you guys will kill me.

Oh and the 8-bit minigames are excellent, there are even some really addictive ones like fitting shaped tiles into a box or lining up water pipes. You could release this stuff on wiiware and it would be worth owning.

Picking mine up tomorrow Can't wait!!

bugsonglass said:

gg i won't read any of that till i start playing which hopefully won't be long as zavvi said they sent it last week.  can't wait for this game!!

Okay below I will edit out everything that could possibly spoil anything out of my post.

gamingeek said:

Played almost 4 hrs of this at the weekend.

It's oh so sweet. The opening had my jaw on the floor, the music, the directing, the cutscenes, the graphics. Visually it looked so much better than the first game it looked incredible.

Then the game sort of dipped for a while. It's not consistently polished, there are some assy textures, copious amounts of slowdown - in the cutscenes of all things!

The first proper boss, was irritating as hell. Suddenly the game felt like the first No More Heroes, warts and all.

There is no open world in this game, there is this map and it's so hassle free to use it actually feels pretty amazing - a mark of how shitty the N64 openworld of the first game was. At the same time you lose something by cutting out the overworld, you lose a sense of cohesion, of progression. When you are selecting levels off a list you get that.

If you remember the first game, it wasn't until Shinobu that the game lit up for me. In the technically shoddy game, among the boring side jobs, you were suddenly in this pitched battle that felt more like a lightsabre dual than any other game. There was a rhythm to it, there was strategy involved, it was badass.

I got to that point in NMH2 with a similar boss.I got beat down probably 6 times or so but kept coming back for more. This was EXCELLENT fun.

It's almost impossible to talk about why this game is so awesome without spoiling the fun for everyone else coming into the game. It's best played with no foresight. Unfortunately I spoiled some of the game for myself by watching videos.

The game is just outrageous at times, when it pulls the unexpected out of its hat as a complete suprise it can have you grinning from ear to ear. When it's mundane, it's mundane, but when it's at its best it had my jaw on the floor on several occasions.

Some of the dialogue, the lines uttered by the characters are just RIDICULOUS. Ridiculously cool, quoteable and unexpected - these guys should be making films. Most good games have wow moments, some of the freaking dialogue here are wow moments.

I started playing as Shinobu. I thought I would hate these sections as I wanted to play as travis, but her two levels are so far the best of the bunch. Her animation is particularly great. It reminds of when you first saw the 3D Prince of Persia doing his thing in the Sands of Time. It's archaic now but the impact then is the same thing I feel about Shinobu.

She jumps as well, adding some verticality to the levels, a boss fight has you going up and down in a large chamber with tiered levels. One of the levels reminds of call of duty, starting from a low point and working your way upwards, seamlessly whilst being able to see where you started. Holy hell one of her levels is huge and you can see the cliffs in the vista and there are no loads. Very impressive.

The combat is the same as the first game for the most part. I was worried it was going to be cannon fodder but the difficulty ramps up and once you save there is no quitting levels. You can't go back to the overworld to power up or buy a new, stronger sabre. You just have to plug away at that boss and use all your skill. Which makes it very satisfying.

There is this move that is freaking awesome, where you swish the remote to use whilst running. It's as powerful as a charged slash and saps your batteries just as much.

At first I was thinking that this was no better than the first game only with slightly improved visuals. But the more I play the more memorable the game becomes and it's not saddled with the horrible overworld and boring minigames of the first game.

The game just hits you with so many memorable moments -gah! - can I spoil them for you or what? I have to say something. Well, I'll just say that they play subtle homages to a couple of well know franchises as well. And ----- GAH! I can't say or you guys will kill me.

Oh and the 8-bit minigames are excellent, there are even some really addictive

You could release this stuff on wiiware and it would be worth owning.

gamingeek said:

Oh yeah and the graphics can still look like ass on an HDTV.

Oh oh! The finishing moves are totally awesome

It's not quite QTE and it's not quite gameplay. Sort of reminiscent of Madworlds over the top finishers but more cool and awesome. That perfect punctuating moment on a boss well beaten.

One more thing. In design and polish terms, it still feels like these guys are lagging a fair few steps back from the best - Capcom/Platinum. Which still leaves this franchise in the "COULD be amazing category".

But creatively these guys are unrivalled. I can only imagine what would happen if you paired off their creative team with an actually awesome - technical developer.

