No More Heroes

[AtomSmasher]

I picked this game up today, played it for a few hours and it is a lot of fun.  An excellent 3rd party game for the Wii.  To say the game is stylistic is an understatement, everything from the cell shading to absurd amount of blood flying everywhere to the classic videogame looks of the menus and ranking list is perfect.  Also, this is easily the most mature game on the Wii, limbs and heads are constantly flying with blood spurting everywhere, and theres is plenty of foul language and sexual innuendo.

It's a little disappointing that the main attacks are done by pushing the buttons instead of the wiimote movements controlling the lightsaber, but you do use the wiimote movements for finishing moves,  power battles, minigames, to control your stance while fighting (either high or low), and a number of other things.  My guess is they realized the wiimote wasn't very accurate, so they only used the gestures where it didn't need to be accurate.  Luckily the action is so fast paced that you are still constantly swinging the wiimote around during battles, which works great and is a lot of fun.

So far this is an excellent game and anyone who can handle a mature game needs to pick this one up.

[AtomSmasher]

Well I'm a few more hours in and it's still quite a lot of fun.  I've beaten the first 4 bosses and they are all extremely different from each other.  The game is also a lot deeper then I first thought because initially your able to easily kill everyone so your basically just button mashing the A button, but now that I'm getting to some harder enemies I have to intelligently use dodge, punch/kick, and especially the wrestling moves, along with the various lightsaber attacks.  Also, the slot machine for the finishing moves is a great touch, like when he yells out "Strawberry on the Shortcake" and you go into a hyper attack mode slaughtering everyone in the room.  And theres 4 or 5 versions of these "bonus" attack modes and all of which are very different from each other, which adds a bit more variety to the game.

Has anyone else tried the game yet?  I thought a lot of you were looking forward to this Wii "lightsaber" game.

[shmokes]

I haven't played it, and don't get me wrong, it looks interesting and like it might be pretty fun.  But this is not the Wii "lightsaber" game people have been looking forward to.  A #1, it's not a lightsaber.  Lightsabers are weilded by Jedis in the Star Wars Universe.  This is not a Star Wars game.  It matters. 

B #2, the reason a Wii "lightsaber" game is so appealing is because people are excited about swinging the Wii remote around as though it is the handle of a real light saber.  If the game just has you press a button to swing your "lightsaber", and only recognizes crude gestures for finishing moves, that's simply not what has people peeing their pants in anticipation.  if it doesn't have 1:1 movement, forget about it.  It is not the game people have been waiting for.

[AtomSmasher]

I haven't played it, and don't get me wrong, it looks interesting and like it might be pretty fun.  But this is not the Wii "lightsaber" game people have been looking forward to.  A #1, it's not a lightsaber.  Lightsabers are weilded by Jedis in the Star Wars Universe.  This is not a Star Wars game.  It matters. 

Which is why lightsaber is in quotes.  No it's technically not a lightsaber because they would be sued if it was, but its a light sword that comes in different colors and is powered by crystals, which is why people call them lightsabers when talking about this game.  I took the word lightsaber out of the title of the thread since it seems to be upsetting you.

B #2, the reason a Wii "lightsaber" game is so appealing is because people are excited about swinging the Wii remote around as though it is the handle of a real light saber.  If the game just has you press a button to swing your "lightsaber", and only recognizes crude gestures for finishing moves, that's simply not what has people peeing their pants in anticipation.  if it doesn't have 1:1 movement, forget about it.  It is not the game people have been waiting for.

Agreed, and I even said I was initially disappointed that the "lightsaber" wasn't controlled with Wii movements, but the game has been getting great reviews, so I'm a little surprised no one else here has bought it yet.   Perhaps it'll be another one of those great games that no one buys like psychonauts. 

Plus, since Nintendo consoles are often called a console for little kids, its refreshing to play a Wii exclusive game that is rated M.

