Rated CBAM!: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (Review)

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (Nintendo Wii)

Rated “M” For “Mature”

In the first “No More Heroes,” Travis Touchdown climbed his way up to be the number one ranked assassin in Santa Destroy. He then chose to walk away from it all. Three years later, Travis once again readies his beam katana as he attempts to be number one again.

=====Story=====

After three years from achieving the highest rank of assassin, Travis has a package crash through his window. Inside is the head of his best friend, Bishop. With rage now coursing through his veins and knowledge of who might be behind his friend’s death, Travis once again puts himself into the assassin death matches. At the top is Travis’ target, the one behind Bishop’s death. The Crownless King must now start from Rank 51 and work his way up the ranks to avenge his friend.

It’s not like the first game when all Travis really wanted was some action from Sylvia.

Does the continuity from the first game really matter? Travis and the returning Sylvia quickly explain that it really doesn’t matter. It does help as more characters other than Sylvia make cameo appearances throughout Travis’ blood red path.

=====Gameplay=====

There are 2 ways to play Desperate Struggle; with the Wiimote or Classic Controller. Either way, you control Travis and hit the attack button to slash away at the foes in your way. When prompted, enter the proper motion or button combination to perform wrestling and death moves to finish the bad guys and make the blood and cash flow. It’s very similar to Travis’ first run through the ranks.

Deathblows rotate the slots and give you a possibility of a random ecstasy ability. Old abilities like Strawberry On The Short Cake are still there as well as new ones like turning into a tiger and mauling your enemies. That’s right, you can turn into a tiger.

The other ways of play come from the Whore Time money games you can play between ranking battles. These look and play like old-school 8-bit games. Games vary from vacuuming bugs to creating tetris-esque tiles to gathering trash in space. Each one is 8-bit to the bone (except one) and really feels like a game created during that era. How else do you expect an assassin to earn money?

=====Difficulty=====

Two modes of difficulty are available from the start with a third harder difficulty that can be unlocked upon becoming the number one assassin. The harder difficulties will bring it to you as enemies come in larger swarms and hit harder.

Bosses are all unique and require a certain strategy to defeat them. Once you figure that out, it’s just a matter of taking them down as some are more of the “run away” type as others are the “constantly beat on your face until you have no more face” type. The ones that beat on your face can be pretty relentless and really don’t want Travis to regain his crown.

The 8-bit minigames are as hard as 8-bit games are and can be. Blame any difficulty on it due to the limitations in programming during those times or just your own inability to play such simple games.

=====Content=====

Just like your first time being a No More Hero, there is one path for you to take and that is up the ranks. Thankfully, or not, you don’t have to grind for money endlessly to enter ranking fights. That does mean that anything requiring money is strictly optional. If you just want to rise through the ranks, then that’s all you have to do. If you do want to buy new beam katanas, new clothing for Travis, or train to become stronger, then you need to put in your whore time and earn that money.

Going the money route does add time to the game. Training becomes overly priced as you progress through the program. Buying all the clothing to dress Travis as the best assassin will takes millions of dollars to do. The lack of beam katanas that Naomi offers aren’t that cheap. So if you want all to be a completist-assassin, then you definitely will get a ton of hours added to your game.

Other ways to earn money and earn game time is with the Revenge Missions. These missions allow Travis to go after the people who actually took Bishop out. There are 2 types of Revenge Missions; “beat everyone in the time limit” or “kill that main guy who was one of Bishop’s shooters.”

There isn’t just stuff to do outside of your hotel. If you don’t feel like earning money or slaughtering humans, you can just chill in Travis’ hotel. You can learn new wrestling moves through Travis’ wrestling magazine subscription. You can try out the Bizarre Jelly 5 game. This vertical shoot-em-up features the original 3 characters of the Bizarre Jelly anime Travis loves along with 2 new characters. Take some time off and enjoy a little bullet hell.

And then there’s Jeane, Travis’ cat. She gained quite a bit of weight over the past 3 years. Help her to lose some weight. Even an assassin needs a healthy and fit pet.

=====Final Thoughts=====

No More motorcycle. The motorcycle is still there, you just don’t have to manually drive it around town anymore. A simple menu plops Travis at his destination of choice (he drove himself there). You do still get to see familiar areas of Santa Destroy this way.

No More Bishop. Unfortunately, that’s why Travis is an assassin again.

No More ranking fees. Explained earlier, but money is just for buying stuff and not for ranking entry.

No More M rating. Actually, the game truly earns its M rating. Blood, sexual undertones, blood, killing, blood, sexual overtones, blood, smoking, blood, mo-e, blood, sexual innuendos, blood, violence, blood, colorful language, blood, abstract storyline, and blood.

No More just playing as Travis. A couple of returning characters get some play time in Travis’ struggle.

No More jumping. While Travis could never manually jump (and still can’t), the jumping sequences for one of the extra playable characters was not the greatest. The game is far from being a platformer, but the jumping could’ve been polished more.

No More smoothness. Some cut scenes seem slowed down and choppy.

No More creepy voiceovers. You won’t hear the creepy NMH/Killer 7 voiceover announcing your opponent.

No More no sex. That’s right.

No More music. A few areas of the game do play with no background music, which fits some areas. Sadly, the music isn’t as memorable this time around, but thankfully some old tunes return. It would’ve been nice had they had another song like “Heavenly Star” in the game. Possibly another hit from the Genki Rockets.

No More jacket. Completing all Revenge Missions allows you to not wear a jacket. I feel they missed an easy word play here by calling it “No Jacket” instead of “No More Jacket.”

No More ball collecting. There are only a few extra techniques that Travis can learn this time. At least you don’t have to travel around town trying to spot where balls are.

No More Thunder Ryu. Since he was slain in the first game, your training comes via Ryan, a big guy with a mustache and a pink one-piece. His 8-bit way of training will make you stronger and make you have no more poopie face.

No More robot. You only get to play with your robot once in this game.

No More extras. Wrong. Other than the Bitter difficulty, Death Match will be unlocked. Fight against the top assassins again and try to do it as fast as you can.

No More mo-e. Wrong again. Bizzare Jelly 5, there’s your mo-e.

No More recharging your beam katana. Again, wrong. That same familiar gesture to recharge your death weapon is still there. New is the phallic energy bar for your beam katana.

No More phone calls. A cool feature of phone calls from Syliva coming from your Wiimote are gone. Sylvia only calls you through your phone at your hotel.

No More over-the-top. EVERYTHING is over-the-top. Just like in the first game, the characters, the art style, the story…EVERYTHING is over the top.

No More perfect score. With the changes and improvements from the first game, Desperate Struggle still is structured well and delivers as a great sequel. But I think it had a lot to live up to with the first one receiving a lot of praise. Not that the first one was perfect, but it did raise the bar for Suda 51. If a third title is to be made, they can only make it better by meshing the best of both No More Heroes. And standing at the top of the mountain will be Travis Touchdown stained in red.