“No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle”Platform: WiiStyle: 1-Player ActionPublisher: UbisoftDeveloper: Grasshopper ManufactureRelease: Jan. 26ESRB: MConcept: Beef up all the cool stuff from “No More Heroes” and replace the boring junk with 8-bit homages.Graphics: Still rough, but much more detailed environments and characters than the first game.Sound: Repetitive enemy screams won’t distract from an incredible, jazzy soundtrack.Playability: Travis Touchdown has a wider arsenal of moves and swords to help take out a greater variety of enemies.Entertainment: If you like goofy anime parodies and buckets of blood in your brawler, prepare to be amused.Replay Value: Moderately LowThe Bottom Line: 8.5/10
By Phil Kollar
Game Informer Magazine
Suda51 and his development studio, Grasshopper Manufacture, have always struggled to balance high ambitions with accessibility. Case in point, the original “No More Heroes” a brawler that parodied anime and video games, but included frustratingly boring side missions that were required to gain money to unlock progression.
In interviews about the game, Suda51 implied that he was reluctant to do a sequel usually a bad sign but perhaps forcing his team to focus on refining a single idea was the best thing that could have happened. In “No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle,” they have crafted everything fans could want out of a sequel. All the bad stuff from the original is gone or fixed in some way, and all of the good elements are magnified and improved.