The Jon Venture

2008’s No More Heroes for the Nintendo Wii was a guilty pleasure. Having never played a game designed by Goichi “Suda 51” Suda before, his tongue-in-cheek humor and social commentary was an incredible foundation for a fun and graphic hack and slash action game on a family console. No More Heores had moderate overall yet lackluster initial sales in both Japan and the US though, possibly because the hardcore crowd had since lost faith in the Wii; when both you and a slew of aging baby boomers are the target audience for a gaming system, the crowd not clutching a branded yoga mat usually falls to the wayside. To everyone who has remained faithful, to all gamers who still support their magic Nintendo box with hopes of an incredible gaming experience, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle will be arriving on January 26, 2010.

No “Desperate Struggle” jab will be taken here at the Nintendo Wii’s software lineup- way too easy.

For the gamers who were unfortunate enough to not play the first NMH, the game stars super otaku Travis Touchdown as he climbs the ranks of the United Assassins Association in Santa Destroy, California. The original game was similar to Tarantino’s Kill Bill film series in its sequenced pacing and outrageous bloody action, and Desperate Struggle looks to follow the same formula again in Santa Destroy while also adding Kill Bill’s theme of revenge. If that wasn’t enough to get you dusting off your Wii, then Travis’ beam katanas will. In addition to the standard beam katana from the first title and a yet unannounced variant, Travis will also be dual wielding beam katanas and swinging a Giant Beam Katana for longer range slashes. No, they’re not the trademarked lightsabers you’re thinking of. Lightsabers run on crystals, while beam katanas run on batteries and are much more satisfying to charge… and I just realized that series of references is probably why I had so much time to play the first No More Heroes in the first place. I think I just had a FML moment.

If Travis Touchdown’s sword slashing and exploder suplex antics still aren’t enough for you, then you might be interested in the other two characters playable in Desperate Struggle: Henry and Shinobu. Travis’ twin brother Henry returns from the first NMH, this time as a playable character, to continue their rivalry storyline which had not concluded during their last bout. Scarlet “Shinobu” Jacobs, the youngest assassin in the UAA, returns to Desperate Struggle as well after being spared by Travis the last time around. Spared, but wounded; Shinobu’s hand, which had been sliced off, now dons a black glove similar to Luke Skywalker’s from Episodes V and VI. Though both Henry and Shinobu are not playable at all times during the new game, their sequences offer a welcome change to the lineup and potential to expand the storyline from other assassins making their way up the ranks of the UAA. By the way, I know I threw in another Star Wars reference back there. Please be gentle.

New weapons, new playable characters, improved physics and enemy A.I., and an overhauled control scheme for Travis’ bike will all be included in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. Add those features to a refined game world and new fully 8-bit sidequests and all the components for a successful release are in place. Considering that the majority of gamers I know no longer own a Nintendo Wii, Desperate Struggle will validate my decision to keep from trading the system in last year after the release of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Desperate Struggle will receive renewed attention after the port of the first game in the series (to be titled No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise on the Xbox 360 and PS3) is released in February, but hopefully the full-fledged sequel will garner enough sales to keep the city of Santa Destroy alive and well in the mind of Suda 51. Alive as it can be, for a city full of cell shaded sex crazed assassins with beam katanas. The Wii will have at least one more hero this year when No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is released on January 26, 2010.

WARNING: This trailer contains explicit content and is not suitable for anyone under 18. Definitely going to watch it now, right? Still, you’ve been warned.