Whatever happened to all the heroes?
Not the most unexpected of titles I must admit, but the urge to dust off a certain Stranglers LP is just too… err… urging I guess. Anyway. Better focus on No More Heroes (anymore -heh) by Suda 51 and his Grasshopper Manufacture team instead. And if you absolutely have to know -and didn’t- No More Heroes is a stylish Wii game that oozes style the way an ooze oozes ooze and also happens to be a creation of roughly the same team that brought mankind the surreal Killer 7 game. In a nutshell it’s a brilliant game in an imaginatively surreal game.
Really. Not to over-hype the thing, mind you, but Suda 51’s latest oeuvre is probably the best thing you can get for your dear little Wii (well, in a while; you’ll probably be able to grab the thing in a month or so). It’s got violence, humor, sex, radical art direction, a truly odd story and spectacular graphics. Also you get to swing that Wiimote in an almost lightsabery way, and we all know this has been our collective fantasy for quite some time now. Actually, make that a beam katana way really, for that is what the odd thing your on-screen avatar Travis Touchdown will be wielding is called, but the difference is all but negligible. Anyway, exhaustive info will soon follow.
Oh, and while you’re waiting for the No More Heroes review to appear on this very blog, here’s some food for thought… How many video games you know of have been inspired by Jodorowsky’s El Topo?
Posted on January 22nd, 2008 by konstantinos
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Since first hearing about NMH last year, I’ve gone back and forth what to expect. Then around November, it struck me as an excellent game, even though I know Suda’s previous efforts.
But I’ve reached a point with games where my wife and I were with movies a few years back, when we watched a very violent movie with no redeeming qualities. We both were tired of the violence and didn’t see one for a couple of years. Yet, we have watched violent films that we have thought were good and enjoyable. But we’re now much more selective about these types of movies.
I’m an adult so I have no fear of being corrupted by violent games, which is really not something I think is a reasonable cause and effect. It’s why I started avoiding first-person shooters . . . I was just tired of the violence.
So I am debating both No More Heroes and Assassin’s Creed in part because now I’m not playing the “good” guy in these games, and I’m not positive that my character is killing only ‘bad’ guys. I appreciate the thoughtfulness of anti-heroes and morally ambivalent stories, like a Clint Eastwood western or El Topo. For me, I’m going to have to learn a bit more the stories and characters in these games before I buy and play them.
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:37 amTo be honest I don’t really care for violence per se, so I guess we’re sort of in the same camp. Again. Meaning, that is, I’m selective wit both my movies or my films. Can’t say I do enjoy extreme violence too much… And I did drink quite a bit while watching Pan’s Labyrinth. El Topo though… a masterpiece.
Now, on to NMH. First of all we wont be getting the red blood version of the game in Europe and I must admit I sort of enjoy that. Also what drew me to the game where the weird characters and what I consider spectacular graphics. Besides, bad guys always get the best lines…
January 22nd, 2008 at 9:51 amSo, does that mean you will pick up NMH? I’ll be interested in reading your thoughts on the game.
FWIW, the excellent Wii adventure game Zak & Wiki took a price drop.
January 24th, 2008 at 8:52 pmI absolutely mean to pick it up dear Guttertalk and will probably blog it too. Which reminds me, shouldn’t we hard-working bloggers be entitled to tons of review copies?
Thanks for the Z&W tip. A shame though…
January 25th, 2008 at 3:19 am