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Suda's other assassin game hitting Japan in March
No More Heroes wasn't the only Goichi Suda game to cause our pulses to race in the last few weeks. With its Groundhog Day-esque hook and all-too-topical tale of airborne terrorism, we're anxious to hear whether or not Flower, Sun, and Rain will ever leave Japan. It doesn't strike us as the most import-friendly title, so unless you're one of those forward-thinking types who took the time to learn kanji, a western release might just be our best only hope.We know one thing, however: the game is scheduled to release in Japan on March 6th, and it has a shiny new official site to prove it. Poke around there, and you'll find a number of (tiny) new screens, character profiles for three of the game's fifteen primary characters (including protagonist and assassin Sumio Mondo), and a rundown on "Katherine," the suitcase-shaped instrument that Sumio carries to crack codes.[Via Go Nintendo]
Comic book manual makes No More Heroes even cooler
Perhaps "cooler" isn't the best word to use, since comics tend to be associated with, well, nerdy lifestyles. Fortunately, though, this is a video games blog, meaning that we completely eat up geek culture like it's delicious candy. The folks over at Grasshopper Manufacture seem to understand this, and have therefore decided to incorporate a comic book motif into the No More Heroes instruction manual. We can only hope that Ubisoft decides to use this style as well, but in case they don't, check out some pictures provided by Siliconera's Spencer Yip after the break.
GT previews No More Heroes, we need some time to recover
There is just too much awesome in this video preview for No More Heroes. Immediately after watching it, we had to turn off all of the lights, shut all of the curtains tight and lay down on our floor in the dark, going back over all of the greatness in our minds. Then, we got up and watched the trailer again. Then, we got back down on the floor and started crying. We need this game so freakin' bad, you have no clue. We'd take time to say what is in the video right around here (the body of the post), but then there might be a chance you wouldn't watch it. And that, we can't abide by. So watch it already!
Suda 51 approved Europe's bloodless No More Heroes
Grasshopper Manufacture CEO Goichi "Suda 51" Suda has made himself a target for fans angered by a recent display of perceived censorship in the European version of upcoming sword swinger, No More Heroes. Much like its Japanese counterpart, No More Euros has been scrubbed clean of blood, rewarding each violent slash with a spectacular gush of coins. In that sense, it couldn't be a more accurate metaphorical representation of the hitman motif that carries over from Suda 51's Killer 7.Regardless, a statement issued by Goichi Suda and Marvelous president Yashiro Wada hopes to divert the outrage away from publisher Rising Star games, noting that the decision was made "to release in Europe the same version as has shipped in Japan considering the broadly growing Wii market." Apparently, said broadly growing Wii market is entirely separate from that in America, where it's perfectly alright to add blood to the localized No More Heroes. A pretty weak justification then, likely conjured up to avoid a possible BBFC ban-trum.
Suda and Wada behind bloodless No More Heroes
A recent announcement that Europe would be getting a bloodless version of No More Heroes didn't go down well with many of our bloodthirsty commenters. At the time, PAL publisher Rising Star Games refused to reveal what was behind the decision, but more light was shed on the omission earlier today, in a joint statement from director Suda51 and producer Yasuhiro Wada (pictured above unsuccessfully trying to give away free toilet roll and autographs on the streets of Akihabara).Turns out that it was Suda and Wada themselves who decided to drop the outrageous levels of gore from the European version, citing the "broadly growing Wii market" in the region.Not that this affects many of you, as the U.S. version still contains plenty of the crimson stuff. Buckets of it, in fact.
No More Heroes themed Wii makes us sad no more
Hearing about No More Heroes' unsuccesful launch in Japan was enough to break our Suda-loving hearts, and make us really believe that the world is severely lacking in heroes. Fortunately, we were wrong. Kotaku reader Frank decided to show his support and respect for Suda51 with this Wii, which is all kinds of excellent. This fan tribute won't heal the wound of disappointing sales, but it's certainly a nice gesture. Like sending one of these custom Wiis to each of the Nintendo Wii Fanboy staff would be a nice gesture. (You can't blame a blogger for trying.)Another picture of this heroic Wii can be seen after the break.
No more blood in European version of No More Heroes
While we're glad that Rising Star will be distributing No More Heroes to Europe and Australia, some European (and yes, probably Australian) gamers might be peeved to know that the version of the game they get will be blood-free.Games Radar asked publisher Rising Star if this decision had anything to do with the recent Manhunt 2 BBFC fiasco, to which the company replied a telling, "Maybe."This certainly isn't the worst news in the world, and Japan is also playing the blood-free version, but we can understand if European gamers are a little disappointed by this development. Check after the break to see examples of the bloodless version versus the ridiculously bloody, Kill Bill-esque North American version.
European No More Heroes removes bloody gameplay
Director Suda 51 established one cold hard fact with his 2005 sleeper hit, Killer 7: every living person is composed of chunks of blood that explode jubilantly, like a blood piñata, when that person is killed. Though it contradicts the professional opinions of most anatomists, we are stringent supporters of the bloodsplosion ideology -- which is why we were so disturbed by recent gameplay footage for the European version of Suda's No More Heroes.Click the jump and watch as the game discards the stylish, bloody effects of Killer 7, replacing them with ... what are those? Coins? Vanilla Wafers? Whatever they are, they definitely aren't blood. We know blood when we see it -- because when we see it, we shout "yeah" and give each other high-fives.
