No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise

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As a long time fan of the original NMH on the Nintendo Wii, I was happy to see the PS3 "Heroe's Paradise" port make it to the NA market.

This review focuses on the port and its differences from the original rather than the game itself and is intended for those who have already played NMH on the Nintendo Wii.

SCE's addition of the Move made it an obvious candidate for Move support as NMH was one of the handful of games I personally found to be enhanced in the fun factor on the Wii due to the addition of motion controls. In all fairness these are basically limited to vertical shaking (to recharge the Beam Katana), rapid circular motions (during weapons clashes) and motion specific slashes (finishing moves or throws), but I still found them more satisfying than basic game pad controls. Many of the mini-games dispersed throughout NMH also make fair use of motion controls, which have, for the most part, been replicated with the Move.

While the game is fully playable with both the original SIXAXIX controller or the DS3, the game may lose some of its charm for those who originally played it on the Wii, so for those players, Move is the preferred controller choice.

Despite the better technology utilized by the PS Move over that of the original Wii motion controls (back in Q1 2008), there are some flaws with the PS3 port, in particular, responsiveness. This was never an issue with the original Wii code yet the failure to recognize user input flawlessly with the PS Move has been an issue regularly during play testing, whether that's due to the tolerances being tighter or simple unoptimized port code, I can't comment.

What the port does offer over the original is 1280x720 native output resolution, which is quite an improvement over the original's 720x480. Small details and distant object renders are now visible and the general issue of jagged/stepped pixel visuals (which are simply characteristic of any game on the Nintendo Wii) has been drastically reduced on HD displays. Texture-wise, I'm noticing bump maps where there were either none or just weren't noticeable on the Nintendo Wii, making the characteristic NMH flat shaded texture work look considerably less flat.

Additions the the Heroe's Paradise edition include new "dream sequences" spaced in-between boss fights, featuring characters from NMH2: Desperate Struggle, which can be unlocked to play against in the new score centric boss fight mode (scores uploaded to online leaderboards). Also added was the ability to watch cut scenes after they have been unlocked while in Travis' apartment, a minor (and somewhat hidden) feature that is nonetheless a welcome addition for those who enjoyed NMH for the over the top storyline and cut scenes.

Other negatives include a significant amount of frame tearing under many conditions (something that was a non-issue on the Wii's SD visuals) which points to poorly optimized code as the visuals of NMH are anywhere between extremely modest and sub-par for a console that features games with visuals such as Killzone 3, Uncharted 2, etc. Intentionally stylized was where the art direction went with NMH (much like Valkyria Chronicles or the more recent Catherine) rather than any attempt at photorealism, yet this works perfectly for the manga/anime style story of Travis Touchdown and No More Heroes.

As a budget title, NMH is worth a second trip for PS3 owners who enjoyed the original (it was this reviewer's most played Wii game dating back to Q1 2007) due to the enhanced resolution, modestly updated visuals and minor additions. For those who haven't, even as a game that dates back to 2007, the bizarre storyline and over the top characters will still appeal to many, particularly those who delve into the odder side of Japanese pop culture and anime.

While not a perfect port (it's actually fairly flawed due to the screen tearing issue, slower game save times, and Move controller responsiveness that is actually worse than that of the Nintendo Wii Remote), it is still No More Heroes and the world of Santa Destroy looks sharper and more detailed than it ever has.

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So I've been playing this game for a couple of hours and I think I'm ready to lay down my verdict. I had been anticipating this game for quite some time, as I had never had the chance to play through the Wii version. In some respects I am very disappointed, but the game does deliver in others.

I'm an optimist, so let's start with the good. Quite frankly, this game has some of the best cutscenes I've ever seen in a video game. I'm saying that while openly stating that the graphics are pretty awful for a PS3 game. However, the sense of humor and style in each of the boss scenes will at the very least elicit a chuckle out of you, which is something that most new games fail to do. I openly cracked up laughing during one of the scenes when Travis is asked if he feels fear, and his response is "Wouldn't know, never felt it." It's somewhat reminiscent of the movie Kill Bill, except with more humor and less intellectualism. In addition, the boss battles are truly entertaining. There's a great deal of variety, and each boss has his/her own distinct sense of style. You have 10 assassins to kill to get to the top, and you'll have a blast with every single one of them.

Now let's get to the bad. Quite frankly, any battle that isn't a boss fight is dreadfully boring. It essentially boils down to hold down the lock on button to block every single attack (there's almost no reason to let go of this button ever) and then spam buttons until the enemies die. The motion gimmick where you flick the controller in a direction to finish off an enemy may have been fun when the Wii was new, but now it's just a jarring and unwelcome interruption during combat. Pretty much every fight boils down to holding down L2, and spamming triangle and square until everything dies. I got so bored, I was literally watching youtube videos while playing the levels leading up the bosses. With the combat out of the way, No More Heroes has its own city which you can navigate in a GTA style fashion. Except...there's no reason for the city to be there at all because there's NOTHING in it. If there are only a few places you can visit (less than 10), why bother creating a huge city to house it? They might as well just have designed the city like your bedroom, and have you just select the destination. The sandbox style city construction isn't conducive to anything when there's absolutely nothing to do in the sandbox... Another gripe of mine is the saving. It's a huge pain in the ass. To save, you have to enter a restroom. It takes about 10 seconds just to enter the restroom, then it has to load, then you have to watch another 10 seconds of Travis sitting down on the toilet, and then toilet paper wrapping across the screen. Then you press save, and it takes 20-30 seconds at times, then you have to watch him stand back up, it has to load again, and then you'll reappear at the main screen. Saving shouldn't be a two minute endeavor! The game wasn't hard enough to justify saving since I wouldn't die, and I hated dealing with saving so much that I would only save when I was planning to turn the game off. It doesn't need to be that damn annoying!

