It's oh so sweet. The opening had my jaw on the floor, the music, the directing, the cutscenes, the graphics. Visually it looked so much better than the first game it looked incredible. I still had that CG cutscene of the first game that never made it in, stuck in my mind. How ridiculously cool was it that they let you re-enact it?
Then the game sort of dipped for a while. It's not consistently polished, there are some assy textures, copious amounts of slowdown - in the cutscenes of all things!
The first proper boss, the irish dude was irritating as hell with his lasers and moving floors and rockets. Suddenly the game felt like the first No More Heroes, warts and all.
There is no open world in this game, there is this map and it's so hassle free to use it actually feels pretty amazing - a mark of how shitty the N64 openworld of the first game was. At the same time you lose something by cutting out the overworld, you lose a sense of cohesion, of progression. When you are selecting levels off a list you get that.
If you remember the first game, it wasn't until Shinobu that the game lit up for me. In the technically shoddy game, among the boring side jobs, you were suddenly in this pitched battle that felt more like a lightsabre dual than any other game. There was a rhythm to it, there was strategy involved, it was badass.
I got to that point in NMH2 with a similar boss. The section is littered with descrutable scenary and you can hack through pillars and furniture and walls. So can he. I got beat down probably 6 times or so but kept coming back for more. This was EXCELLENT fun.
It's almost impossible to talk about why this game is so awesome without spoiling the fun for everyone else coming into the game. It's best played with no foresight. Unfortunately I spoiled some of the game for myself by watching videos.
The game is just outrageous at times, when it pulls the unexpected out of its hat as a complete suprise it can have you grinning from ear to ear. When it's mundane, it's mundane, but when it's at its best it had my jaw on the floor on several occasions.
Some of the dialogue, the lines uttered by the characters are just RIDICULOUS. Ridiculously cool, quoteable and unexpected - these guys should be making films. Most good games have wow moments, some of the freaking dialogue here are wow moments.
I started playing as Shinobu. I thought I would hate these sections as I wanted to play as travis, but her two levels are so far the best of the bunch. Her animation is particularly great. It reminds of when you first saw the 3D Prince of Persia doing his thing in the Sands of Time. It's archaic now but the impact then is the same thing I feel about Shinobu.
She jumps as well, adding some verticality to the levels, a boss fight in a level has you going up and down in a large chamber with tiered levels. One of the levels reminds of call of duty, starting from a low point and working your way upwards, seamlessly whilst being able to see where you started. One of her levels is huge and you can see the cliffs in the vista and there are no loads. Very impressive.
The combat is the same as the first game for the most part. I was worried it was going to be cannon fodder but the difficulty ramps up and once you save there is no quitting levels. You can't go back to the overworld to power up or buy a new, stronger sabre. You just have to plug away at that boss and use all your skill. Which makes it very satisfying.
There is this running dash move that is freaking awesome, where you swish the remote to use whilst running. It's as powerful as a charged slash and saps your batteries just as much.
At first I was thinking that this was no better than the first game only with slightly improved visuals. But the more I play the more memorable the game becomes and it's not saddled with the horrible overworld and boring minigames of the first game.
The game just hits you with so many memorable moments -gah! - can I spoil them for you or what? I have to say something. Well, I'll just say that they play subtle homages to a couple of well know franchises as well.
Oh and the 8-bit minigames are excellent, there are even some really addictive ones like fitting shaped tiles into a box or lining up water pipes. You could release this stuff on wiiware and it would be worth owning.
Oh yeah and the graphics can still look like ass on an HDTV.
Oh oh! The finishing moves are totally awesome
It's not quite QTE and it's not quite gameplay. Sort of reminiscent of Madworlds over the top finishers but more cool and awesome. That perfect punctuating moment on a boss well beaten.
Oh and turning into a Tiger = gaming ecstacy. The enemies cower on the floor and you rip their faces off. So... satisfying.
One more thing. In design and polish terms, it still feels like these guys are lagging a fair few steps back from the best - Capcom/Platinum. Which still leaves this franchise in the "COULD be amazing category".
But creatively these guys are unrivalled. I can only imagine what would happen if you paired off their creative team with an actually awesome - technical developer.
Another thing is that with the first game it was all original. Here, cause its a sequel there are many familiar elements, like the transitions and saving and fighting and even a few characters. You know all this already so that stuff doesn't feel fresh, it's the unexpected stuff which hits you.
