Price: $49.99  | Release Date: January 27, 2010 | ESRB: M | System: Nintendo Wii

4 Stars - Worth buying but not perfect

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is a better game than No More Heroes. If I was recommending the game to a friend who had never heard of the series before, I would tell them just to play or start with 2. It's a more appealing, more polished game. But somewhere while making a better game Suda51 (the creator the series) forgot to put as much soul into it. It still has as much crazy, over the top violence, sex, otaku, video game and Star Wars references as the first game...it just feels like it's missing something.

The first game was criticized for its terrible open world hub, basically an empty Grand Theft Auto city with nothing to do. You would have to drive around and do monotonous side jobs for money, which would then allow you to play the next ranking mission and fight the next boss. It was painful: the side jobs were terribly made and controlled horribly. Even worse was the fact that you would have to replay them over and over until you saved enough money. The game story and originality is what made it fresh.

So instead of fixing the open world, making the bike fun to control or making the side jobs more fun. Suda opted to do the Mass Effect 2 inventory fix, which is to streamline it (aka say "fuck it", we can't fix it, let's cut it and make it a menu). I actually had no problem with the idea of this -- in fact the idea of 2D mini games and no open world hub sounded fine to me. Sadly there aren't that many mini games, and while the first couple times their fun they get old quickly. Luckily you are no longer required to even play them, you can just go straight to the next ranking match aka boss battle and skip all the mini games all together if you wish. So no, the open world hub and mini games weren't the problem, the problem is it just doesn't feel as fresh.

No More Heroes for a Wii game was extremely new. Hell, for any system it was extremely new. It was basically the Ichi the Killer of video games, meaning it was super fucked up and shocking. Over the top, perverted potty jokes, wrestling moves, anime, extreme violence towards women but all in an over-the-top wink, wink joke way. All that's here in part 2, it just feels... well calculated, less fresh and like we've seen it before.

Some of it is as a result of small touches. In the first game you would get a flash of the villain's name and silhouette of them before entering the battle -- a foreshadowing of what's to come. Now you just go straight to the mission. There was also a bit more variety with an old school Road Rash bike mission, playing baseball against villains, running through sprinklers with your light saber and the like. The bosses also had more back-story and dialogue. You kind of got why these villains were who they were and why they were so fucked up. Now the cutscenes seem to focus more on Travis and him saying "Fuck you" a lot.

The game is also extremely short, clocking in at ten hours; and you can beat it even faster than that if you opt to just skip the side jobs. Don't get me started on the poorly implemented other characters: Shinobu has the worst jumping mechanic I've ever experienced in a game and Hennery's one boss fight is over before it starts. It's nice that they threw these other popular characters from the first game in this one and allowed you to play as them; unfortunately, they are just not as polished or as fun to play as Travis.

While this review may seem like I hated the game, I can tell you I definitely didn't. No More Heroes 2 is still more creative and so different than any other game you can find out there. It's still got something to say and in a sea of military/sci-fi/firstperson/trooper bullshit it's a breath of fresh air. It's definitely fun, over the top and its still something every Wii owner must play. While the bosses don't have as much strategy as the first game, they still throw alot of variety at you: a mech battle, a silent hill horror-like boss, an anime character from hell, and a lolita sniper to name just a few. And while they don't flesh out their bosses as much as part one, I still loved and enjoyed the majority of them. My favorites being the sniper battle, flute girl and four armed light saber girl (forgive me I don't remember their names, because they don't display them like they use to) battles really shined. There also is enough pop culture humor and bizarre story to make it worth your attention. The story also delivers, well except for the piss poor ending.

The Verdict: No More Heroes 2 starts extremely strong and starts to wane towards the last half but its still an amazing experience to be had. Also it worth it to finally bang Silvia from the first game "DOUBLE BACKWARDS DOGGY!"