[AtomSmasher]

Hmm, I just did a search and the only other person I see even mention this game is Howard Castro.  I could of swore some of you had discussions about this game in the past, but it looks like I might of got it confused with the official star wars lightsaber game.

Regardless, this is still a really fun game 

[shmokes]

I don't care if you call it a lightsaber with or without quotes.  I think it's a perfectly reasonable way to describe it.  I'm just trying to explain the dynamic that's going on here.  You seemed surprised that there wasn't more interest in this game, seeing as people were so excited about playing a Wii lightsaber game.  When I say that it's not a lightsaber, I don't mean that I'm offended by your trademark violation, I mean that the game that people are waiting for necessarily takes place in the Star Wars universe.  Unfortunately, the Star Wars game Lucas Arts is finally bringing to the Wii is also not going to be the game people have been waiting for.  It's just a dumbed down port of the PS3/360 game, handed off to a ---smurfy--- cut-rate developer to tack on some waggle controls.

[AtomSmasher]

I think you are right because, as I said, it looks like I probably got this game confused with the official star wars game.  I thought a lot of people had been talking about this game, so I expected there to be a lot of interest when it finally came out, but when I searched I barely found anyone even mentioning it.

[patrickl]

Maybe it also matters that the game is quite new? The game is not even out yet in Europe.

BTW Looks like the European version is going to be more like the Japanese version with less blood and gore. The enemies explode in a cloud of ashes instead of a fountain of blood.

No More Heroes (USA) - Video trailer
No More Heroes (Japan/Europe) - Video trailer

:edit: I read that the game developers say that third party titles sell poorly on the Wii. They complain that only Nintendo titles sell fast. Not sure who they blame for that though.

:edit2: Found an english version of the quote:
CVG: Suda 51: Third party Wii games aren't selling

[Daniel B.]

I played this for about 5 hours when the JP rip was out, when I get some time I'm definitely going to play through the US version.

I love the coins/blood.

[shmokes]

It does look like a cool game -- probably one of the best 3rd party offerings so far.  I'd definitely like to get my hands on it.  Maybe during Spring Break.

[MajorLag]

Also, this is easily the most mature game on the Wii, limbs and heads are constantly flying with blood spurting everywhere, and theres is plenty of foul language and sexual innuendo.

Yeah, thats totally mature

[AtomSmasher]

Also, this is easily the most mature game on the Wii, limbs and heads are constantly flying with blood spurting everywhere, and theres is plenty of foul language and sexual innuendo.

Yeah, thats totally mature

 

I meant it as not intended for kids, as I believe this is the first Wii exclusive with an M rating.  As I'm progressing through the game, the sexual innuendo and foul language has reduced quite a bit from the amount there was in the beginning of the game (it's still there, just not as often), but the blood is still as prevalent as ever.  The thing with the blood and gore is that the game has a cartoon look to it and the gushing blood is so over the top that it doesn't look real at all (think of Kill Bill), so it doesn't seem that bad (at least not to me).  I would recommend checking out the video review posted earlier to see what I mean.

:edit: I read that the game developers say that third party titles sell poorly on the Wii. They complain that only Nintendo titles sell fast. Not sure who they blame for that though.

I think the ones to blame are the game developers since the only good third party Wii exclusive games so far are Zack and Wiki and No More Heroes, so I can understand why the third party market isn't doing too well.

[Howard_Casto]

The first mature game on the wii would be RE: UC.  And at least imho it's the best third party game on the wii so far.  With that being said, I'm still going through all my xmas games so I haven't bought this one yet (only tried it.)  Rest assured though I will eventually. 