One more thing, technically this is only 75% of the way there. It feels like a third game is needed to finally nail the experience as it should be.
Games like Shattered Memories, Dead Space Extraction and Red Steel 2 have raised the bar in terms of what I expect from a 3rd party on wii in terms of polish.
5 hours in now and things are starting to pick up. Bought a bad-ass yellow jacket and ran through
Letz Shake
and then the next two
Shinobu
missions.
It's a little bit disconcerting that the returning characters from the first game are some of the best bits of NMH2, but they're handled pretty well and given a neat spin.
The pre- and post-fight banter is getting better as well.
5 hours in now and things are starting to pick up. Bought a bad-ass yellow jacket and ran through
Letz Shake
and then the next two
Shinobu
missions.
It's a little bit disconcerting that the returning characters from the first game are some of the best bits of NMH2, but they're handled pretty well and given a neat spin.
The pre- and post-fight banter is getting better as well.
I haven't really felt this. I view NMH2 as an extension of the first game with the same characters and setting. The two games sort of form one experience to me and it only makes sense that you are more familiar with returning characters.
I went round in circles for about thirty seconds, then I centered the camera behind Travis and boosted twice and that was that. Seems like I got lucky.
I see what you mean now. They dump you straight into boss fights with no preamble.
Anyhow more impressions
Since playing more though, I can say it gets more polished as it goes on and is a great effort from Grasshopper.
The opening is about the best opening to a game I can remember.
It would be like starting a Star Wars game with a battle against Darth Vader.
Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.
I beat two more bosses. This is infuriating! I can't talk about the game because of spoilers.
It was awesome fun. One of the bosses chased me around a tree, it was f****** hilarious and I had to break out a new weapon to keep the boss at a distance.
Then this other boss had these like magician moves and there were rocks crumbling and stuff. So good.
I also lost 40 minutes of my life playing the minigame jobs. There is this game where you fit tiles into a square. I'm useless at it but ridiculously addicted to it.
Wow.
So then.... gah, another awesome thing I can't talk about. You have this sureal battle in a field. Then they started offering up revenge missions. Remember in the first game you would drive to some location, have some crappy one hit death timed mission and fail it. Then have to drive all the way back to do it again?
The Revenge missions here are awesome fun. For a start you just select them off a list. Secondly there are no one hit deals here, so far. And the locations are new stuff that doesn't appear in the single player. It actually takes you to different parts of the city, even interiors that you've never seen before.
Some missions are kill everybody, others are assasination missions where there is one dude to kill, with protection. It gets heavy here as they put me inside a saloon of sorts with descructible furniture. And then they dumped the brutes on me, massive guys with big health bars.
I should mention the artificial intelligence, it's not super advanced but it had definetely moved on from the first game. They don't sit around waiting for their turn to fight, if there is someone behind you he will attack. Sometimes they grab you from behind like in Streets of Rage and the guy in front pummels you. Also, you get dizzy really easily here and knocked flat on your ass a lot. You have this estascy gauge which is like the special move bar in a Marvel vs Game and when it fills up you unleash these amazingly fast attacks.
It looks amazing, it's sensory overload as Travis skips about tearing these guys to pieces, your eyes can barely keep up. What makes it more fun is that it's on a timer and the bad guys run for it when you go into that mode. Last night I was near the end of my estacy and was chasing down this brute who was eluding me. Right when my gauge was about to run out I sliced that fat bastard in two. It was so satisfying.
Also, now you can switch between weapons on the fly and they all have a real meaningful effect on the combat. If you equip twin blades they are shorter so your reach is less, yet because you have two, you land more blows and can fill your estacy gauge further.
I bought this long beam katana, like the long sword in Monster Hunter, it has a huge reach but it's slow and cumbersome to use. Yet it keeps some baddies at arms length and was crucial in beating one boss.
I then played more of that godamn addictive tile mini-game and still couldn't beat it.
It's here when I realised that this game is so much better than the first. It just cuts out all the BS, no boring mini-game jobs, no horrible overworld. It cuts the fat and you're left with one scorchingly satisfying sequence, one after the other.
Then I went to this mission in a parking lot, I had to kill all the baddies but it was like an endless slog as they kept replacing and replacing the enemies. Visually the game gets more solid as it goes on, it was looking pretty swish. And even though there were too many enemies they gave you lots of pick-ups and boosters to finish them off.
