The newest entry in Suda51’s No More Heroes franchise is an odd one.
The neon-tinged, smash-cut, in-your-face and zany presentation just doesn’t match up with the gameplay which, whilst having moments of intensity, is surprisingly repetitive and ultimately a bit boring.
The story begins with Travis in seclusion playing video games (good) until he is hunted down by Bad Man, the father of Bad Girl, whom Travis murdered in the original game.
Following a brief fracas, the two are sucked into a video game (natch) and need to fight their way out, putting their differences briefly aside in order to work together.
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes allows for up to two players but, after around twenty minutes, the person I was playing with really wasn’t having fun with it and lost interest, and so my time with the game was spent mostly in single-player mode.
The gameplay is a top-down hack and slash adventure which really doesn’t change much as you play, beyond it inevitably getting harder. The game is really fluid and bright, with Travis’s sword needing to be charged every minute or so, adding an element of strategy to the game that feels really misjudged. In fact, there are a couple of things that seem like design choices that actually work to the games’ detriment…
If you imagine a frantic, top-down action game (which this is) with frenetic (and I must admit, to my ears, tedious, music) you’d expect the game to be pretty responsive with the ability to interrupt your own attacks to dodge etc. due to the number of enemies.
In Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, however, when you swing, you have no way of stopping it, this means that the chunkier enemies that take a good few knocks to take out can be winding up for a power attack and you have no way to dodge if you’ve already started you swing. It’s a really minor and yet constantly irritating design choice that is only exacerbated with multiple, larger enemies.
Whilst there are unlockable attacks for each character, the majority of the game is spent either running through the areas and churning through weaker enemies or stopping in barricaded-off arenas until all spawned enemies are killed. It feels very basic and direct, especially when compared to how the story is initially presented and the sporadic, nonsensical dialogue that pops up on-screen in various guises.
The framework of the game feels like a strange, surreal dream but in actual fact, it boils down to really generic action.
There are bosses, which are very much welcomed and can provide a solid challenge, but after a few minutes of tactical battle, it’s straight back to running through what effectively feels like corridors with looped techno music being pumped at you, which, if anything just hammers home how superficial the game feels as opposed to when similar music is used in say, Wipeout titles, wherein it locks you into the mind-set of the game and gets you ‘in the zone’.
Summary
The game runs really well and the framerate always feels smooth, but after a few hours, I really did lose interest in what was happening on-screen.
I wanted the game to play as crazily as the introduction suggested but it just feels staid.
If you want a pretty brainless game to hack your way through for an evening, Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes could be up your street but it feels like a lot more could have been done with the video game premise that the game teases you with.
I’d be interested to hear what fans of previous games in the franchise make of this one.
For me, it just couldn’t hold my attention, sadly.
💧❄️ RATING: MELTING ❄️💧
Ratings Explained
ICE COOL (Great Game Recommended)
MELTING (Recommended with reservations, one to consider if you are a fan of the genre)
MELTED (Not A Recommended Purchase)
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