Spoiler alert: This is the first boss fight in the game.
If there's one thing we can't get enough of right now, it's No More Heroes. Suda's masterpiece (yeah, we went there) came in to our video game collection and proceeded to decapitate every single other game in its pursuit to be the top title of our library. We're so smitten, we've cuddled with the game's case every night in bed, clenching it tight against our chest like our teddy bears of old.
But enough about our rampant love of the game. One of the biggest concerns for Europeans is how the censored version would stack up the bloody affair that is the U.S. release. One gamer was kind enough to do just that, taking video of each death scene in the game from both censored and uncensored version of the game. So, if you're beaten the game or just don't care about spoilers, hit up the link below. For the rest of you, go play No More Heroes already!
The events of No More Heroesare catalyzed by Travis Touchdown's purchase of a beam katana in an online auction. Now preordering the game will enable Japanese gamers to reenact that part of the story, in miniature, and probably without the subsequent murders.
The "beam katana accessory" will be given out in limited numbers to people who reserve a copy of No More Heroes. It's made of metal (probably aluminum) and is 70 mm (2.5 inches) long. Dengeki considers it potentially suitable as a phone charm or as something to attach to a bag, although it may crunch your phone in your pocket, we think. Chances are most people will keep it in its packaging forever as a keepsake, a reminder of the time they went to a store.
To commemorate No More Heroes, developer Grasshopper Manufacture had some shirts printed up. There are seven different designs, most of which have color variants as well. As would be expected from the guys responsible for the rocking look of No More Heroes, they look awesome. They run from the somewhat normal (the No More Heroes logo on the front, "KILL ONLY" on the back) to the weird (a big Tengu mask with the word "TENGU" printed above and below in Japanese and English) to the obscure (the Santa Destroy shirt above).
There are a few problems. The shirts seem to run very small-- some are available in sizes up to a US small. They're also a little pricey at 3500 yen ($29). That's not quite King of Games territory, but it still seems a little high. Most problematic of all, however, is the fact that we haven't figured out how to get one out of Japan yet. They seem to only ship to Japanese addresses. Maybe NCSX or Play Asia will pick them up-- or maybe we can bug Ubisoft to sell some to US fans.
Oh, don't you see what I mean?The latest update on No More Heroes is the very best kind of update, in our eyes. It's a tiger-icon-related update. We've been dying of curiosity about the unconventional HUD elements in Suda 51's super-stylish, otaku-themed action game. TGS brought us tentative word that it was related to a "super mode" of some kind, and now we can see it for ourselves.
Each successful combo activates a slot machine; when you get three Grasshopper Manufacture grasshopper-guy heads, Travis transforms into a "Dark Side" mode; his skin darkens, his hair lightens and he can fight with enhanced speed and strength-- until the tiger walks across the screen to a "goal" area. Having a tiger walk a short distance is a perfectly logical way to express a limited strength increase, right?
The No More Heroes site just keeps churning out the (very short) videos, and we gobble 'em up with the same zeal every time. In fact, it's probably safe to say that this is one of the games we're anticipating most -- right up there with Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Mario Galaxy. That's tough company to roll with, but we think Travis can handle it ... and so we've once again got him in our video spotlight. Hit the jump to see why.
Tecmo is bringing the next Fatal Frame title to the Wii, and they're recruiting Team Awesome-Crazy at Grasshopper Manufacture on board to handle the details. Clearly, this eclipses all the other news that's come out of this year's Tokyo Game Show. That's it. There's no topping it.
Okay, maybe we're biased here, but Fatal Frame represents some of the best in horror gaming. While the photography-centric series lacks the action some prefer in survival horror games, Fatal Frame has always offered a gorgeous, spooky, thoughtful experience that blends horror and adventure. Combine that with the twisted sense of surrealism Grasshopper can bring to the table, and Fatal Frame IV is set to be an amazing title.
Now that we know that one of our favorite games has a publisher outside of Japan, we undertook the watching of the latest footage from TGS with a particular zeal. While neither offers sound, we do get a glimpse of the controls and a long, lovely look at the game in motion, which puts all the short clips offered by the official site to shame. Before, we were excited; now a new word will have to be created to communicate the passion with which we approach tSuda 51's offbeat No More Heroes. If anyone has any linguistic suggestions, please let us know. In the meantime, hit up the videos after the break.
Grasshopper Manufacture's violent, stylish, nerdy free-roaming action game No More Heroes finally has at least one release date. It'll come out in Japan on December 6.
That doesn't help the rest of us directly, but any forward progress in getting this game out the door is a good thing. Since the voice work for the game is already in English, localization shouldn't take a terribly long time, leaving only one major obstacle to a U.S. release. Unfortunately, that obstacle is finding a publisher.
