No More Heroes for the Wii was everything that I hoped it would be. Right off the bat: I give it a very solid 9 out of 10.
GraphicsThe stylized graphics play to the comparative weakness of the Wii's graphical power by using blocky character models with detail and shadow added by the skin of whatever t-shirt or jacket you dress your character up in. It's future noir style is brilliant. The lighting in this game goes to
Citizen Kane levels - it is simply artistic beyond all comprehension when you put it next to other video games.
GameplayThe action is dialed up to maximum
Smash TV volumes. The violence is comical with a hint of gameshow - when you kill an enemy, a slot machine wheel spins at the bottom of the screen (while coins erupt out of the mangled corpse of your enemy) and, if you're lucky, will stop on all 7's or Bells and start a burst of superhuman power with a battlecry like "Blueberry banana cheesecake!" The enemies and their blood are limitless. Bodily fluids come out so copiously that you'd think you'd accidentally stuffed a dozen live grenades into an elephant - there are, literally, times when the screen is whitewashed with blood. All of the actions required on the gamer's part to make things go fit the fast paced nature of the game very neatly. Button mashing "A" FTW!
StoryThe story is
not secondary to the game. It's been awhile since I've played a game and said "What?! No! OMG! Seriously?! WOW!" and tried to pull other people in to the room to watch the cut scenes unfold (the cut scenes could be linked together to form an award-winning Anime). The story really is that good. There is a LOT, LOT of swearing in this game, so be prepared - they didn't get the Mature rating for just the blood, folks. The sexual innuendos are also very liberally sprinkled. Definitely a Mature game, and, I thank Suda51 very deeply for that.
Little ExtrasThe little touches are nice: when your character gets a cellphone call, the dialog comes out of the speaker in the Wiimote, so you have to hold the Wiimote up to your ear to make everything out. There's also a bevy of clothing options for your character, which I usually hate, but the t-shirts in the game are so cool that I'd probably buy most of them to wear in real life if I could (and there are about 100 too).
If you haven't already given this game a chance, do so immediately. I rented it from Gamefly, and, after beating the game, I *still* bought it. That's how good it is. No More Heroes deserves a place on your mantle and in your video game library. 'Nuff said.
Wii Fit promises (release date: May 19) to be a novel way to get a bit of exercising done on your favorite console. This $100 accessory for the Wii (how they love their accessories) is a plastic board (300 lb limit) that you work out on. You do a lot of balancing type of exercises (yoga, etc.) and even push-ups. It's maybe not as much fun/exercise as a post-bar game of DDR, but then again hopefully you won't be falling down as much as you would trying frantically to pull off some insane teeny-bopper moves after consuming enough beer to qualify for German citizenship. I don't exactly picture a post-bar game of WiiFit either. Can you honestly tell me that you know people who want to go practice yoga after tying one on? I don't know any people like that, and you don't either.
