No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle

Finally, a game where I don't shoot things. No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is the sequel to 2008's cult hit No More Heroes in which nerd/badass protagonist Travis Touchdown (that's seriously his name) slices and dices his way up a list of the top assassins in the world, all of whom conveniently live in the city of Santa Destroy. The sequel sees Travis returning to Santa Destroy after a three year absence, during which he has fallen from the number one spot to rank #52. Travis finds out that one of his best friends has been killed, and Travis seeks revenge by fighting his way to number one. The game is essentially a beat-em-up with a beam katana and various wrestling moves, but there's just so much more to it. The whole game oozes with style, from the great soundtrack to the retro 8-bit mini-games scattered throughout. The sidejob mini-games from the first game led to much criticism as they were pretty boring and needed to be played and replayed over and over again to unlock new levels. Desperate Struggle remedies this by making the jobs completely optional and exist solely to make Travis more powerful. The levels and bosses themselves are just as memorable as the first game, but my only problem is that there just weren't enough. While the game claims to have over 50 bosses, you really only fight something like 15. That's plenty of bosses, sure, but not really the over-the-top boss fight after boss fight number that I was hoping for. Also missing are the hilarious monologues that preceded boss fights- these bosses hardly have any personality whatsoever. They were still all fun and unique in their own way, but I feel like a lot more could have been done. The game still packs a hilarious punch though, from the effeminate gym trainer to the mini games to make your cat lose some weight, to Travis' obsession with the word "fuckhead." Its loaded with potty humor- even saving consists of Travis taking a dump behind some taste-fully placed toilet paper. Desperate Struggle definitely recaptures a lot of what made the original game great, but I felt like there was just so much potential for a game of the year here, but it just didn't pan out. Oh well. Time to get back to the shooters.