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twesterm on 24 January 2008
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so I got a chance to sit down and play No More Heroes for a few hours last night and thought I would throw out some first impressions for anyone interested in the game.  Mind you this isn't any kind of review, it's just some thoughts on the game after getting to know it a little.

Pros

  • Art Style
    • The art style in this game is amazing.  It really goes to show what you can do with so little.  During the actual action part of this game everything just looks amazing.   While the characters do have low resolution textures they still look brilliant, the blood effects are awesome, and the game just screams of an in your face personality that is just incredible.  Or at least it does all of this in the arena parts of the game...
  • Controls
    • I was a little worried about the controls of the game because I can't think of a good action game like this off the top of my head that really nailed the controls.   This game does a good job of using the motion sensing functionality, letting the player button mash, and making the player want to actually learn the controls.  The controls are also very simple to pick up and use while still being difficult to master which is a great thing.  All in all A+ on the controls.
    • I was also worried that the game would take you out of the action too much to tell you which way to swing the remote.  Luckily this is also really well done and it doesn't take you out of the action too much.  Because you're mimicking these moves, it actually brings you further into the action.  Amazing job here too.
    • For the wrestling moves where you have to move the remote and nunchuck I was worried at first because you have to make large exaggerated movements to get them to work.  This actually works well for the game too in that it makes sense to the player that you have to make the large movements to pile drive someone.  I don't know if this was planned or if it just happens to work that way, but I actually like having to swing my arms up fast and hard to pile drive someone.
  • Action
    • With the well done controls, the action in this game just works great.  It's just a lot of fun to slice and dice large groups of enemies and then watch the blood go everywhere in the awesome art style.  It really feels like you're playing a very stylized Kill Bill.
  • Dialog
    • The dialog is cheesy and stupid but works so well with the art style.  It's awesome in the same way the music in Sonic and the Secret rings was awesome.

Cons

  • Graphics
    • In the arena areas of the game where there's a lot going on it's easy to miss the weak graphics in this game but in the open world it's there and it hurts.  When you're running around the city you get to look a lot more closely at the game and it looks like shit.  The buildings look pretty close to Cruis'n in that there's just one large ugly texture slapped on box buildings, the cars look like complete ass, the people don't look bad but don't look good, what environmental objects there are look bad, and the world just feels so empty.  It's a shame that they worked so hard on this great style and then everything goes to shit because of the large (well, not really large-- it's actually small) cityscape.
    • I know I mentioned this above but the world just feels so empty. The small things they actually put in the city actually make you realize just how empty the city is and makes it look even worse.
  • The screen gets cluttered too much during fights
    • When you do the special finishing moves during fights, a little slot machine appears in the bottom of the screen.  When you get three of anything in a row you get a special powerup that generally helps a lot.  This would be cool except for the fact when you get three in a row it covers the middle third of the screen for about 5-10 seconds and it's incredibly annoying.  I really don't think they could have found a worse spot to put that thing.
  • Open World Play
    • It's a shame the action arena parts of this game are so good and the open world play is so bad.  Because the world is so empty there isn't much to do.  Because there isn't much to do it's not very fun to explore the city. You go to assassin's headquarters to get a job, go to the highlighted point on the map, return to the headquarters, and repeat.  There's not much sense exploring the area unless you want to find extras and that still isn't that hard since there isn't anything extra in the city except the things you're looking for.
  • Minigames
    • I guess Suda 51 felt since he was making a Wii game there just had to be mini games in there.  I really don't have anything against minigames, in fact I like them, but they don't work well in this game.  No More Heroes is an action game and these mini games are just boring and really not fun.  Maybe I'll find some fun ones later but so far they have sucked.

All in all I'm pleased with the game and glad I picked it up..  The wonderful controls, style, and action make up for the shitty open world gameplay parts.  This game actually seems like two games-- the awesome action game and the shitty open world mini game collection.