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AceofAces's No More Heroes (Wii)
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| [March 5, 2008 10:30:07 PM]
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Take 2:
Gameplay
My second play through confirmed some of my previous notions, and dispelled some others. The challenge did increase, and some enemies turned out to be a bit more challenging than the suited security guards. Every once in a while, the game will drop a few enemies who also hold electric katanas. These guys actually have a chance to kill the PC, especially if you encounter them in groups. The trick to beating them seems to be luring them off one by one, as the AI for these NPCs has them only moving to attack Travis when he gets within a certain threshhold distance from them. So they can be separated and easily dispatched via a divide-and-conquer strategy. AI is not the hallmark of this game.
As for the other, lemming-like waves of non-katana wielding enemies, they got a little tougher as well. It takes longer to kill each indivisual enemy, and that means Travis has to focus on each one longer, leaving him more vulnerable to attacks from other lemmings. The purpose of these waves is still not to kill the player, but to attrit his health before more dangerous encounters.
The second boss battle was interesting, and confirms my guess that Boss battles were the focus of the game. Each boss has a unique pattern of attack, but lemmings are pretty identical regardless of the level they're associated with.
The mini-missions continued after the second boss battle. Every boss I defeat 'unlocks' a new mini-mission, most recently, Travis has proven himself worthy of mowing grass. I'm slightly less annoyed by these mini-missions than before, because after I defeated the second boss, I unlocked a handful of new areas in the city, including stores where I can upgrade my katana, skills, and buy new clothes. Before, the only thing to spend money on was the right to take the next boss fight, but now you have a choice on how to spend your money. If you want to, you can zoom straight along to the next boss fight, or you can spend your money tricking out your character's skills if you don't mind doing silly repetitive mini-games.
Design:
No More Heroes stands out in one respect in that it innovates very little. Its game mechanics are a hodgepodge from a bunch of games that previously didn't overlap much. Collection, customizable outfits, customizable character, mini-games, and free travel in a city are not mechanics that are considered essential in the beat'em'up genre, but No More Heroes smooshes them all together.
The game doesn't aspire to be very challenging. When the character dies, he's respawned from a nearby point in the same section of the level. So punishment for failure is a maximum of 5 minutes of time. Short-term rewards for success are seeing your enemies explode in various interesting animations, with the occasional reward of sustenance in the form of health power ups. Long term rewards for sticking with the game are access to the storyline, and the chance to play special encounters versus bosses.
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| [March 2, 2008 06:44:23 PM]
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NO MORE HEROES
Overview
No More Heroes is game of games. It exemplifies and exploits all the idiosyncratic elements of classic video games, and tries to put them all into the same game-play experience. The result is a very bloody, action-packed, and somewhat repetitive game.
Gameplay
You take on the role of Travis Touchdown, a loser turned assassin. Travis' trademark weapon is an electrically charged Katana which he won in an e-bay auction. He meets a lady in a bar who apparently works for a shady organization that manages contracts for assassins. She determines Travis is the 11th best assassin in town, and offers him the goal of someday rising to become number 1. Travis accepts, and next we know it Travis is assaulting a mansion full of suited security guards with earpieces and sunglasses.
This is where the gameplay begins, which is a shame for the story. It is a kind of interesting background, and the game attempts to shove it down your throat in a 4 minute cut-scene. I would have liked to experience the change from Travis being a loser to Travis being a bad-ass with an electrifyed katana. Instead, the game opts to throw you right into the action after a minimal briefing.
The gameplay itself is extremely stylized and extremely simple. The player will tap the A button on the wiimote for Travis to swing his sword, and repeated taps will lead to a combo. Once Travis has finished a combo, an arrow will appear on the screen. The player will swing the wii remote vaguely in the direction the arrow points, and Travis will perform a finishing move, slicing his opponent like butter, butter that will erupt in a fountain of blood at the slightest knick. The style guide here is Kill Bill, where realistic physiology takes a back seat to artistic liberty.
How do these guys shave in the morning?!
After the initial cool factor of making a huge mess in the mansion's entry hall that you won't have to clean up, gameplay bogs down. There isn't much variety or challenge to the game, at least in the initial level. Travis gets a huge health bar, and there is practically no chance that it will be depleted by the time the character gets to the boss of the first level, but even if it does, there are copious chances to raise your health via power-ups. I'm not sure if you even need to be conscious to play this game. Just tap the A button for a while, tape the control stick to the right so Travis turns in place and you're likely to be fine.
The boss fight was more engaging, though again, not particularly challenging. The boss had an Australian accent and an improbably sized sword, and would occasionally do some damage to Travis. I think this implies that the bosses are supposed to be the meat of the game, and after I beat the boss, the game somewhat confirms this by showing Travis advancing a rank to become the 10th best Assassin in town. But you need to pay the shady organization a bunch of money in order to gain the right to challenge the next higher up.
This forces Travis to do stupid mini-missions, like collecting coconuts for a street vendor. I've only done one mini-mission so far, but it was so menial that I had to walk away from the game. The mini-games shamelessly extend the playtime of the game, without offering any entertainment value in themselves. I hope some of the other mini-games are more interesting.
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AceofAces's No More Heroes (Wii)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Sunday 2 March, 2008
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