No More Heroes
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No More Heroes toilet paper better be two-ply
It's not uncommon to give schwag at a game's launch party, but this No More Heroes themed toilet paper has to be one of the more original gifts. The toilet paper was only given to twenty lucky souls, making it extremely unlikely that you'll ever see one of these ridiculous rolls in your lifetime. Note to self: Next time Grasshopper Manufacture and Marvelous Interactive team up for a launch party, make sure to haul ass to Japan for the hilarious gifts. [Via Gemaga]
Your missions, should you choose to accept them
No More Heroes, being somewhat of an open-world game, will have a mission-based structure. Famitsu has revealed three of the mission types. They may be the only mission types found in the game -- we don't really know. Two of the three mission types fall under the obvious category of "hitting people with a beam katana a bunch of times," which is how we want to spend our time in the game anyway."Free Fight" missions involve just that -- fighting. In these missions, you're asked to beat up as many dudes as possible within a time limit. In "Murder Missions," you are assigned a target to assassinate. We don't know why we didn't think of this earlier, but the UAA assassins must actually work as assassins-- which means killing people other than each other. Finally, the "Part-time job Missions" consist of the hilariously random jobs we've seen Travis undertake in screenshots -- coconut collecting, cat care and the like.If all this gameplay information fails to hold your interest, head over to the No More Heroes website for another week of PLAYSYLVIA cosplay! This week, in addition to pictures of a model dressed as Sylvia, publisher Marvelous has helpfully provided a link to the retailer of the wig the model wears.
No More Heroes in amazing high-res screens
We've gotten so used to seeing No More Heroes in tiny screenshots on Japanese websites that these full-size screens are jarring to us. We had kind of forgotten what the game looked like in its actual resolution. While the geometry is simplistic and there are some jaggies and stuff, No More Heroes, like its predecessor Killer 7, makes brilliant use of an intentionally technologically limited graphics engine. There are actually elements in No More Heroes that don't really appear in Killer 7, like textured environments. We couldn't be more excited about cutting up mean baseball players and high school students. The game is a work of art. Don't believe us? Check out the latest screenshots from IGN, jerk!
No More Heroes' newest assassin: Bad Girl
This magazine scan shows yet another of the insane professional killers Travis will have to face down in his bid to become the top assassin in the UAA, and it's ... another young girl. The newest addition to the No More Heroes cast is Bad Girl, who dresses in a Gothic Lolita style and hits people with a baseball bat. What a nightmare she must be for her local dry cleaner.The scan also reveals a couple of new part-time jobs found in the game: graffiti removal and taking care of an adorable kitten! Motion-based grafitti-cleaning? It's like Jet Set Radio in reverse. Check the break for the full scan!
No More Heroes PLAYSYLVIA cosplay: week 1
Yuzuki Aikawa is the first model to be featured as a Sylvia Christel cosplayer on the No More Heroes website, and you can see the results here. The site is, of course, brimming with pictures, all presented in the same playing-card motíf.What's infinitely funnier than pictures of a girl in clothes are the captions on the cards. "Cool & Sexy," the one to the right reads. Others read "Knockdown," "Sexy Cat," and "Kyun (heart)," the latter apparently a Japanese psychomime word for "a heart aching with warm emotion." Check next week for more kyun-inducing girls in platinum blonde wigs. We may throw in some more Japanese linguistics, since we know that's what really gets your attention!
No More Heroes brings us one more trailer
It'll only be a few months before we get to play No More Heroes (assuming there are no delays ... please excuse us while we go knock on wood). Until then, though, we're going to soak up every bit of the game that we can, including this game trailer. This video gives a brief look at some of the characters in the game, including Travis Touchdown and Sylvia, but we think the music might be the best part. Note: Video contains NSFW language, violence, some scantily clad women, and a super excited Japanese announcer.
