No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle

Desperate Struggle, the sequel to the early Wii release No More Heroes, by Suda 51, is very much an improvement over the original. Here is my review:

Plot- Continuing three years after the events of the last game, Travis Touchdown retired after reaching Rank 1 in the United Assassins Association, but is now back after being challenged by the UAA to take on the 51 assassins now standing in his way. As incentive, the number one assassin murders Travis’ friend Bishop, making Travis very determined now to fight to the top. Along the way former assassin Shinobu and his half brother Henry show up to help, whether Travis wants it or not. Included in this round of assassins are Charlie, a football star who also has a giant robot; Million Gunman, a revolver toting millonaire (of course); Margaret, a gothic lolita sniper/scythe wielding ghost (with easily one of the catchiest songs of the soundtrack); and also the return of previous assassins Dr. Shake and Destroyman, who have both been rebuilt after their previous fights in the last game. And others. Suda 51′s twisted humour and love of pro-wrestling are back, adding to the flavor.

Gameplay- Elements from the last game were either removed or improved, making this game very enjoyable. Gone is the sandbox world that you could spend a lot of time simply getting lost, now Travis can fast travel from location to location. The fighting controls are more fluid, and there are new combos that he can use. When playing as Shinobu and Henry, the controls are a bit different, meaning that you may not enjoy their levels as much as when Travis is in control, but admittedly there is only one short segment where you get to play as Henry, and it is barely relevant to the game. The side job minigames are back, but this time they are all modeled after old fashioned games, and they are definitely challenging at times. Since there is no overworld there is also less opportunities to use Travis’ bike, a shame since there could have been more that was done with it. The three settings, Sweet, Mild, and Bitter, are easy, difficult, and challenging, in that order. Upon trying easy and then moving up to Mild (Bitter is unlocked after beating the game) there is a great increase on the difficulty curve. Veterans of the first game should have no trouble with Mild, but there are a few boss fights that will take multiple tries. Now Travis can switch weapons mid-fight, which is very useful, since I find certain katana work better against various enemies.

Music and Visuals- This game has a very catchy soundtrack, as mentioned above my personal favorite is Margaret’s song, found here there is also remixed songs from the previous games as well as some other great music. The game itself has some of the greatest graphics on the Wii, although for laughs the minigames all look like they came from the SNES era. Character design is one of this games’ strong points, since every single boss has their own quirks, personality, and genre that they pull from. Travis can customize his outfit, in his trademark shades jeans, and jacket. If you listen carefully, there is even a soundbyte or two that seem to be from Killer 7, Suda 51′s precursor to No More Heroes that came out on the GameCube.

Overall- Desperate Struggle is fun, challenging, hilarious, rude, and awesome. A satisfying sequel, sadly Suda 51 announced that Travis will not be returning, although I think he would make an awesome addition to the roster of the next Smash Brothers. The game lives up to its name and the hype, and is a great addition to any game collection, and is a definite star for the Wii so early in the year. For XBox and PS3 owners, you can sample the first game as it gets a port (soonish) but I note that again Nintendo grabs a very good game first before the other two (others include Resident Evil 4 and Killer 7). For me the playtime was roughly ten hours, although that could take less or more time based on difficulty or the need to collect the games multiple little asthetics.

Movie Reviews: Double Feature

This holiday season had two films that I went to see; Sherlock Holmes, directed by Guy Ritchie, and Avatar, directed by James Cameron.

Ritchie has directed several amazing films like Snatch and RocknRolla, and Sherlock Holmes was an interesting choice for him. Starring Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr. as Watson and Holmes respectively, this movie is a great look at the Holmes mythos that really hasn’t been touched in a while. One thing that is very clear is that this is no longer just the Holmes who looks at the facts and solves the case from his apartment, but now Holmes is a judo expert who takes the scientific method and hangs himself with it (don’t try that at home). The plot revolves around the escape of Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) who Holmes had a big hand in bringing to justice. Blackwood goes about on a crime spree while Holmes’ more direct approach to mystery solving puts him right on his tale. This film is great on its own, but also is filled with plot hooks for sequels, most importantly Proff. Moriarty, who makes an appearance. This action Holmes may be different if you wanted the cool calculating presence from the original novels, but this version makes a solid impression on the Holmes character. Filled with action and humor, I recommend Sherlock Holmes, but be warned this is no Study in Scarlett.

Avatar (not the last Airbender) by James Cameron (director of Titanic) in 3D (where available) is the story of a wheelchair bound ex-marine who gets sent to a hostile planet environment where atmosphere itself is toxic, so that he can run around in an alien hybrid using some fancy super science that was meant for his brother, who died before the story begins but the DNA between is close enough (right?). Avatar is way better than that just sounded. Look past the terribly cliche story of him learning the ways of the People (or Navi, if you will) or the eco-unfriendly bigwig running the place who ignores the research conducted by the brilliant scientist he hired to study the planet (there’s stupid, and then there’s the stupid he gets because the plot demands it) and you get an amazing story of a guy who can’t use his legs, essentially piloting a seven foot tall blue monkey who rides around on dragons and destroys helicopters. This movie is AWESOME.

This film isn’t just all cliche and awesome fight scenes though, it actually surprised me a few times as the overall story is concerned. The main character Jake (Sam Worthington) is of course, not the super scientist his brother was, so the only reason he gets an avatar is because his DNA works with it. The movie has an early tell where the nerdy Joel Moore (Dodgeball, Bones) is of course upset that someone who is not a super scientist gets a free avatar when he spent his post-post graduate studies working towards it. The early animosity between the two actually gets mention later in the film as being resolved; something although trivial, I was really surprised by, since I either expected Joel to take part in betraying Jake somehow, or simply the movie forgetting about it and moving on. Thank you movie, for remembering to tell me what happened to that early plot point.

In comes Stephen Lang (Public Enemies, Gods and Generals) as the real villain, the Colonel in charge of the mercenary unit protecting the humans and harassing everything else on the planet. I may have just been rooting for him the entire time, but that doesn’t stop the fact that he’s a much more believable villain than the brainless CEO he works for. He takes a major part towards the end of the film, bringing the heavy firepower against the primitive tech of the Navi.

Avatar (in 3D or otherwise) is a great looking movie with good writing (if not predictable at times) and definitely a movie to see while its in theaters. It’s a bit long, almost three hours, but still a great chance to see a good quality film. It’s been in the works since ’94, and I recommend giving it a try.

-Minkus