Spoiler alert: No More Heroes for 10 minutes
The first ten minutes of the game, to be exact. So, if you're the kind of person who doesn't like to see a game before you play it, then you might want to check out some of our other stories. If such things don't bother you, then feast your eyes on the video above. We just fell in love with Travis that much more.[Thanks, Chris!]
No More Heroes with some more goodies, this time music
We know that you were impressed by the opening video for No More Heroes, because, well, you told us so. The people behind the game must have degrees in tease-ology, though, because now you can download music samples from No More Heroes at the game's official website. Even though they aren't full tracks, it's easy to tell that the music for this game is going to rock our socks off. Now we're even as hyped for the soundtrack release as we are for the game itself.To download the track samples, go to the bottom of this page and click on the orange buttons. Your ears will thank you.[Via Siliconera]
No More Heroes intro turns us into wannabe assassins
No More Heroes may be too hard (for wusses), but if you think that means we're going to stop our blatantly ridiculous amount of coverage for this game, you're wrong. In fact, after hearing about the difficulty (even if it was a fake translation), we're more pumped than ever.Our latest update brings you the game's English intro, according to Gametrailers. We love how the game completely demolishes the fourth wall, although some people may find that irritating. Also of note is Travis Touchdown whistling the NMH theme at the beginning. Caveat: We at NWF are rating this trailer NSFW due to cursing, violence, and Sylvia in skimpy outfits.
No More Heroes too tough? [update 1]
Famitsu recently reviewed Suda 51's No More Heroes and we're glad to say the game received some good marks. But, even though the game was received well by the Famitsu folk, they still found one problem with it: it might be a tad bit too hard. See, the game is supposedly too tough for the Wii's casual audience. So, it's not so easy to pick up and play like, say, Super Mario Galaxy is. At least, that's what Famitsu thinks.We would like to know exactly what Famitsu found to be too difficult about it, whether it was the difficulty of performing Travis's maneuvers or it was simply just the mission structure. Heck, it could've been a combination of any number of things. But, regardless, we can't wait until February, when we will find out for ourselves.[Update: We don't know the actual text of Famitsu's review, but we do know that the translated review summary was a joke on the part of NeoGAFfer "Dascu." We do know that the game received scores of 9, 8, 8, 9.]%Gallery-4611%[Via Go Nintendo]
Another Suda 51 classic coming to DS
Flower, Sun, and Rain, an adventure game released in 2001 for the Playstation 2, is being remade for the DS, according to the latest Famitsu. It's one of the earlier works of Grasshopper Manufacture, headed by Suda 51, and has a lot in common with later works.Like Killer 7 and No More Heroes, the protagonist of Flower, Sun, and Rain is an assassin. Sumio Mondo lives the same day over and over again until he can stop a bomb from exploding in an airport. To do this, he must also solve the problems of the people he interacts with during that repeating day. As time (fails to) pass, his hotel room starts changing to reflect his mental state.With The Silver Case's remake being done with an eye for international release, can we expect the same of Flower, Sun, and Rain? (Will The Silver Case actually be released outside Japan?) Is Suda 51 attempting to remake his complete works for the DS? That would certainly be welcomed by Suda fans and adventure fans. We've posted the magazine scan after the break.
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 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 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.
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.
Ubisoft publishing No More Heroes in the U.S.
Whether or not you enjoyed Killer 7, you can probably agree that it's a good thing that oddball titles like that are not only available, but localized for English-speaking markets. If so, you have another reason to celebrate today as Ubisoft has announced that they'll be publishing Suda 51's follow up No More Heroes in America in February.For the uninitiated, No More Heroes is a super-violent action/adventure featuring the awesomely-named Travis Touchdown (so much cooler than Randy R.B.I.) tracking down assassins and killing them with his beam katana. If you crave more information, check out the above Joystiq Award Winner for Best Trailer Evar.
Ubisoft: our new Heroes
Perhaps as an act of contrition for the DS Imagine games, Ubisoft has signed on as the U.S. publisher of a game people want to play: No More Heroes. Suda 51's cel-shaded, free-roaming wrestling/swordfighting/havin'-the-name-Travis-Touchdown game will be released in February, just two months after the Japanese release.Ubisoft's Tony Key cited a need for mature games in the Wii lineup-- a need insufficiently filled by their own Red Steel, right?-- as a major motivator for the decision to pick up No More Heroes. He also said that No More Heroes won't be cut to pieces for American audiences: "The game Ubisoft publishes in North America will have all of the content that its Japanese counterpart does. We wanted to make sure that gamers here would not miss out on any of the action or storyline details created by the talented development team in Japan."Keep doing stuff like this and Jam Sessions, Ubisoft, and we're going to stop making fun of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within.
No More Uncertainty about No More Heroes' Japanese release date
Grasshopper Manufacture's violent, stylish, nerdy free-roaming action game No More Heroes finally has at least one release date. It'll come out in Japan on December 6. That doesn't help the rest of us directly, but any forward progress in getting this game out the door is a good thing. Since the voice work for the game is already in English, localization shouldn't take a terribly long time, leaving only one major obstacle to a U.S. release. Unfortunately, that obstacle is finding a publisher. Check after the break for another bite-size No More Heroes video-- they usually go up on Friday, but we suppose Grasshopper wanted to get one online before TGS.