Because it was an open level, there were no camera problems, no caught on scenary problems. Just deliciously satisfying bloodshed. Having blood in this game makes a real difference, it's like a fireworks explosion when you finish a guy.
And the motion controlled moves are so fun.
Then out of the parking lot I entered a grocery store, and they had descructible shopping carts filled with cans that scattered all over the floor when you knocked them down. And then up top to this boss fight, which looked be-autiful.
This game gets better and better. Damned thing is that I can't tell you why without spoiling the impact of the things they throw at you. It's great stuff.
When it comes to describing this game the same words keep popping up: satisfying, visceral, irreverent, ridiculous, cool and most of all FUN
The game finally arrived today 3 hours played so far and it's fantastic. I had forgotten how good the first game was so it was a pleasant surprise. Using the analog stick for movement in some of the mini games is super annoying though. It's too sensitive :lol Haven't been able to beat lvl 4 in the two first jobs yet. Seems easy to rack up some serious dough though. I think I have almost 190k and I've purchased a sword for 50k already. Time for break. This needs to be savored
I hated also the motorbike fight, he killed me a couple of times when I tried to play how its supposed, then one time I was fed up, and just as the fight starts I started to boost into him until he fell off, shitty battle.
Thanks god the next was awesome and difficult.
My most epic battle ever:
he killed me the first time, so I started with my strategy of being far from him, he gets near me with his dash, I hit him, and then flee, repeat. But he gets lucky and hits me a couple of times (most of them with the giant fucking dragon), so at the end, we both have a small amount of life (he has something like 2 points) and if he hits me three or four more times Im done, I start to hit him what I thought it was my final blow and the fucker summons the dragon, throwing me far away, he has 1 point of life left, and I have only one hit, I start to hit him and he doesnt die, and the dragon hits me and im dead, so I start to move the remote up and down and Travis gets up with some more life, while im doing that the dragon hits me again, throwing me far back from him, with only one point of life again, I get near him and a use a desperate last move, start to hit him and he doesnt seem to die, and below my feet a flash of light appears and the dragon hits me but just in time the quicktime event appears and I hit him with the final blow. I literally shouted victory, just as Travis in the intro :lol
Oh and I love the bizarre Jelly minigame and music in it.
Just finished the game and it was great, although I still love some things more in the original.
After finishing the game I can say that some type of grinding before the boss missions would have suit a lot better the pace of the game, and would have make it longer.
I think right now that it was a mistake taking the boss fees, dont get me wrong, the way the fees were portrayed in the first game was not good, but this time instead of taking them totally, they could have leave it in a better way. For example, the fees were not good in the first one only because the minigames sucked, it did become repetitive and in the final missions the fees were just astronomical, this time they had better minigames, and in those minigames they can give you lots of money if you play well, and they could have fixed this easily.
Every time you beat a boss in NMH2, 2 new minigames open up. Why not only one, make it that when you beat a boss, a new minigame opens (not 2) so you play to that game, and also do an assassination mission and easily get the money for the ranking fee without getting repetitive, making some kind of grinding like in the first so you wait with excitement for the next boss and making the game a little bit longer.
I know you could do optional things between fights, and I can asure you I did them, because I wanted to not go from boss to boss without doing something different.
I know it has been said, but yeah, some bosses would have been better with a little more dialog, only a little, becuase really NMH1 didnt had as long dialogs as some remember. I also uderstand what eatchildren says about them, that they have a different vein than in the first, and although I also liked some of the new approach I think some of them needed only a little bit more to be incredible and charismatic bosses.
I liked the end but I didnt really understand it
is Bishop really dead? it sure seems but Pizza Bat Jr also showed the heads of Shinobu, Henry and Sylvia, and they were ok, and where did shinobu go when she was rejected by Travis, they didnt expand more in her story and it seemed it would have continued.
And the sex shop girl, that we know its Sylvia at the end, was she blind, if she was, can she see again at the end?
Also Its the a secret ending like in NMH1?
Ive heard something that if you returned to your room there was a secret boss fight? Its this real, im sure I went to my room during the game and nothing happened.
And they could have used Naomi a little bit more, you had to only visit her 2 times in all the game
One "little" more nitpick
Although we use Shinobu 2 times, we only use Henry in an awesome boss fight, but no level and no more anything, and he controls fucking fantastic, I think its a pity they didnt let us use them a little bit more.
