Grasshopper Manufacture and Suda51’s Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is a spin-off title in the No More Heroes series of video games. Set after the events of No More Heroes 2, players will take on the role of Travis Touchdown and Badman.
The story of Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is extremely convoluted and might not make sense to players immediately. The game opens up with a syndicate assassin making a phonecall to Badman. The assassin tracks down Badman and makes him an offer to bring back his recently deceased daughter. Find and kill Travis Touchdown.
Fast forward a bit and after Badman finds Travis, the two end up fighting inside a mobile home. During the fight, a video game console called the “Death Drive MK-II” gets activated and sucks up both Travis and Badman. This is where the game begins and things only get weirder and weirder from here on out.
Players will take on the role of either Travis Touchdown or Badman and will have to traverse the video game worlds contained within the Death Drive MK-II. The game is played from a top-down perspective with the camera changing angles at certain points to showcase more of the environment. Players will hack and slash their way through levels and obtain “Skill chips” which can be assigned to the various face buttons on the controller.
Players can play through the entire game co-op with one player controlling Travis and the other controlling Badman. As such, Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is a really fun game to play with a friend. Working together to defeat enemies, pull off crazy combos and rack up a high score is extremely enjoyable.
The story is told via visual novel segments which make up the “Travis Strikes Back” segment of the game. There’s a lot of references and jokes to video games and video game development throughout the game. Players will definitely find some moments in the game to be truly crazy while others will have you burst out laughing. Enemies are named in a pun-filled manner and the game’s lighthearted tone contrasts with its violent visuals quite well.
Overall the gameplay has enough variation between levels to keep you coming back for more. Mixing things up by changing your skills equipped also adds longevity to the game as it introduces variation to the fairly straightforward hack and slash of your light and heavy attacks. Boss enemies in the game are extremely well designed and there’s a lot of enjoyment to be had when facing off against these enemies.
The soundtrack used in the game is excellent with the music used throughout being well suited for the game worlds you’ll traverse. The voice acting is well done too and while not everyone in the game has a voice, it doesn’t detract from the overall enjoyment factor.
Graphically, Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is great. The cel-shaded graphics and retro-esque aesthetic applied to the game’s worlds is visually appealing and will keep you engaged right up until the very end.
Overall, Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is a fun game with lots of hacking and slashing enjoyment to be had in its 12-hour long story mode. Being able to replay levels and obtain higher scores adds to the longevity of the title. It may not be extremely deep in terms of actual gameplay but it sure is fun and over the top. Fans of the No More Heroes franchise will definitely want to pick this game up.
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is available on Nintendo Switch, PC and PlayStation 4
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