No More Heroes is a franchise I totally forgot I needed in my life. I played the first two to death when they released on the Wii, and always wanted to see where the series was headed or even if we would ever see Travis Touchdown again. The series has long been known to be a bizarre little love letter to gaming, and with Travis Strikes Again, director Goichi Suda (known as Suda51) is as sharp as ever. This time paying homage largely to the indie game scene, Travis Strikes Again is No More Heroes but not as you know it.
The general premise of the plot is best left unexplained, but the game opens with Bad Man trying to murder Travis Touchdown as revenge for him murdering his daughter, Bad Girl from the first game. Somehow, through some strange power, they’re both sucked into the Death Drive MkII, Travis’s rare unreleased gaming console, and must fight their way out. It’s a bonkers story though I’d expect no less from auteur director Suda51 – and includes elements of government conspiracies, existential crises and talking cats (and sheep).
Most of the game is played through a top down perspective, not unlike Diablo and Baldur’s Gate. The difference is that Travis Strikes Again is incredibly fast paced, requiring players to dodge and evade attacks not unlike a game like Bayonetta or Devil May Cry. The difference in Travis Strikes Again is in its simplicity – which would normally hold back a game like this. Instead, Travis Strikes Again takes its simplistic premises and transposes them into strange and bizarre situations.
Each of these games has their own title screen and intro cinematic too – including one that fans of Suda51’s previous work will absolutely adore which I won’t spoil for you. What I’m trying to say is that even though the core gameplay is quite simplistic at first, each of the worlds Travis plows through are different enough to keep things interesting.
There’s even a faux-magazine article for you to read before jumping into each game, which lists a review as if written in a real magazine and cheats for you to look out for. It’s a loving ode to that era of gaming.
Perhaps the biggest thing to note here is that Travis Strikes Again can be played coop with a friend using as little as a single joy-con. This is a great and fun way to play, as the game is simple enough to be picked up and played by almost anyone, but the way progression is handled in the game feels a bit at odds with itself. Earned experience is shared between the two characters means that you’ll have to decide which character to level up – as you can’t level both using the same experience.
If you’re playing solo, you can switch between the two characters though this is cumbersome, requiring you to go into a menu and switch out that way. It’s nice that it can be done at all and essentially gives you a second health bar and second set of abilities to switch between but being able to swap on-the-go would’ve been even better. Perhaps there’s a reason for this, but I couldn’t see one after my extensive time with the game.
Potentially the biggest question most players would have been whether this simplified gameplay style remains interesting from beginning to end. Thankfully, it does. The game’s pacing feels well-tuned, although the final level does become a bit of a grind. Perhaps I wasn’t meant to finish this stage in one sitting, but it was the only time in the game’s whole story that I felt it was a bit grating. Otherwise, the combat is simple but excellent and the enemy encounters and gimmicks inserted here and there (including racing, a visual novel style of exposition and puzzles) keep things fresh.
I mentioned the soundtrack and will reiterate again – this is one of the finest soundtracks in any of Grasshopper’s games, with an eclectic mix of heavy electronica and kooky sci-fi inspired fare. Of course, I’m still humming the classic No More Heroes tune days after finishing the game, which is catchy as ever and incorporated nicely into the different game worlds which each have their own unique sound too.