Check after the break for another bite-size No More Heroes video-- they usually go up on Friday, but we suppose Grasshopper wanted to get one online before TGS.
And by "teaser," we mean "teaser"-- like the last set of videos found on the official No More Heroes site, these clips are, at best, travel size. They may even be fun size. But they're the coolest extremely brief videos you're likely to see today.
Today's clips show snippets of a battle between Travis Touchdown (whose name makes us smile) and Shinobu-- a battle that looks like it'll take us a good few tries. We don't exactly know how the game controls yet, but we assume that it's as difficult as it looks.
We've embedded the videos after the break. Blink a few times right now so you won't have to while watching.
When we say "brief" here, we really mean it -- these video updates from the official No More Heroes site offer no more than glimpses of the game. There's also a Grindhouse-esque grain to the footage, and we're not sure if it's simply the video quality, or the intentional look of the title -- either way, it doesn't spoil the effect. We've tucked the clips away after the break, and re-ordered them to save our pick of the best for last, since on the NMH site, it was first.
Posted Aug 17th 2007 1:30PM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
This year's Tokyo Game Show doesn't look like it'll be as Wii-oriented as we would like. CESA, the organization that holds the show, has published a list of games to be exhibited at TGS, only eight of which are waggly. We're fairly sure that publishers wouldn't put previously unannounced games on a list before the show like this, so we assume that they're all holding back the new stuff. This looks like a list of show-floor playable games anyway, which usually doesn't include brand new games.
We're happy despite the relatively small list, because it contains stuff like No More Heroes that we're dying to hear gameplay impressions of. Here are all the Wii games on the list:
Nights: Journey of Dreams
Ghost Squad
Doraemon: Himitsu Doguo Kettei Sen
Simple Wii Vol. 1 THE Everybody's Kart Race
Simple Wii Vol. 2 THE Everybody's Bass Fishing Tournament
Dragon Ball Z Sparking! METEOR
No More Heroes
Project O
[Link goes to a Japanese .PDF file containing the full exhibition list for all systems.]
Posted Aug 13th 2007 9:50AM by JC Fletcher Filed under: News
The latest No More Heroes site update reveals some of the different beam katana weapons that Travis Touchdown will be using in his quest to become the highest-ranked assassin in Santa Destroy for some reason. The "system" page has images of the pistol-gripped "Blood Berry," which is the katana that Travis wins from an auction, and the elegant Tsubaki, which is made for him by Naomi.
We think we're going to scour eBay for a couple of hours now. We're definitely pro-beam katana, even if we feel pretty strongly anti-assassinating-folks.
In other No More Heroes news, on the Kojima Productions Report podcast, voice actor Quinton Flynn revealed that he was a member of the No More Heroes voice cast, playing an Irish character named Henry. Flynn, best known for playing Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2, was on the podcast to discuss his upcoming reprisal of that role. But you guys knew all of that, because you already listen to the Kojima Productions Report every week, right?
Famitsu is conducting a guided tour of some of the locations from No More Heroes' assassin-filled town, Santa Destroy. This way, you can enjoy the scenery before being challenged to multiple deathmatches with eccentric murderers.
The cleverly-named No More Heroes Motel acts as home base for Travis. Seems like a classy place, as befits a serious competitor. When he's tired of watching color TV with a tethered remote, he can go out onto the beach we've seen in a lot of No More Heroes screenshots, whose name has been revealed as Body Slam Beach. Other locations include the Gasoline Stand, where-- wait for it-- Travis can get some gasoline, the Atomic Drop District (a big empty lot of some kind), and Naomi's Lab, where Travis can go to get weapon upgrades.
It's the rare game where a single screenshot of a fairly tame-looking motel setting can energize us. But we are so ready to Beam Katana our way up the assassins' ranks.
For once, we don't even mind that the text is difficult, because these new scans from Famitsu have so many No More Heroes pictures that we're too distracted to be unhappy. This is one game we never get tired of looking at; the character models are awesomely twisted, the environment is full of dirty, yet colorful images, and the whole thing has a sinister-yet-cartoony feel. We can barely tear our eyes away. We can't wait to get in there and start swinging our not-lightsaber. To check out the full scans, take a peek past the break, and get to clicking for the high-res versions.
Today's No More Heroes website update is something that we can all enjoy, regardless of Japanese proficiency: a bunch of screenshots of Travis's battles with Shinobu and Holly. Shinobu's turf is Santa Destroy High School, and Holly fights on the beach, as we know from already having seen the screens featuring her, albeit in a lower quality.
We see a guy beating up a bunch of high-school gang kids and our minds go immediately to River City Ransom. Of course, the player didn't have a beam katana in River City Ransom, and the brawl didn't culminate in a duel against a sword-wielding schoolgirl.
And by "teaser," we mean "teaser"-- like the 