I've got to put in my two cents on this though.  Schmokes said that this isn't the light saber game that people were wanting and I would agree but for different reasons.  Basically when people say they want a "lightsaber" game, generally they actually mean a 1 to 1 action swordplay game and it has little to do with an actual light saber and the star wars universe.  Quite frankly, at least to me, every single star wars game in the history of star wars that didn't involve space ship gameplay totally sucked (shadows of the empire excluded) so I really don't want a lucasarts game.  Also if you look at the REAL star wars movies (4, 5 and 6)  the light saber battles in them are actually quite dull.  As a kid I was so fascinated by the glowing beam of light and that awesome sound that I never noticed, but most of those duals consisted of two dudes slowly circling each other and hitting their sticks together.  As an adult I still think the glowing beams of light are wicked cool, but seeing as how the star wars universe basically only has obi-wan, yoda,  darth and the emperor (again the real star wars, not those crappy prequels) it'd make for either a really short game (4 duels and that's it) a really one-sided game (you slash through dozens of normal people who never stood a chance) or a really frustrating game (you want to have these sweet duels but instead you spend 90% of your time trying to deflect blaster fire with your saber and using it to do very un-fun things). 


Anyway, getting back to the game at hand.  I would call this one Zelda TP 2.0. It basically seems to use the zelda gameplay mechanic with a little more wiimote action.  Unfortunately (at least at first glance) I think this game is plagued with the same problem zack and wikki had, in that it could have been a fantastic game, but they rushed it to market before refining the controls and graphics and thus it turns out to be just a really good game.  Maybe now that capcom's figures are in and as I expected, they are without question making money hand over fist on the wii, they can slow down and give their future titles a little more polish.  Then again, this is capcom, so expect Z&W and NMH to be released again in 6 months only this time they increase the speed 50 precent, give all the characters new costume colors and allow you to play as the boss characters. 

[AtomSmasher]

Ah yes, I had forgotten about RE:UC. I should probably pick the one up one day.  Also, knights of the old republic is another great star wars game that didn't invlove space battles, but for the most part I do agree with you on that point. 

I'm now almost finished with this game, I've gotten to the ending, but haven't yet beat the boss in the real ending, and I'd give this game an 8 out of 10.  Really fun game, but not a lot of depth, and not very long.  For the most part the game is just a hack and slash action game where you wade through a ton of enemies, except for when you fight the bosses.  The bosses are the true highlight of the game as each one has to be fought in a completely different way, and they each have their own surprises waiting for you.  It took me around 15-16 hours to get to the end boss, and I completed every side mission, so it's not that long of a game.  They did add a bit of replayability by allowing you to play through the game again on a higher difficulty starting with everything you've collected so far and adding a more powerups and stuff to collect (like concept art).  I doubt I will play through again, but at least they tried something.

Also, other then the fact that they both attack with a sword, this game has virtually nothing in common with Zelda TP.

[Daniel B.]

Actually, the first (what I consider) mature game, on the wii was....

RE4.

Chainsaw Gandado? C'mon THAT is ruthless!!


Anyway, I plan to play the US version of this, this weekend.

[shmokes]

Oh . . . and you must not have played Jedi Knight, cos that was freaking awesome -- put Shadow of the Empire absolutely to shame.  Plus, anyone who didn't like Lego Star Wars has no soul

Another potential correction is with the publisher.  I don't think Capcom published No More Heroes.  I could be wrong.  I know that they were the publisher of Killer7, but IIRC Ubisoft picked up No More Heroes for distribution in the U.S.

But, yeah . . . 1:1 is absolutely a essential to the light saber game that Wii owners are waiting for.  I actually thought that I mentioned that, but maybe it slipped past.  I definitely do not think that the Star Wars game scheduled for release will be the game people have been waiting for, exactly for that reason.  It's just a port (by a ---smurfy--- developer, no less) of a game also being released on the PS3 and 360.  Thus, it won't have 1:1 lightsaber handling.  Thus it will not be the game we've been waiting for.  Nevertheless, I still think the Star Wars universe is essential.  Even if No More Heroes came complete with 1:1 lightsaber motion control, it would not be the game Star Wars fans have been clamoring for.  Both elements are necessary.

