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| It's in the game. |
Travis Strikes Again starts off with geek assassin Travis Touchdown, who is living quietly after putting the assassination rankings of the previous two games behind him. Things take a twist when ex-baseballer, Badman, is seeking revenge for the death of his daughter by the hands of Travis, The two eventually get sucked into a legendary game console known as the Death Drive Mk.II after a scuffle. Inside, they're tasked with clearing a grand total of six games where the winner will have one wish granted to him. From here, things get outrageous with talking cats, giant sheep bosses, a slew of other weird goodness from the mind of Suda51.
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| Travis strikes once again. |
In between levels, you'll be reading through the text-based portion of the game, presented in Metal Gear-inspired codec conversations. These scenes see Travis and his talking cat Jeane scour the world for the next Death Ball. Being a Suda51 game, it's only natural that writing here is outright silly and nonsensical at times. Better yet, it's chunk full of references to previous Suda/Grasshopper games with some meta fourth-wall breaks. I can't say that everyone will enjoy them, as it might come off as confusing to those unfamiliar with their past works. Despite that, there's a decent, self-aware story that fans are sure to enjoy.
A top-down slasher, Travis Strikes Again has you controlling Travis using his trusty beam katana across the six Death Drive levels. There's a dose of RPG elements this time around as either Travis or Badman can be leveled up (increasing health and attack) as they continue to mow down hordes of enemies. Speaking of Badman, the game supports co-op play where another player gets to join in as Badman. While it doesn't add much to the core gameplay, playing with a friend is more fun when things get chaotic such as when facing tough waves of enemies or even boss fights. If you're planning on playing alone then power-ups known as chips (named after famous Gundam models) will give you an extra boost in combat. You can equip up to four of them and they pack powers such as telekinesis, protective barrier, health regen, and more.
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| Get ready for loads of slashing. |
Tucked away in levels are neat goodies that come in the form of special tokens, which unlocks new T-shirts for Travis and Badman to wear. Sure it might sound boring, but the catch is that they pay homage to popular games such as Hollow Knight, Undertale, Galak-Z, and Hotline Miami. They don't do anything aside from just being cosmetics, but it's pretty damn cool to be mowing down enemies in a Suda51 game while wearing a The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask shirt, so meta!
While the gameplay has its fun moments when you're combining different chips to form new battle strategies, it doesn't get any interesting than that. I recently reviewed Killer7, an outstanding game form Suda and Grasshopper, and while it can get repetitive after a while, the main draw was that there were 7 different characters to play as, adding more diversity to the gameplay. Making things worse also was that some levels often overstayed their welcome. Moreover, the platforming and jumping both felt stiff and rigid. There was a point in the third chapter where you had to jump over giant donuts in order to progress, however, the trouble was figuring out when Travis suddenly wanted to jump after a good while.
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| Things can become boring after a while. |
Travis Strikes Again has some pretty bland-looking environments and frequent pop-in textures, it's subpar to say the least. Then again, the No More Heroes games weren't that hot in graphics department when they came out. Still, the game packs a colorful and punk-inspired art-style that encapsulates the over-the-top nature of the game's setting. Robin Atkin Downes reprises his iconic role as Travis and Steve Blum delivers a fantastic performance as the psychotic Badman. It's a shame that we couldn't hear much of the voicework as scenes where characters exchange dialogue consist of constant audio gibberish that tended to be annoying over time, which took me out of the experience for a bit. Nearly every Grasshopper game features at least a somewhat catchy soundtrack and I'm surprised to say that the game lacks that, which is sad since it's a No More Heroes game here. My favorite track was the mansion theme of third level and aside from that nothing particularly stood out. This shouldn't come as a surprise since Masafumi Takada doesn't reprise his role as composer.
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| Average visuals aside, the artwork looks fantastic! |
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is a decent game albeit slightly disappointing one. It has enough charm and character to carry it, as for anything else, it's pretty average. If Grasshopper wanted to gauge interest in a No More Heroes 3, they should have just remastered the first two games similar to what Sega did to the Bayonetta games and then make Travis Strikes Again as a side dish. I wouldn't have a problem with this since I didn't get the chance to play the second game and it would open up a new audience for the series. Amidst its flaws, Travis Strikes Again has some great moments, but $30 for 8-9 hours of playtime is a steep asking. I recommend waiting for a reasonable price when it's on sale.
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