I also didnt like how some bosses were just "canceled" because of the story. I was sure we wouldnt get near 50 bosses, and when 25 were gone with a fight (the girls) it was a funny moment, but I didnt think they would have been so cheap to do it again, and even in a worse fashion, Letz Shake killed lots and you didnt even see them in the Battle Royale (BTW I would have prefered that in the Letz Shake fight, an hologram of him would have been beside the giant brain, like in the original, so he could do his "movements" while he talked i the intro and the fight), and Henry killed three and you only see them in photos (although the photos were hilarious) they could have done those missions controlling Henry for fucks sake.
It also seemed important that new assassins came behind you going up ranks, and they use it only one time.
But this rants are only little buts in a great game, I love it.
The battles mechanics are awesome and it controls excellent, makes the game more fun. Some bosses are awesome, but they are because of different things, and others could have been tweaked to make them even better:
Skelter Helter's decapitation dialog is holycrap, Nathan Copeland's intro, Charlie's boss mecha fight and intro, Kimmy's fan poem, Matt Helm boss fight was the first I really loved, New destroyman's good side was the best one, Ryuji had one of the most epic and awesome battles ever (althought the bike segment was the worst), Mimmy was trippy and using Henry was awesome, Margaret's fight was fun, Captain Vladimir was awesome and difficult, Alice had a very good and interesting intro (that resembled a lot other NMH1 bosses) and the fight was also very good, and Bat Jr was a fucker and I hate him, but thats what iw was good about him, although it was two easy, the 3rd battle was tricky.
The music is incredible, and I find it MUCH better than the first one (although one of my favourite themes of both games is the Dr. Peace song he sings in the stadium in NMH1).
The Bizarre Jelly minigame is the best of the bunch, its so awesome I would have loved more levels, and the music is godly.
Seems more difficult than NMH1 but not frustrating something that I liked (ive played in medium, now replaying it in hard, and Helter killed me one time kicking my ass, reminded me of Glass Joe in Punch-Out!! Wii in the second fight :lol) Jeane the cat is so cute
And the intros and graphics are much better, the new improved animation really makes the game come to live. And Naomi's tits <3
Can someone help me out with the gym minigames? The stamina one just does not seem to work. I'm hitting B and Z alternately but Travis just falls off immediately.
On the strength one, do I have to 100% it to get a boost? Am I supposed to dodge the hearts or punch them?
Can someone help me out with the gym minigames? The stamina one just does not seem to work. I'm hitting B and Z alternately but Travis just falls off immediately.
On the strength one, do I have to 100% it to get a boost? Am I supposed to dodge the hearts or punch them?
1. Check the treadmill's direction. You need to turn Travis around so he runs in the opposite direction, or else he'll fall off. You change direction with the analog stick (left or right). You can't change direction while tapping B and Z though. In summary: tap B and Z to keep running, when you see that the treadmill changes direction stop tapping B and Z, change direction and then start tapping again. It's easy once you get the hang of it.
2. No, you don't need 100%. You can usually get hit a few times and still get the bonus. As for the hearts, you always need to dodge those.
1. Check the treadmill's direction. You need to turn Travis around so he runs in the opposite direction, or else he'll fall off. You change direction with the analog stick (left or right). You can't change direction while tapping B and Z though. In summary: tap B and Z to keep running, when you see that the treadmill changes direction stop tapping B and Z, change direction and then start tapping again. It's easy once you get the hang of it.
2. No, you don't need 100%. You can usually get hit a few times and still get the bonus. As for the hearts, you always need to dodge those.
No one mentioned the treadmill direction in the game damnit. Thanks for that. Also, has anyone beaten the revenge mission where there is one target to knock out in like 4 and a half minutes? Only there are tons of guys with uzis shooting you in the back? And a mob of brutes to handle too? The target has a huge lifebar as well.
It *should* be out, but it seems someone screwed up with the distribution - It's almost impossible to get here in the Netherlands too. I still haven't got my copy. Hopefully a new shipment will come in a few days...
No one mentioned the treadmill direction in the game damnit. Thanks for that. Also, has anyone beaten the revenge mission where there is one target to knock out in like 4 and a half minutes? Only there are tons of guys with uzis shooting you in the back? And a mob of brutes to handle too? The target has a huge lifebar as well.