Another thing is that with the first game it was all original. Here, cause its a sequel there are many familiar elements, like the transitions and saving and fighting and even a few characters. You know all this already so that stuff doesn't feel fresh, it's the unexpected stuff which hits you.

One more thing, technically this is only 75% of the way there. It feels like a third game is needed to finally nail the experience as it should be.

Games like Shattered Memories, Dead Space Extraction and Red Steel 2 have raised the bar in terms of what I expect from a 3rd party on wii in terms of polish.

I read your summary and it is basically how I felt about it when I played it back in Feb or whenever it was (though of course, as you know I disagree with any criticism of the first game -- in a fanboyish lunatic way, so there is no point in even talking about it with me).

I agree with there being a bit of a lull for a few levels.  And unfortunately that is capped by a horrible boss battle before it get back to being good.  (The boss battle I am speaking of -- and I don't think this will spoil it for anyone, since it is just the location -- takes place in an office).  Have you gotten to that point yet?

Played a quick first few minutes of the game........wow.

It feels like this game is in the same situation as Mario - the same as the original, but better

I just went to the previous page and read my impressions from February.

Have you played the Bizarre Jerry 5 shooter yet?  I thought it was solid.  I dug the introduction.

:/ Jealous.

selbie said:

All I can say is...all hail Suda 51

BTW I got the Bizarre Jerry 5 Tshirt with my preorder
Hmmm....now all I need is a sweet red leather jacket and a Beam Katana and I'm set for cosplay

Like these Spaniards?

Wow.

So then.... gah, another awesome thing I can't talk about. You have this sureal battle in a field. Then they started offering up revenge missions. Remember in the first game you would drive to some location, have some crappy one hit death timed mission and fail it. Then have to drive all the way back to do it again?

The Revenge missions here are awesome fun. For a start you just select them off a list. Secondly there are no one hit deals here, so far. And the locations are new stuff that doesn't appear in the single player. It actually takes you to different parts of the city, even interiors that you've never seen before.

Some missions are kill everybody, others are assasination missions where there is one dude to kill, with protection. It gets heavy here as they put me inside a saloon of sorts with descructible furniture. And then they dumped the brutes on me, massive guys with big health bars.

I should mention the artificial intelligence, it's not super advanced but it had definetely moved on from the first game. They don't sit around waiting for their turn to fight, if there is someone behind you he will attack. Sometimes they grab you from behind like in Streets of Rage and the guy in front pummels you. Also, you get dizzy really easily here and knocked flat on your ass a lot. You have this estascy gauge which is like the special move bar in a Marvel vs Game and when it fills up you unleash these amazingly fast attacks.

It looks amazing, it's sensory overload as Travis skips about tearing these guys to pieces, your eyes can barely keep up. What makes it more fun is that it's on a timer and the bad guys run for it when you go into that mode. Last night I was near the end of my estacy and was chasing down this brute who was eluding me. Right when my gauge was about to run out I sliced that fat bastard in two. It was so satisfying.

Also, now you can switch between weapons on the fly and they all have a real meaningful effect on the combat. If you equip twin blades they are shorter so your reach is less, yet because you have two, you land more blows and can fill your estacy gauge further. I bought this long beam katana, like the long sword in Monster Hunter, it has a huge reach but it's slow and cumbersome to use. Yet it keeps some baddies at arms length and was crucial in beating one boss.

I then played more of that godamn addictive tile mini-game and still couldn't beat it.

It's here when I realised that this game is so much better than the first. It just cuts out all the BS, no boring mini-game jobs, no horrible overworld. It cuts the fat and you're left with one scorchingly satisfying sequence, one after the other.

Then I went to this mission in a parking lot, I had to kill all the baddies but it was like an endless slog as they kept replacing and replacing the enemies. Visually the game gets more solid as it goes on, it was looking pretty swish. And even though there were too many enemies they gave you lots of pick-ups and boosters to finish them off.

Because it was an open level, there were no camera problems, no caught on scenary problems. Just deliciously satisfying bloodshed. Having blood in this game makes a real difference, it's like a fireworks explosion when you finish a guy. And the motion controlled moves are so fun.

Then out of the parking lot I entered a grocery store, and they had descructible shopping carts filled with cans that scattered all over the floor when you knocked them down. And then up top to this boss fight, which looked be-autiful.

This game gets better and better. Damned thing is that I can't tell you why without spoiling the impact of the things they throw at you. It's great stuff.