[AtomSmasher]

Oh . . . and you must not have played Jedi Knight, cos that was freaking awesome -- put Shadow of the Empire absolutely to shame.  Plus, anyone who didn't like Lego Star Wars has no soul

Another potential correction is with the publisher.  I don't think Capcom published No More Heroes.  I could be wrong.  I know that they were the publisher of Killer7, but IIRC Ubisoft picked up No More Heroes for distribution in the U.S.

I knew there was a great star wars FPS that I couldn't think of, Jedi Knight, duh.  All that was coming to mind was Battlefront (which wasn't very good) and Elite Force (which is Star Trek not Star Wars). 

And you are correct that Ubisoft published NMH, not Capcom.

And Daniel B., I was only counting Wii exclusives, so while RE4 is definately a mature rated game, I discounted it since it wasn't made just for the Wii, but was a well done port.  I believe HC is correct that RE:UC is the first mature rated wii exclusive.

[Dartful Dodger]

Phew!

I thought this was about the writers' strike forcing them to cancel the show.

[Daniel B.]

Yea, I didn't realize you guys were just talking exclusives...as my mind jogs, I think you guys are absolutely right about UC.

I think to me, this game (NMH) shows exactly the kinds of things the wii needs to increase its longevity in my eyes. Suda 51 really did an excellent job with this game! I'm not talking about the blood and guts cheesy stuff, but the awesome art style, hilarious voice track, etc.... This is much relief to the normal games we play every day, on every other system.

[Howard_Casto]

I played those games guys, I just hated them.  KOTOR is a rpg and rpg's are the baine of my existance.  Anybody who likes a very action oriented series like star wars who also enjoys collecting experience points and running around on boring side missions worries me.  With that beign said, it was probably the best rpg adventure hybrid in the history of the genre, but that's like of like being the best bejeweled  game on the pc. 

Jedi Knight was slighty better.  At least they cut out all that dumb rpg crap but the problem I had with it was it felt like a fps with a cheap light saber gimmick tacked on.  The reason I enjoyed shadows of the empire so much is that it avoided the whole "even with magcial powers, fighting an entire army with a fancy sword is stupid when you can just use a gun" problem that a jedi-based game would have by putting you an a han solo role.  I mean sure, using force powers makes sense against darth and the emperor, they can deflect bullets with their minds, but for the other 2 MILLION or so troops maybe it'd make more sense to get and a ship and shoot at them. 


I love Lego Star Wars, but it's not a lucasarts game (they liscensed it, but afaik it wasn't produced in house) and because it's such a kiddie game I forgive the fact that light saber mode as well as basically every other form of fighting in the game was overly simplistic to the point of near suckage.  When I can play a 3d flatformer on a digital joystick then something is wrong.   I mean it's a quickie game and it's fun to play and I love it, but I wouldn't conider it a real star wars game anymore than I would consider the new indiana jones lego a real IJ game or the new lego batman a real batman game.  Those are lego games with a popular liscense tacked on.  Mind you they are brilliantly done, but they don't exactly have any depth to them.

[shmokes]

You, my friend, are nutso.  It is impossible to like Shadow of the Empire and dislike Jedi Knight.  It is simply impossible.  They are mutually exclusive.  The only thing I can think of is that when you went to play Jedi Knight you were somehow sucked into an alternate dimension where you played an entirely different, sucky game. 

There is a really really good reason, BTW, that a Jedi might choose to use a lightsaber over a firearm.  When you are fighting a whole room full of Storm Troopers, all armed with blasters, you can't block fire with a gun.  A lightsaber is also comparatively quiet, so you can use your lightsaber as a projectile to kill someone from behind, boomarang-style, without alerting all the other guards in the room to your presence.  A lightsaber can also be maneuvered in the air with force powers, i.e., it can move in arcs and go around cover to some degree.  Traditional firearms can only fire in a straight line.  The lightsaber mechanic in Jedi Knight was VERY WELL done.  But even if you hated it, you could play the entire game without ever using your lightsaber.  Alternatively you could play nearly the entire game without ever using a gun.  That was part of the brilliance of it.