A late arrival to the Garden of Madness

Once again, I've left this blog in limbo. Not to say it had been forgotten, not at all. I simply had the wonderful world of study to contend with. Which sounds a bit better than laziness, which could have potentially played a big part. Regardless, summer holidays have arrived, as has a substantial amount of free time. As such, I now have things I can write about! I've no doubt you've been waiting in mild anticipation for this moment.

Unfortunately, I'm taking this moment to talk about a Wii game. An old Wii game. Having recently come into possession of one, I made sure to pick up No More Heroes shortly afterwards, and as I've now spent most of this week playing it, I'm feeling confident enough to ramble on about it.

The thing is, when you come as late to the party as I have, it's hard to actually say anything valuable about it that hasn't already been said before. Perhaps the most notable thing is that around the time of it's release, I saw a lot of criticism about how tedious and repetitive it is. It may say something about my gaming habits, but I've not actually found that to be the case. Maybe it's because I'm often playing retro games, where there's little to do aside from the core part of the game until the end credits roll, but the supposed tedium hasn't really struck me. There's also quite a strong retro vibe in the game, with score charts, 8-bit sound effects and at one point an old fashioned shmup. With that and the general feel that Suda51 games have, it's really been striking a chord with me.

And on the topic of chords being struck, Masafumi Takada, the game's composer, has really had some room to play around. There's a few soundtracks of his that I'm fond of, but this in particular is wonderful, to the extent that I'm tempted to stick the soundtrack on my mp3 player.

Something that I've not failed to notice however, is that Suda and Takada both seem to have referenced other works. There's a few references to Flower, Sun and Rain in the landscape, along with some other references in advertisements. Takada seems to have some riffs from God Hand in the soundtrack, which are more than welcome. It's odd, as neither game did particularly well sales wise, and neither did No More Heroes.

Impressions and theories aside, No More Heroes is something I've been getting some solid enjoyment from. While it's hardly one of the best games around, it does what it sets out to do, and as I've not finished it just at this moment, it may do more than that. I'm seriously considering picking the sequel up when I've finished with it, only I may already have a stockpile of games that I said I'd finish over summer. With any luck, I'll be making some posts about those in the near future. Or that's the plan, at least.