No More Heroes: More Sylvias on the way
An announcement on the No More Heroes website says that during November and December, a Sylvia Christel cosplay event called "PLAYSYLVIA" will be featured. In the "web cosplay event," gravure idols will dress up as Sylvia and then do what they do best -- be photographed. If you like to see girls who look sort of like fictional characters, you will no doubt be pleased with this. Could this be inspired by the amazing Travis Touchdown cosplay we featured yesterday? Probably not! It takes more than a few hours to plan an inititative like that and hire models and photographers and stuff. Also Grasshopper Manufacture seems to be pretty in tune with their target audience (otaku) and having pretty girls dress up as one of the characters is basic marketing for otaku stuff.Check after the break for this week's new No More Heroes videos! They are comical, and also (as usual) very short.
New 'No More Heroes' spots show off coconut, garbage collecting
Good times come February, friends. By then we'll have officially given up on our New Year's Resolutions, making way for more decadent, artery-clogging food, and Goichi Suda's bizarre, frightening No More Heroes will be hitting US shelves. No More Heroes releases on December 6th in Japan, and leading up to the launch the official site has been updated with a bevy of new videos.The two highlighted here show the lead, Travis Touchdown, the most awesomely named character in any fictional construct to date, collecting the mundane -- garbage and coconuts. Who said being an assassin was all blood and body bags? Hit the jump for the second video.
Homemade No More Heroes beam katana contradicts the game's title
Is it a good idea to make a costume and custom-built beam katana prop based on an unreleased game that may not turn out to be any good? Not at all! Is it an awesome idea? HOLY CRAP YES. This No More Heroes Travis Touchdown costume from .ed is the antidote to yesterday's WarioWare cosplay. The jacket and shirt and drawn-on sideburns are great, but the real draw is the homemade beam katana accessory, which, using science, lights up with a blue glow. It looks just like the Blood Berry beam katana that we've only seen in tiny pictures!The costume is so good that it even got the attention of a Grasshopper Manufacture employee named Naoko, who emailed him and said " I've just checked your pictures. It looks great. I really like it. I hope people recognized what you made for."
The power of Lovikov is a curious thing
Some new gameplay info came out about our favorite upcoming Wii game (Super What-io What-axy?), No More Heroes, in the form of a seeming underworld connection to get Travis Touchdown some special moves. Apparently he can collect "Lovikov Balls" around Santa Destroy. Returning these items to the man for whom the balls are named, some drunk dude called Lovikov, nets you special moves.Two of the seven moves are shown off in screenshots at the No More Heroes site, and in larger screenshots at Famitsu. "Memory of Demon" is a super-powerful sword move that can pull off one-hit kills. "Memory of Child" enables you to run at super-speed.
No More Genki Rockets
You'll be able to acquire VHS cassettes featuring music videos in No More Heroes, for viewing back at Travis's nerdtacular home (on an apparently tiny TV, judging from our hero's posture.) The first such video to be revealed is Genki Rockets' "Heavenly Star," which is appropriately nerdy for inclusion in the otaku-fronted game.How nerdy is "Heavenly Star?" Well, the song's not about Doctor Who or anything, but it is performed by a group of fictional musicians who are from the future. Like the Gorillaz, the Genki Rockets manifest as holograms in live performances. And this (gorgeous) video was produced by Q? Entertainment's Tetsuya Mizuguchi for inclusion in Lumines II. Of course, you don't need to wait for No More Heroes or go buy Lumines II to see the video; we've embedded it after the break.
Wii Warm Up: So many heroes
One of the most interesting aspects of the upcoming freakfest No More Heroes is the wacky cast of characters. Leading the pack, of course, is our antihero, Travis Touchdown. But we're going to discount him for our purposes today, since after all, he's the main dude of dudes in the game. Instead, we want to capitalize on the colorful secondary characters, with their humorous names and weird costumes. From Sylvia Christel to Destroyman, which one seems the most interesting to you (of those we've seen so far?)? And isn't it a shame that you'll probably have to kill them all?Wait, did we say shame? What was really meant is, isn't it awesome?