I can't remember any of the revenge missions being very hard. Either way, the ones with guns are usually very weak. Pick a fast beam katana (like the first one you can buy) and try to get rid of those weak uzi guys first. Then single out the target.
Oxx said:
I didn't complete any of the gym games and I didn't manage to get Jeane's weight down sufficiently either. Did I miss out on anything cool?
You're a weakling if you couldn't handle the gym mini-games. You're also a cat-hater for not spending time with Jeane. You get a very useful attack for getting her below a certain amount of weight.
You're a weakling if you couldn't handle the gym mini-games. You're also a cat-hater for not spending time with Jeane. You get a very useful attack for getting her below a certain amount of weight.
The new attacks they give you (the ones reading the magzines, and the Jeane one), its there somewhere, or a method to know what they do and when you can do them.
I also got the Jeane attack, but I dont remember what the attack was, and you are saying its very useful, so maybe is a good attack.
The new attacks they give you (the ones reading the magzines, and the Jeane one), its there somewhere, or a method to know what they do and when you can do them.
I also got the Jeane attack, but I dont remember what the attack was, and you are saying its very useful, so maybe is a good attack.
I loved that move in the first game. It was pretty much the move that got me past all the annoying enemies. You would run up to them whilst guarding, hit them with that move then one press of A over them whilst they were lying on the ground would kill them.
Does anyone know how to get more info about the weapons you buy? I see a name and a price. I've bought a few so far. What does the green beam katana do that's different?
I loved that move in the first game. It was pretty much the move that got me past all the annoying enemies. You would run up to them whilst guarding, hit them with that move then one press of A over them whilst they were lying on the ground would kill them.
Does anyone know how to get more info about the weapons you buy? I see a name and a price. I've bought a few so far. What does the green beam katana do that's different?
From what I know the green beam katana is faster but less powerfull than the original beam katana.
However it turns shitty once you get the double beam katanas, because it serves no porpouse.
The only ones I used at the end were the double ones and the large red one, depending on the type of enemies.
Monocle said:
WTF, how had I not heard of this movie until now!?
I loved that move in the first game. It was pretty much the move that got me past all the annoying enemies. You would run up to them whilst guarding, hit them with that move then one press of A over them whilst they were lying on the ground would kill them.
Does anyone know how to get more info about the weapons you buy? I see a name and a price. I've bought a few so far. What does the green beam katana do that's different?
There's the default one you start out with. That one's about medium speed and medium strength.
There's the green katana one (same one you got at the end of NMH1), which you can buy from Naomi immediately IIRC. Good speed and medium strength.
There's the really big one you can buy (not sure if there's a requirement). Slow, but very high strength.
And finally there's a dual-wield katana that you can only buy later in the game (you'll know when you can get it). Not too powerful, but really fast.
I'd basically default to the green katana until you get the dual ones. The first one you start out with is still useful at times though, especially for some stronger enemies. For instance, I switched back to the original katana for the last area of the game. The large katana is more or less useless in normal levels, but great for certain bossfights.
There's the default one you start out with. That one's about medium speed and medium strength.
There's the green katana one (same one you got at the end of NMH1), which you can buy from Naomi immediately IIRC. Good speed and medium strength.
There's the really big one you can buy (not sure if there's a requirement). Slow, but very high strength.
And finally there's a dual-wield katana that you can only buy later in the game (you'll know when you can get it). Not too powerful, but really fast.
I'd basically default to the green katana until you get the dual ones. The first one you start out with is still useful at times though, especially for some stronger enemies. For instance, I switched back to the original katana for the last area of the game. The large katana is more or less useless in normal levels, but great for certain bossfights.
The large red katana is very good in fights vs the big enemies (the chainsaws, the axes, the ones that grab you, and the big beam katana ones), it has very good range to stop multiple of this guys, and it stops always the charge attacks they do (and they do this charge attacks constantly.
Its also good for slower bosses and bosses that charge a lot of attacks, but for fast ones, and the little enemies with fast attacks and guns, is much better the double wield katana. And in a strange manner, the double one is the best vs the last boss.
Ive only used the original at the start of the game, and if some attacks destroyed (totally go out of energy) my good katanas while in the boss fights, like in the last one.
BTW, does it seem that the energy of the beam katanas is MUCH larger this time, I remember moving the remotes up and down to charge much more during the original game.
