IGN Glowing No More Heroes 2 Preview

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No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle Hands-on

The original was good, but Suda is taking things to a whole new level. Our final playthrough kicks off with new footage and impressions.

by Mark Bozon

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January 12, 2010 - Over the last few days I've had a chance to check out No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, the sequel to Suda 51's Wii-born franchise. My original plan was to play exactly an hour, and then give you fine people of the Internet land a nice little start-up hands-on that talks about those first 60 minutes and paves the way for more to come. Well, I'll be sure to mention content from the first 60 minutes, and I'll certainly give you plenty to look forward to when all is said and done.

As far as keeping it to that first hour though? Can't say I'll be doing that. This game is just too damn good.

I'm now four hours into No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, and oddly enough I've only fought two major boss battles and advanced through as many core story stages. The rest of my time – contrary to the original game – has been spent seeing the sights of Santa Destroy. Now if you've read Craig's initial hands-on with the game you know a bit about how the story starts. You again play as Travis, your little love interest from the first game is back in full effect, and some nice fourth-wall-breaking occurs when Travis storms over to the lovely vixen and demands an update from the previous game's storyline. Neither you nor Travis get it – the excuse: It would take her too long to explain, and gamers would skip the story sequence – and before you know it you are back on your way to the top of the assassin charts.

The story sequences are as crisp and stylized as they were in the original game, maybe even more so now. You'll get a barrage of profanity, far more fan service with extremely risqué camera angles, and the violence? Oh my the violence…

But that's all par for the course now, right? What's a stroll in Santa Destroy without those quick jumps up to the TV to turn down the volume as your co-workers walk by listening to Travis talk about hooker fights while the camera is locked on some virtual hoochie's chest? What really blew me away wasn't what was expected, but what has changed since I last strutted my virtual stuff on the hot streets of good old SD.

First off, the overworld map has seen a complete overhaul. Both Suda and Ubisoft have alluded to free-roaming areas in the game (much like the original No More Heroes), but for the core experience it's all about navigating the map in a simple menu-based system. Once Travis leaves the No More Heroes hotel (something that took me 54 minutes exactly to do; but more on that later) the screen instantly zooms up into a bird's eye view of the entire area, throwing a grey filter over all the buildings and assigning a color code to all missions, revenge quests, and jobs. A quick tap of any specific choice on the left side of the screen zooms you back in, does a quick seamless load, and then you're right into the action.

It's the sheer speed of it all that makes the sights of Santa Destroy so much easier to work with. In my first few hours with the game I've already trained at the gym multiple times, cleaned out the entire inventory of Airport 51's jackets, belts, sunglasses and shoes thus far, and purchased two new beam katanas. I've performed each available job (six currently available) dozens of times, and even beat all revenge missions on the slate. The speed and ease of which you can just jump into a mini-game or take on a quick revenge battle is staggering, and with so much potential cash within reach you'll be happy to go shopping for new threads at an almost hourly basis. No clunky bike driving (though spinning 360's was fun), no long treks back and forth to restart missions… no fat whatsoever.

But I already told you I've played four hours and seen only two ranked battles. Where'd the rest of that time go? Well, as mentioned it took me 54 minutes just to get out of my hotel room at the start of the game, as I spent time checking out my TV, playing with the cat, and dropping the occasional "save" in the toilet. Remember your trusty dusty TV? This time around it comes fully equipped with a free arcade game, titled BJ5. As you'd expect, the BJ5 are five cute girls that don't mind flashing the occasional panty shot and strip nude when transforming into a quintet of superhero maidens. Well, they've got their own arcade game, and it's surprisingly deep, allowing you to select any of the five girls, each with their own power and speed stats. The arcade game itself even has its own mini-boss and boss levels, and a local leaderboard to save your high scores. Once you complete it, taking the top spot on the leaderboard, you unlock a video for the BJ5, and it alone is nearly worth the price of admission into Desperate Struggle. Maybe my $50 goes quicker than yours does, but trust me when I say it's funny as hell, and you'll be showing friends time and time again.

 

As for your snuggly wuggly kitty witty, there's far more to do this time around as well. Five main mini-games are included, having you massage your cat, do stretching exercises, lure it to jump, and more. Kitty got fat from game one to game two, so it's your job to thin her on down as the story continues in Desperate Struggle. You're limited to how much you can work her out, but feeding her little snacks every now and then and playing some simple mini-games (that are actually funny enough to have you coming back for more) should do the trick.

And then there's the job system. If you played the original No More Heroes you've already seen what it's like when a professional assassin needs to scrape together some extra cash, and it isn't pretty. Along with the overly drawn out overworld was the ability for Travis to run around and take on mini-game tasks to earn cash. This time, however, that's all changed. You still have jobs, but they're done in an NES-inspired retro style for each mini-game, and yes, they rock. The best game by far and away is the first one you'll unlock, titled Bug Out. In this top-view mix of Luigi's Mansion and Pac Man players take the role of a tiny super-deformed Travis as he walks through restaurants, sucking up bugs with his high-powered vacuum. Power-ups can be collected to up the strength and distance of his vacuum, as well as cure Travis from bee stings, collect extra lives and stock up on insecticide bombs. Good fun.

You'll also find a Mach Rider-inspired pizza delivery game called Pizza with a Vengeance, a puzzle-based Tile in Style game, a simplistic "hold A to cook" burger frying game called Man the Meat, and a Bioshock inspired Lay the Pipe game where you connect one end of a hose to another with extra pipe pieces. The other favorite around the IGN LA office though is the return of Coconut Grabber, which now has an Adventure Island feel as Travis kicks down delicious coconuts from trees in an attempt to land them in his basket. Compare this version of Coconut Grabber to the original mission down by the old Santa Destroy beach in the first No More Heroes and you see just how far these job mini-games have come.

After giving a pretty harsh (and still a little controversial) score of 7.8 for the original No More Heroes I've been dying to get my hands on the sequel, and I couldn't be happier with what I've seen so far. I'm four hours in, have still only seen two main bosses, but am completely loving the game thus far. Ironically enough, it's the job mini-games, in-hotel content, and ease of navigation through the world that has kept me coming back. Those were precisely the reasons the original didn't feel "all there" for me, so to say No More Heroes has come a long way on the road to its sequel is an understatement at best. Keep an eye out for this one kiddies. Desperate Struggle kicks copious amounts of ass.

Oh, and that second ranked fight. Just wow…