Japanese No More Heroes fans get their own beam katanas
The events of No More Heroes are 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.
No More Coconut Collectors
The No More Heroes website has provided us with more brief video updates today, as well as some new information about what Travis does when he's not killing murderers. Specifically, some hilariously charming part time jobs, including grass-cutting and coconut collecting. According to the caption on this photo, Travis has decided to use a Rolling Sobat to knock down a coconut, but ended up losing time because it fell on his head. On the one hand, oh no minigames, but on the other hand, the jobs sort of remind us of Shenmue, and will probably be great anyway. We're happy to report that this week's video update (embedded after the break) contains a lot more action in each teensy clip than last week's. Check them out for some awesome sword work from Travis!
No More Nudity: Grasshopper Manufactures some t-shirts
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.[Via Dengeki]
No More Heroes: Destroyman and disco
The No More Heroes web page was updated today, as tends to happen on Fridays, but this time we've got more than just the awesome videos. The "Topics" page was updated with some character descriptions, which a GameFAQs user helpfully translated (and a NeoGAFfer kindly posted so we wouldn't have to brave the GameFAQs forums). Along with info about how much Sylvia enjoys sunning, the page gives a little bit of (akwardly translated) biographical data about Destroyman: "All-American hit-man association ranked number 7. Usually, he works a difficult job to get him where he is, but there is another side to him, and this is his face! It exceeds the framework of mere cosplay, the American becomes a super hero and strives to kill and drill (?)." Also introduced is a new character named Dr. Peace, who looks a lot like Charles Bronson and carries a golden pistol. He's a corrupt detective who is also the ninth-ranked assassin.We've embedded one of the three new videos above; check after the break for the other two, which are maybe the most banal game-preview videos we've ever seen. One, at least, demonstrates the free-roaming nature of No More Heroes, a bit.
You can see his stripes, but you know he's clean
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?
TGS hands-on: No More Heroes
Given the over-the-top action and exuberant style found in Grasshopper Manufacture's No More Heroes, it came as a great relief to learn that the game's control scheme wasn't similarly vigorous. There's nothing worse than an action game that translates fairly familiar tasks into manic swatting for the simple sake of justifying its existence on the Wii. That isn't to say the motion controls are so reserved as to become worthless, but No More Heroes does seem to share our support of No More Flailing -- sometimes it makes more sense to smack someone with a sword simply by pressing a button.Here, the button in question is the one obviously marked "A" and the sword is a lightsaber. It's really more like a battery-powered katana, but we're confident that the Star Wars weapon is culturally ingrained enough to make the explanation that much simpler. Rather than get into electric sword specifics, know that protagonist and assassin Travis Touchdown uses one to hit and slice things repeatedly. Said things are targeted by holding the Z-button on the nunchuk, evaded by pressing on the directional pad and ultimately sent into a stunned state with enough battery. (A cheeky double reference there, as you also have to recharge your sword occasionally by giving it -- and the Wii remote -- a few jolts, just like you would an uncooperative flashlight.)
Friday Video: Destroyer of oil
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.
TGS07: Finally, someone explains the tiger
As happy as we are to hear gameplay impressions of No More Heroes, all of which cast the game as a straightforward combo-based action game in the vein of God Hand (YES) with limited, and sensible, waggle, none of the hands-on posts have satisfied our curiosity regarding the game's most mysterious feature: the tiger.We've stared at screenshots and video, hoping to glean from context what is going on with the little tiger icon in the upper right corner, to no avail. We cheered as, during one TGS demo video, the booth attendant seemed to point in that direction, but nothing ever came of that, either. That's why Spencer Yip is awesome. He asked point-blank what the deal with the freaking tiger was, and brought back the answer to the expectant masses like Moses coming down with a very specific set of commandments that don't actually tell anyone to do anything. It turns out that it's a meter for a "super mode" transformation that has yet to be implemented.We can relax now.
