No More Heroes III

Over ten years after No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (NMH2), Travis Touchdown returns to the spotlight with a proper third installment, No More Heroes III (NMH3). As a fan of Suda51, I was excited enough for the prospect of NMH3 and Suda51 returning to directing games that it acted as a catalyst for buying a Nintendo Switch in the first place. With little knowledge of the game’s contents, I got a physical copy on release day and eagerly returned to the Garden of Madness, wondering just how Suda51 would wrap up Travis’ story for good. Unfortunately, I felt increasingly disappointed as the game went on and felt cheated by the end result, especially at full price.

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes (+ DLC) (Switch)

What journey to No More Heroes III (NMHIII) would be complete without a look at Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes (TSA), the first in the series released on the Nintendo Switch and the first one directed by Suda51 himself sine the original game? Back when this game first released, its connection to the other games wasn’t certain, so we ended up skipping it. Once NMHIII received a formal announcement, however, we regretted this decision, as demand made owning a physical copy prohibitively expensive, so we ended up buying the game and DLC digitally. While this may be a cheaper and more convenient option for many, however, I’m not sure I would recommend it at full price unless you’re a hardcore Suda51 fan.

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (Switch)

After playing through both the original Wii and updated PS3 versions of No More Heroes, the next natural step was to play No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, originally released on the Wii in 2010. Much like the original game, however, we didn’t own a Wii at the time Desperate Struggle came out, so when we wanted a copy of our own, we found that due to its low initial sales, it was harder to find. As such, we opted for the physical Nintendo Switch release from Limited Run Games for the purpose of this review. We also discovered that at this point in Suda51’s career, he had less direct involvement in the games developed by Grasshopper Manufacture, so Nobutaka Ichiki directed Desperate Struggle instead. While the game still has merit, the general lack of involvement from Suda51 still shows.

No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise

A few years after the release of No More Heroes, it received a home console port for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (PS3), though only the PS3 version made it stateside. This port, subtitled Heroes’ Paradise, served as an upgraded HD version of the base game, complete with extra content and, notably, standard controller support. As I didn’t own a Wii at the time, and wouldn’t for a few years, I intended this version as my entry point into the world of No More Heroes, but certain statements in reviews of the time put me off. However, when Sony originally announced the end of PS3 store support in 2021, until they reversed it, I snagged a sealed copy before its price could climb out of my reach. As part of our buildup to No More Heroes III, I finally broke the seal and found myself enjoying an overlooked port of an already great game.

No More Heroes (Wii)

Our gradual journey through the work of Suda51 led us to one of his more well-known works, No More Heroes, developed by Grasshopper Manufacture and published by Ubisoft in the US in 2008. Though we got a copy over a decade after its original release, and even got it signed by character designer Yusuke Kozaki at a character design workshop, we wouldn’t get around to actually playing it until we started burning through our gaming backlog during a global pandemic. After all the good things we had heard about it until then, I can safely say that the original Wii release of the game holds up surprisingly well, but holds itself back with some design choices that obviously came from changes in direction during development.