Reader Review: No More Heroes 2

Do you have what it takes to get a review published right here on Kotaku? Matthew does, as he beams up his katana.

Yes, that’s right, we’re now publishing reader reviews here on Kotaku. This is your chance to deliver sensible game purchasing advice to the rest of the Kotaku community.

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This review was submitted by Matthew Murphy. If you’ve played No More Heroes 2, or just want to ask Matthew more about it, leave your thoughts in the comments below.

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (Wii)

The successor to the cult-favourite on the Nintendo Wii created by Suda51 back in 2007. Our favourite wise-cracking otaku, Travis Touchdown returns to Santa Destroy to not only to be the #1 assassin but to grant revenge in this stylish sequel.

Loved

Bizarre Nature: The one thing to love about Suda51 is his stylish and bizarre creativity that makes this game stand-out. Travis is a likable, wise-cracking jackass facing against a bunch of obscure assassins that range from a badass Cloud-lookalike, a US-football player with a bunch of cheerleaders that can transform into a mech, a gothic Lolita with dual-scythes and a Russian astronaut.

Stylish: They have updated the graphics with more detail to the character designs and some additions to the scenery, although the game does have minor framerate issues here and there.

Refined with Variety: The gameplay is pretty much the same (and also can be played with the Classic Controller) but with the addition of new weapons that you can switch on the fly, more variety of goons to defeat, and special slot-machine power-ups – one of them turning Travis into a tiger! You can also exercise your cat Jeane to help her lose weight or play the Bizarre Jelly 5 shoot ‘em up game in your spare time at your motel. They’ve also scrapped the dull open-world for an easy, menu-based system.

In with the old, 8-bit style: The Ranking Battles are now free of charge but if you want new weapons, clothing or upgrade your health and power, you have to earn money by doing jobs. Here, they scrapped the mundane jobs like mowing and trash collecting for 8-bit style mini-games, like a pipe game that resembles Pipedreams, a tiling game that is like a jigsaw puzzle with Tetris pieces, and a Pizza Delivery game that plays like Hang-On.

3 Blades are better than one: You don’t just play as Travis in the game. You can also play as Shinobu and Henry from the first game with Shinobu’s ability to jump and Henry’s ability to Dash, the only downside is that there are only three select missions with them.

Uncensored: The original game was one of the bloodiest games on the Wii, but only for the US version. In the sequel, all the blood and gore has been uncensored for the UK/Australian version. Goodbye, black ash!

Hated

Platforming: With Shinobu’s ability to jump, one of her missions requires platforming. It’s a nice idea, but poorly executed as the landing detection can be very annoying.

Camera Obscura: While the camera is better than the previous game, it can still be aggravating due to lack of camera control.

Despite its shortcomings, the developers fixed the major problems of the first game and made this sequel one of the best games on the Wii this year. God Bless you, Suda51.

Reviewed by: Matthew Murphy

You can have your Reader Review published on Kotaku. Send your review to us at the usual address. Make sure it’s written in the same format as above and in under 500 words – yes, we’ve upped the word limit. We’ll publish the best ones we get and the best of the month will win a Madman DVD prize pack.[

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