No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is the sequel to No More Heroes, and I was drawn to the series because of Suda51 (who I have been a fan of since Killer7 on the Gamecube).
Like the first game, this game is a pretty repetitive action game which benefits from good motion controls and an amusing plot. In comparison to the first game, some areas of the game were improved, but others are less even.
The story of the game pretty much mirrors the first game - the UAA (United Assassins Association) has ranked Assassins, and you start at the bottom of the rankings and try to fight your way up to #1. It's spiced with a bit of revenge; turns out the #1 assassin kills your best friend, Bishop (the guy at the movie store and who would bring you your bike in the first game). In this game, you start at #51 instead of #11, but thanks to a number of plot devices, there are only 15 boss fights. To increase your rank, you enter the next "ranking battle" (which are the main missions), fight off a bunch of weak enemies, and then eventually confront the Assassin ranked above you and defeat them.
In No More Heroes 1, this part of the game was perfect. Each level could be played through in approximately 10-15 minutes, which is approximately as long as the button mashing combat in this game is fun. Yes, there is more depth to the combat then just mashing buttons - you can attack low or high, and use wrestling moves instead of your beam katana. There are also occasional motion controls, usually swiping the controller for a finishing move, to break up the combat. But in practise, I found the most effective way to play the game was to tap the a button as fast as possible, and if I ever stunned an enemy, switch to hitting B (since no matter what health they were at, that would perform a grab, which would kill them). Unfortunately, some of the levels - especially near the end of the game - ran a bit long in this game, and I'd be pretty sick of the fighting by the time I reached the boss.
I did also encounter less weapon clashes in this game. A weapon clash was when you and your opponent would strike at the same time, and your weapons would meet mid-strike; it was then up to you to basically "wax-on" your wii-mote fast enough to push them back, which would result in you getting to kill the enemy in one hit. These were basically random but really added a lot of spice to the combat; yet in No More Heroes 2, they were a lot less frequent.
The boss fights were of course the highlight, but I found that while some bosses were just as fun in the first game, there were a couple whose dialogue + design was less hilarious and/or out there. For example, one of the early fights has you fighting against a Resident Evil parody boss, but they say nothing, so the fight lacks the ridiculous dialogue.
A few of the bosses were frustrating as well; one boss would shoot you with strong bullets, which would drain your battery fast, then run away, and although I was never close to being defeated, I felt like combat got locked into an endless combat of me blocking, charging my battery, and then doing my best to catch up with her and dodge her next attack until I could finally get 3-4 hits in, at which point she would then use another move to run away.
There were some really great bosses however, for example, Destroyman returns from the first game, with a neat twist - since you cut him in half, there are two of him, each half-human half-machine. (Unfortunately, the second half was also another boss I spent more time chasing then fighting).
The programmers also tossed in a bit of a twist, letting you play as Shinobu for a couple of fights (she was the girl you decided not to kill in the first game), and there is one completely-random fight where you play as Henry (your half-brother, also from the first game) against some weird messed up anime girl in his head? It makes more sense during the game. (Wait - nevermind - no it doesn't XD). There's even one fight where Travis operates a giant robot!
The non-mission gameplay has been much improved since the last game. You no longer have to pay ridiculous sums of money to get to the next ranking battle, instead being able to go them one after the other if you so desire, so there's less pointless running around. Mini-games for money still exist, but all of them (except one) are 8-bit style, and a lot more arcadey, less frustrating. The money you get from those can be used to train Travis (which is actually relatively cheap) or to buy new weapons. There is no more driving around through the city, which is also a great improvement.
In total, No More Heroes 2 is a really fun game, and it has been much streamlined since it's predecessor, as well as expanded (with 5 more boss fights). That being said, I think it wasn't quite as successful as the first - the last boss fight, for example, was not such a shocking, ridiculous revelation as the last boss in the first game, the story was still ridiculous but some of the bosses lacked any charm of their own, and some of the missions seemed to drag on.
Still, definitely worth playing if you enjoyed the first.
Trailer:
Buy it - Amazon.ca
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