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By Keith B (18th Feb 2008)

Mature content might be an understatement. Or an overstatement, depending upon how you feel about videogame gore and absurdist theatre. No More Heroes is a perplexing combination of rote-style videogame developing and radical, ludicrous innovation, all wrapped up in a violence-heavy package. While the flimsy premise of the game leaves much to be desired–yes, yes, we get it: rise through the ranks as a pro killer–the game’s novel fight grounds and stripped-down control scheme more than make-up for what seems a hasty narrative ruse.

The story revolves around Travis Touchdown, the world’s eleventh-ranked assassin. Travis is the type of cool that you would expect from game-designer types: he likes anime, collecting action figures, and killing. He’s also pretty good with a katana--maybe not the most surprising thing, considering such a geek-world outlook is often accompanied by a psychopathological, brooding loneliness and a world of spare time in which to hone such time-consuming skill sets. At any rate, you--fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how closely he approximates your real-life existence (one assumes, though, that you might be able to scratch that last item from your list of hobbies)--are Travis Touchdown. Even his light saber-style katana is a mark in the nerd books: he won it through an internet auction. The goal, then, is to become the top assassin in Santa Destroy, California, the paradoxically named city of nerdy assassins. Along the way you’ll battle other United Assassin Association (UAA) members (after ploughing through their lackeys), all matches being organized through what must be the worst employment guild in all of union history. That being said, it’s not all fight, kill, fight, kill. Flimsy as the game’s premise is, you will be required to earn your place. Thus along the way you’ll need to pick up a few humdrum jobs, like mowing lawns, to earn both some cash and your right to fight.

Of course, none of this rather threadbare game premising really gets at what NMH is, in fact, like. Here, the narrative may fall flat, the game’s developer, Grasshopper Manufacture, trotting out all the old cliches. Thus you’ll encounter Thunder Ryu, Travis’s guru-style trainer; the shadowy Sylvia Christel, an elusive UAA agent who sets up the matches; the haughty Shinobu, the eighth-ranked assassin and attendee of both an all-girl highschool and thus the world of masturbatory japanophilia; the duplicitous Dr. Peace, a dirty detective-cum-assassin; the tediously named Bad Girl, in whom the stock mixture of arch ingenue obtains--and on, and on, and on. Don’t get me wrong, though: the characters are wicked evil, but the character types we’ve all seen a million times.

The game innovates, though, where it most counts. Here it’s all about scenarios of maybe not startling originality, but of formidable novelty. Travis’s fighting style, for instance, is an awesome combination of unbelievable martial arts and equally incredible Mexican wrestling-style take-downs. Even better, though, are the fight locations and scenarios--an empty baseball stadium, say, or a dimly lit underground car park. Hands down the game’s finest is an awesome, gut-busting urinal scene: you’re caught at the porcelain while fighting for your life. All of this ends in the most shocking blood bath, though, as you slice through your vanquished opponent and watch the blood not just spout but explode forth. Every fight scene, in fact, is shockingly violent and incomparably clever. For no-holds-bar fighting, NMH is maybe the best--and most violent--game I’ve ever scene.

The control system might be NMH’s strongest feature, combining intuitive controls with more or less thus far unparalleled accuracy and responsiveness. You’ll need both the nunchuk and the wiimote, using the A button for quick jabs of your katana, B for punches and kicks, and the Z for locking-on and destroying your enemy. Occasionally you’ll need to waggle the wiimote in order to recharge your battery-powered katana. All in all, the controls are dead-on, being creatively employed especially during between-fight tasks.

The game’s audioscape doesn’t disappoint either. In fact, it might be even better than the control scheme. Great if zany tunes, decently clever voice-overs, and awesomely accurate sound effects all make to round out a pretty complete scene-to-scene experience.

Visually the game is stunning, if at times there are disappointments and notable flubs. There’s undoubtedly a slow frame rate--especially when you’re driving--but even this seems strangely acceptable when compared alongside NMH’s other rather quizzical anachronisms. The onscreen text, for instance, is comically dated; your guide map, little better than a third-rate Blackberry; and the oversized exclamation mark that tells you where to go, an almost shockingly lazy one-off. But all of these things--and so many others--rather than detracting from the game, give it a strange urgency. Where other games are groomed like best-in-show dogs (and maybe equally overbred), NMH is glaringly if acceptably frowzy. Unexpectedly, though, it all works--the game seemingly saying, “let’s get on with it; the fighting, not the bullshit onscreen text, is where the game is.” And it’s hard not to agree.

Unfortunately, some things in the game, beside its premise and despite all of its devil-may-care ethos, lag behind its actual fighting. The game, divided rather evenly into two separate modes of play--when not doing head-to-head battles, you’re free to wander the game’s cityscape--evinces rather slipshod design dedication. The fights, while generally incredible, stand in stark contrast to the wandering mode. The entire exploration field amounts to little more than ten buildings, all becoming accessible as you move up the ranks, and none of which is particularly interesting in and of itself. Added to this are worse problems: invisible walls, sloppy car- and motorcycle controls, some occasionally decent but rarely exceptional mini-tasks, and endless no-go zones all make for a pretty lackluster digital world. Most obviously, the open world in NMH lacks refinement. Everything feels so languid and mediocre when you’re walking the city--and the difference between this world and the fight scenes couldn’t be more pronounced. Where NMH raises the bar is clear; where is lowers it though is painfully obvious.

And, of course, maybe that’s what makes it all the more disappointing. NMH, is so many ways, is one of this year’s early runners for Top-10 games of 2008. And if it doesn’t make year-end lists, there’s a palpably obvious reason why: glaring inconsistency. The fight scenes, sure, are great. But everything else shy of these wacky, unexpected gems and their solid control scheme, is just so middling--sometimes even outright bad--that the game as a whole starts to lag. Like a Wu Tang Clan album, everything about NMH is just so hot and cold: a few great tracks here, a tonne of filler there, and some just plain rotten cameos mean you’ll be reaching for the skip button with maybe less than flattering regularity. That being said, this game is a necessary purchase for any fan of katana-style head-to-head combat. One just wonders if Travis Touchdown, that uber-nerd himself, would buy it.