The Nintendo Wii certainly isn’t lacking in new innovative games, however when it comes to being different No More Heroes from Grasshopper certainly stands out amongst the crowd, it’s got an open world, it violent and it also looks unique, but what is it all about and how does it play?

No More Heroes is certainly a game aimed at the more mature gamer, it is based around a character named Travis, who is trying to make a name for himself in the league of hitmen, at the beginning of the game he takes out the eleventh best and has decided that the only way is up, to number one.

To enable Travis to get to number one in the rankings, most of the game is spent making money by taking on side missions and proving himself good enough to challenge the next in rank. This part of the game generally takes part in the open world, which is a fairly sizable but disappointing place to be really. You see, while there is quite a large area to explore, it just feels, empty. When in the open world you will drive about, looking for missions and you will also come across some training areas, there are also a few shops and buildings which you can and should go into in order to get new equipment, finally there is also a Motel where you can save your progress and change clothes, but other than that there is not a lot more to interact with.

There are also issues with the open world outwith the lack of activity, such as invisible walls, non interactive NPC’s and a complete lack of collision when you happen to crash into another vehicle, which makes for a big disappointment. There is however one saving grace in the open world and that is the jobs you will come across. To make money Travis can take on a normal job on the side, there are numerous jobs you can do, one of which is being a Trash collector, which does add a bit of humour.

You can also earn money in the open world by taking on an underground side mission, these however can be extremely tough, one task involves you to taking down a group of students while another has you tackle some baseball hooligans, you only get one chance in these missions and if you are hit, even once, you will have failed and strangely enough you can’t even retry the mission again without going back to the main building and resetting it, so it’s probably best to just drive around until you find another one.

Once you have earned the cash to enter, the ranked matches are where No More Heroes really shines, combat is controlled using a combination of the Wii Remote and Nunchuck, the A and B buttons are used for attacking your enemy, while the Z button allows you to lock onto them, what I do like about the combat is that the motion sensing doesn’t come into play until you have worn your enemy down, then following the onscreen prompt you finish them, it’s a far cry from the open world system and really gets things moving in the right direction.

The ranked missions take on a movie like form where you will run from one enemy to the next before reaching the boss battle at the end, the style in which this is played out looks fantastic. Given the game is quite different from most it is quite hard to describe what these missions look like, probably a cross between a manga style cartoon and an action movie, still the way it plays out really is incredible and more than makes up for the disappointment you may feel in the open world parts of the game.

While you will be very impressed during the ranked missions, that’s nothing compared to when you get to the boss, they all have their own unique character and it isn’t hard to tell that so much though and work has went into everyone of them, they are also tough, very tough, if you do manage to beat them you will certainly know you have been in a fight, so don’t expect an easy ride here.

No More Heroes really is a Jekyll and Hyde game, in one respect the open world is largely disappointing due to the emptiness of it all, although it does have some good points like the jobs and parts of the underground missions. Where this game really shines though is in the main ranked missions, it’s almost like a completely different game when you are playing these and one you shouldn’t miss out on, despite it’s obvious flaws.