PLATFORM: SWITCH | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
No More Heroes and its sequel, Desperate Struggle, have become firm cult favourites since their original 2007 and 2010 Nintendo Wii-exclusive appearances. Players are thrown into the shoes of Travis Touchdown, a filthy-minded assassin with a penchant for anime, pro wrestling and videogames. Finding himself ranked as the #11 assassin in the world, Travis climbs to the top of the table in No More Heroes – but, by the time the game’s follow-up arrives three years later, he’s slipped all the way down to #51, leading to the desperate struggle of the sequel’s title. Punky, a bit gothic, cartoonish, frequently obscene and visually striking (but not always in the best kind of ways…), both games were recently announced for the Nintendo Switch and immediately released the very same day, marking one of the most welcome surprises of 2020!
In the first game, Travis races around the coastal town of Santa Destroy on his massive motorbike, picking up part time jobs (actual jobs like mowing lawns, pumping petrol and collecting coconuts) and much more entertaining assassination missions to build up enough funds to enter the next ranked battle (and to purchase all kinds of upgrades to help the battles go a bit more smoothly). During combat, Travis slashes away at enemies until they’re weak enough to finish off by either dismembering them with his beam katana or blasting them into the ground with a variety of wrestling moves. Fighting the over-the-top bosses shakes things up by requiring a little bit more thought and patience, although it’s sort of a shame that the assassins have so much personality that you almost feel bad about killing them…
Desperate Struggle follows pretty much the same formula, except the open world of Santa Destroy is gone, replaced by a simple menu where players choose where they want to go, and part time jobs now take the form of 8-bit minigames. It feels like a slight step back in terms of world-building, but it does cut down on travelling which helps the game to flow a lot better and the new minigames are much more entertaining than the jobs found in the original. The assassins here have definitely taken a giant step up – even more insane than those seen in NMH, they’re some of the coolest bosses ever seen in a videogame. The offensive humour has been ramped up, too, which might not be to everyone’s tastes but feels right at home in a game like this.
Motion controls are available in docked mode for the authentic Wii experience, but you can turn them off if you prefer to use a regular controller. Controlling Travis with the Switch’s Joy-Cons feels great, with the motion controls mapped to the thumbsticks instead, and there don’t appear to be any performance issues to speak of at all. In terms of porting the game over to a new console, these two releases are pretty much a complete success. More than welcome additions to the Switch’s library, here’s your chance to experience Travis’ early years before the third fully-fledged game in the series arrives next year!
