Review for Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes. Game for Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 18/01/2019
In the days preceding this review a question gripped us: how to best communicate a title as contradictory as Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes? This is because, playing the latest effort of Suda we fell in love with an original title like few others, but with obvious limits; fun, but with quite naive game design problems; with a unique and phenomenal style, but with an approximate graphic sector. A game that seems to represent two sides of a coin, but that's not what makes the review complex.
Usually in the review, strengths and weaknesses are highlighted, summing up how much it is worth bearing the limits to appreciate the positive sides. But with this title, such an article wouldn't do. The difficulty of reviewing Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, lies in being able to communicate how this game proves to be a phenomenal experience, while highlighting its objective problems. Practically bringing out the merits to the point of convincing those who could be bothered by the defects to still give the game a chance. This is because the new No More Heroes is a simply unmissable title, not because it can please everyone, but because it offers an experience of pure and constant surprise that few titles, almost none, are able to give today.
To start the discussion on Travis Strikes Back in the best possible way, we need to start by recognizing its limits. The title runs on Unreal Engine, as Travis himself often reminds us, but the graphic impact, as far as pure technique is concerned, is not the best. Some textures are low resolution (remarkably low), and the peculiar graphic style (also common to the first two No More Heroes) fails to mask them. This is perhaps also a symptom of the game concept itself, which aims to use an enormous variety of different styles to differentiate the various game “worlds”, but it is undeniable that the graphic impact is definitely affected.
In addition to the discourse on graphics (remember, graphics, not aesthetics, which we will talk about in the second part of the review), there are also a couple of ingenuities in terms of gameplay to be emphasized. For example, although the title is designed to be played also in cooperative (which it manages to do and also very well), the camera has a strange behavior, which can very often lead one of the two players to leave the frame.. Furthermore, still talking about camera management, this, although fixed (usually the best choice for Hack and Slash), can be limiting. Of course, there are warnings that signal attacks from outside the screen, but the fact remains that more could be done. Finally, it should be noted that in two specific points of a level there are always mini freezes. Little stuff that disturbs just the first few seconds after entering a level, but considering the unimpressive graphics properties you could have done better here too.
You may have noticed that, despite a talkative introduction, he has not yet really specified the genre of Travis Strikes Again: this is because, while attesting to its base on the hack and slash genre, the title of Suda51 does not really embrace a genre. The synopsis of the title is that Travis and Bad Man, father of Bad Girl, one of the bosses of No More Heroes, are sucked into a cursed console called Death Drive MK II. In order to make a wish, the two must be able to complete all seven games released for this legendary console. This premise is what Suda51 has built a journey of sheer madness on, consisting of surprises, constant fourth wall breaks and lots and lots of fun.
At the basic gameplay level, Travis Strikes Again looks like a hack and slash with a strong action vein, where statistics and loot, typical of games like Diablo, give way to super-moves and adrenaline-fueled fights, with limited skills but all useful and capable of creating devastating combos. The combat system is fun, especially at high difficulty, and suitable for cooperation where it manages to give a strong tension in co-op, without ever being particularly unbalanced. There are enemies with strange moveset that can be annoying, but a minimum of tactics and a lot of skill allow you to overcome even the biggest obstacles. In single, however, the unlockable post game mode is a bit tedious in some places, but it is something that we feel we can forgive considering how much fun this is playing in two. Honorable mention also to the bosses, all different from each other both aesthetically and mechanically, but above all all very fun, with special attention to the phenomenal and adrenaline-pumping final boss.
However, Travis Strikes Again doesn't wallow in his combat system, completely snubbing it for several sections. This is in favor of a constant and surprising change of scenery that can put Travis in completely unexpected situations. The aesthetics of each individual stage are unique and distinctive, and while a couple of stages are less inspired, the overall result remains impressive. The best tribute that the vintage videogame has ever had, a game that does not use an already existing style to pay homage to the past, but that takes its own aesthetic and reinterprets the vintage videogame inside.
Anyone who knows Suda51 knows that his games exude style. Anyone who knows Suda51 also knows how this author loves, from time to time, putting something completely out of place in his titles to blow players away, such as when Shadows of the Damned transforms from TPS to 2D bullet hell for an entire stage. Travis Strikes Again is the apotheosis of Suda51's videogame ideology, given that style and sudden gender changes are the order of the day. Added to this are the numerous irreverent dialogues, with the much loved Travis in shape as always, experimenting with new types of humor compared to those of the canonical saga No More Heroes but remains a familiar and faithful character to himself.
What makes the new Nintendo Switch exclusive so special is precisely the style that Grasshopper Manufacture has decided to use to create this game. A game that does not stand as No More Heroes 3, but uses the "No More Heroes" brand as an excuse to actually be a celebration of Suda51's ideology and career. And let's talk about an ideology that bases the fun of a video game on the unpredictability of it, the result? A title for more or less ten hours, in which twenty minutes do not pass without something memorable happening. Suda51 is a strange author, so the celebration of him as an author could only be out of his mind. A game of which I struggle to choose screenshots to include in the review, for the fear of being able to ruin even one of the many surprises it has in store for the player.
But it would be unfair to just talk about Suda51's hand, after all Grasshopper's titles are also famous for the music sector… and Travis Strikes Again is perhaps the most ambitiously crazy title that the latter has produced in terms of soundtrack. The synthwave tracks composed to represent the various titles of the Death Drive Mk II are exceptional and surprisingly varied, able to best represent both the industrial punk of the settings of Electric Thunder II, and the eerie and glitzy Coffee and Doughnouts hotel. All this with obviously some special goodies, especially for fans of the previous Suda51 titles.
Travis Strikes Again is not at all what we expected, but not only did it not disappoint us, it entered our hearts precisely because we did not expect something similar. A game that takes madness and experimentation to levels perhaps never seen in triple A, and certainly never seen on a Nintendo exclusive. A title that takes total creative freedom, probably at the expense of its own critical success to create something special. The game itself claims not to be interested in its own meta-score, and we honestly don't expect many other outlets to like us, but for what our experience has been, we want to reward it with a Mr. vote. A very positive evaluation because it represents an experience that is now increasingly rare in the world of video games, and totally unique in the triple A field.
► Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is a sliding Action-Hack and Slash-Beat 'em up game developed and published by Grasshopper Manufacture for Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 18/01/2019
