An anime game that exceeded my expectations.
Story 3/10 or 9/10
In No More Heroes 2 you play an assassin named Travis Touchdown. The premise? Get up in the ranks that are set by an association to get revenge on your friend's murder. Sounds pretty cool right? Well, it is...some times. This game does NOT take itself seriously. This is both good and bad however. If you're expected a game that has a serious undertone and makes sense, you wont be playing this game for its story. However, what this game does manage to do is create cool/bloody/comedic cut scenes at all the bosses. Never has a game really made me laugh as much as this game has. There's a lot of random stuff that will enjoy that the story does. The only real complaint is that it doesn't offer and ending to the first game which left in us in a cliffhanger...and this game does the same. It has the best and worst essentials of a story. I feel they could have improved, but it was executed pretty good.
Gameplay 10/10
Not many games have such a fluid and nice feeling control. The Wii controls actually improve a game, which is a rare find indeed. Every time you kill a person you are prompted to move the stick in the direction the screen indicates and you will perform a death move. It's a cool spectacle to watch, and it's a neat mechanic. The controls themselves are both easy and fluid to use. You mostly are mashing the A button, but depending on how you position the Wiimote you will perform different moves. I mentioned that you use a beam katana...thing, these are upgradable and there are 4 in all. They all have unique traits, so rather than just sticking with the newest one, they all have their own attack styles, stats and feel a bit different. Because they are beam swords, they have a battery meter that fills up when you charge it, but goes down if you block with it. Also, there is an esctacy meter, because Travis enjoys killing soo much he...well he enjoys it...a lot, the meter goes up with the more you kill and when you fill the the meter a number of things can happen that make you over powered and ruin the enemy's day. So the combat is very fluid, all around, the game beyond that is also great. You get about 15 bosses with this game, you have go to their territory and take them down, and some times you get a few characters from the past game that come and help on the way. It's cool to be able to control even more characters, they even play out differently then Travis. I really wish they would have had them playable beyond a certain point. Beyond the combat there are mini-games to be played to earn money which you can use to customize Travis. You can choose from hundreds of clothes, work out, and buy more beam sabers. In other words, it's awesome, and they are all accessible through a menu that replaces an open world. I like it, but some might not.
Graphics 10/10
They are nice looking, especially for a Wii, and they have a unique style to them. They are cel-shaded and are obviously influenced by anime. It looks great, obviously isn't 1080ip like you'll get on an Xbox 360 or Playstation 3, but I think it's still great.
Sound 9/10
Most of it is good. The music is varied enough to be interesting and the sound effects are all nice. However, some of the voice acting gets a bit on the repetitive side....but it's not THAT bad. Nothing wowed me on it, but it's certainly done well in this game.
Overall 9/10
This game is very good. It has challenge, good game play and enjoyable following.Read full review
