No More Heroes 2 - Desperate Struggle Review

No More Heroes 2 again stars homicidal maniac assassin otaku, Travis Touchdown, climbing through the ranks to be the number one assassin. The game starts off with typical Suda 51 humor as Travis and Sylvia break the fourth wall by discussing whether or not to explain what has been happening since the last game. His zany and satirical humor is present in this game as much as the first along with the wildly over-the-top sexualization and violence.

Travis and Sylvia aren't the only characters to come back though, as Shinobu, a boss from the first game, and Henry, Travis' twin brother and secret boss of the first game, are now playable characters. They can only be played in their specific levels, but it is a cool addition. They play much the same as Travis aside from a different ability tied to the B button. Shinobu can jump, so her stages have some jumping puzzles, which don't exactly work out as well as they could have. I enjoyed her section so much that I would not mind if No More Heroes 3 made her the protagonist. Henry is insanely powerful and fast, and really is almost a god-character. Fun to play as, but more importantly, his relationship with Travis in the story is one of the funniest parts of the story. I would have liked him to be in more scenes, just to have him and Travis argue some more.

Travis plays much the same as he did in the first game, but the different light-sabers beam katanas add some new strategies. The various katanas you acquire are not so much upgrades in this game, but different ways to fight. Especially interesting is the eventual acquisition of dual-wielding katanas, which allows for very long combos. You also get a very large katana that grows as your ecstasy gauge increases. The ecstasy gauge increases as you kill more enemies, and when it fills up, a randomly chosen power-up will activate. These power-ups range from killing all enemies on screen to turning into a tiger that can kill anything in one hit. Yes, Travis turns into a tiger.

The bosses are an even bigger focus in this game, and most of them are a lot more interesting. I do miss some of the character of the first games' bosses, but Desperate Struggle still has a lot of fun fights. Like the first game, the bosses attack in a variety of different ways, from using giant mechs, to sniper battles, to motorcycle duels. I especially enjoyed the boss that was highly reminiscent of a more spider-like General Grievous. The bosses are incredibly imaginative and while they aren't as funny as the first game's, there are enough laughs to be had.

Even the stages that lead up to the bosses are more fun now, as there is a greater selection of grunts to fight. The grunts also have much better AI and will work together to cause you a lot of trouble. The stages themselves do a lot of interesting parodies now to make them more interesting. There is a level that parodies Metal Gear Solid right down to vision cones on the mini-map, as well as a level that is very reminiscent of Resident Evil 4, including chainsaw wielding bad-guys. Each stage feels like it could be a critique on a certain genre, or just a shout-out. It's hard to tell with Suda 51.

He did remove the overworld that so many reviewers complained about, instead replacing it with a simple map screen. The minigames are different as well, now in a classic 8-bit art-style that makes them much more bearable. The classic gameplay is more enjoyable, but still not that great, aside from Laying the Pipe and a couple others. At least they are more charming now with purposefully bad-sounding voice clips. In addition to the minigames you do for money, there are the gym minigames to increase your strength and health, and a game involving getting Travis' pet cat in shape.

I could rant about No More Heroes 2 for a very long time, but I don't want to spoil too much of the game. It's a great game, and is one of my favorite games to come out this year so far. It just takes everything from the first game and makes it better. Overall, there are very few complaints I have about it. There is no reason to avoid this game if you have a Wii.