So anyways, this is a lengthy review so I'll try to sum it up. If you're the kind of gamer that actually loves watching cutscenes (think Metal Gear), you'll probably enjoy this game because the cutscenes are quite amusing. And basically, that's what this games boils down to. I found myself playing just because I wanted to see the cutscenes, and the actual game itself was just a punishment I had to endure before watching the scenes. I know, I know, I could just youtube the cutscenes but for some inexplicable reason my brain tells me that that would be "cheating." The boss battles are an exception of course, the boss battles are fantastic. With that said, if you're the kind of gamer who hates cutscenes, repetitive gameplay, or button-mashing style beat em ups, this game is really not for you. I can almost guarantee that you will hate it. 90% of the game really does boil down to holding the lock on button and mashing on square and triangle.

With that said, I hope this review was helpful, I know the diehard No More Heroes fans out there will want to murder me but I tried to be as objective as possible.

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I hate the term, but No More Heroes could certainly be called a "guilty pleasure." Crass language, over-sexed characters, glitchy graphics... But honestly, I loved this game on the Wii and I love it more on the PS3. The graphics have vastly improved coming over to the world of HD, but they're still average when compared to the PS3 library of games. The horrible bike driving remains, and some extra boss battles from NMH2 have been added. The game works well with the PS Move, but I'm enjoying playing it with a standard controller, for accuracy's sake.

And really, the awful translations and dialogue really are part of the charm of this game. Santa Destroy is a bland city, but for some reason I love it, and the story that's being told. For $40, this probably isn't a good buy, but for $30 and under it's a worthy addition to your collection if you have a dark sense of humor.

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There is no way around the fact that this game is awesome at it's core. Unique, fun and has plenty of suda 51 style.

People complain about the job missions but they are not bad and very few are annoying. On average they last 2-3 min anyway. The battle stages are awesome and have very interesting boss battles.

Honestly I tend to dislike open world games, but this one does it right, in fact better than most. While the world is a lot less detailed than GTA or red dead redemption, almost everything has a purpose. Everything I do in the open world helps lead me to my next fight. That is called MOTIVATION boys and girls. A lot of the Rockstar games are garbage because they fail to offer in game motivation for doing anything in the open world. They are the equivalent of virtual ADD since you are surrounded by meaningless distractions that do not cause any development or forward momentum at all. OK, so if you think its like that, and you enjoy those immersive environment based games, the open world will feel shallow to you.

The battles are a combonation hack n slash with some times button presses and elements that discourage mindless mashing.

This game contains some screen tearing that normally pisses me off, but it is so unique and fun that I almost do not notice. Driving around the overworld was unwieldy at first but you will get the hang of it. There is some odd stuff going on with collision while on the bike also. This is why I docked the game a star.

In the end I think how much you like this game may rest on how you feel about the style of it and how much you can look past blemishes to appreciate the unique aspects.

***I cannot compare to the wii version and used a dualshock durring my playthrough (not Move).

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My first introduction to Suda51 was Shadows of the Damned. I really enjoyed the quirky, adult humor and characters of that game. It also made me want to try one of his most well known games, No More Heroes. It's quite interesting reading the reviews for the PS3 version, because the majority of people who have played the original Wii version don't sound all too impressed with this copy of the game. As for me being an individual who never played the original, I can definitely say it was one of the more enjoyable PS3 games I've had pleasure to experience, simply due to the fun factor. Shadows of the Damned was "ok" and cute (yes, you read that correctly, I said cute), but I didn't enjoy it as much as NMH. In No More Heroes, the story is cheesey, completely dumb and waaaaay over-the-top. That may sound like a negative to some people, but I found it works so well in this. It's like if Quentin Tarantino suddenly became obsessed with Star Wars one day and decided to make a game, only to reference it like crazy. The story, gameplay, side missions and bosses in No More Heroes never got old for me, even after three playthroughs. The upscaled graphics I thought looked nice as well.

I did run into quite a few screen tearing issues and glitches (DLC Saber/Mine Mission, Bike getting stuck next to objects), but those are little things and not really game breaking. I know this sounds like a 4 or 5 star review, but I gave it a 3 star because it becomes a really short game after playing it once. You can get to Rank 1 in a matter of a few hours if you decide to skip all the side mission tasks.

If Amazon allowed an extra half star to their review system, I would add that half star just for the amount of fun I had while playing this. Good game.