I tend to believe Insomnias review the most oddly after having played Killer 7 which also played like crap. Pure style, crap gameplay.

I have not experienced crap gameplay so far, but I am only right after the second boss. So far it's kind of like a ground-based DMC.

It's pretty cool seeing 4CR be worthy enough to be used as part of a Frankenreview.

@Kyle81: In the words of Pedro... SHOOOOOCK!

I will buy it this sat, if i can find it but c'mon, how can it go from 9s to a damn 4 :o/

What Wii games DON'T garner polar reactions?

On a crappier note, the only place I can purchase this currently (Meaning I actually have the means to do it...) is via Target... and apparently they don't receive the game till tomorrow.

@Kyle81: I've only played it for about an hour, but I'm already liking it a lot more than Killer7. Killer7 was Resident Evil on rails, No More Heroes (again, from what little I've played) is a legitimate, free-style action game.

@krylonultraflat: LOL

Insomnia seems to not understand the game at all. It is as if the reviewer is the guy who is left out of the joke.

"This game fucking sssssssucks and I fucking hated almost every moment I spent playing it. It's nothing more than an ugly, gimmicky, cheap-ass, third-rate, five-dollar GTA knock-off, whose only redeeming feature is its funky comic book vibe, and perhaps also its at-times slightly amusing dialogue. Well, actually it has one more redeeming feature -- it's only after playing it that you will come to fully realize the genius of the guys who made Grand Theft Auto III."

Just because it is open-world does not mean it is a GTA rip-off. It that is the case so is LoZ:OoT.

He is just pissed because he expected the game to be GTA and it was not GTA.

I've been playing No More Heroes for a little over 5 hours now. It's a lot of fun... the graphics are meh but the style and art direction is really cool. At first it's awkward but getting used to it makes it a fun game. It'll hold me off till the DMC4 demo today.

@krylonultraflat: Um... er... uh....

Anubis II? At least that has a universal reaction...

@Kyle81: Agreed, but damn if I still didn't obsess over Killer 7. I really enjoyed it.

This game is right up my alley, but there's this problem... I don't have a Wii. Not that I couldn't procure one if the need arose, but the DMC4 demo is out and that game will be dropping in a few weeks.

Unfortunately this one is getting lost in the shuffle for now.

@drweazel: Great, i seriously hope i can find it in my area. I hate the the stupid Gamestops only get copies for people who reserve it :-S Will have to check out Walmart and ToysRMine.

K7 had very shallow, almost insulting (IMHO) gameplay, and to hear the gameplay is so bad that you could turn around and mash A while randomly shaking the remote...well...that sounds just boring as hell. I may as well watch a movie and shake my remote to get the actors to perform actions on screen, yes?

I'm sure devs are happy to see good scores coming for the most part - I'm sure there'll be advert dollars directed to those good review sites. I do wish the game the best, good luck NMH.

Hope I don't see you in the bargain bin for $20 in 6 months, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Oh, I now know why no one listens to Insomnia reviews.

[insomnia.ac]

New Super Mario Bros. get a 2 out of 5.

To me honestly, it was all flash no substance. Buyers beware

I think more reviewers need to add modifiers to the score they give their own reviews.
Add 1 to the score if you prefer Army of Darkness over Oscar Wilde.
Subtract 1 if you can't stand 8-bit artwork.
Add 2 if you are addicted to crack - you'll love this.
You know, that sort of thing.

I'm probably going to go the Zack & Wiki route with this one - I plan on picking up Z&W this weekend because the price on it has dropped oh-so-much, I'm sure in a few months the price on this one will, too.

@ProfWho:

Seriously? Jesus.

Man, I loved Killer7... Too bad my Wii isn't at school with me or I would have picked this up by now.

I like how they recycled the dragon ball budakai sounds
but overall its the best wii game out

Even from the positive reviews, they seemed to be giving a lot of backhanded compliments for the game.

@ProfWho: Well, it was really easy.

Wait, people still care about Gamespot reviews?

I am SO tired of the theme. There are two parts to the melody, and they repeat ad nauseum in multiple areas. It drives me nuts.

@sadkermit: This strategy would sadly work well for many of the flunky encounters, but it's a fast-track to death during boss fights. Yes the combat is shallow, they could've stood to actually implement the break system as something more than a novelty ((from what I've seen sofar they haven't)) but bosses require careful maneuvering.

I'm most likely going to pick this one up soon, even though i'm a bit bombarded with things to play at the moment. Having every damn console and handheld, along with a gaming pc, is tough work... Maybe i'll rent this first... hmmm.

im looking to pick this up at the Best Buy after work. hopefully they still have some available

Insomnia is a negative nancy. period.

But I guess different strokes for different folks.

I'm glad this got good reviews. Even if the reviews were mediocre, you know the backlash would have been out of control.

@Mpalm.: Long time no see, Mpalm! *wave* I see you've been around, but I haven't actually seen you specifically in a while. Mah bad.

You could do the back turned shaking thing, if you never wanted to enjoy the wrestling or succeed at combat in any later levels. Like a lot of brawlers if you close your eyes and mash buttons you can do some stuff, but if you want to enjoy the combat and try to work in wrestling moves counter and attack based on stance the meat is there.

Toys R Us was sold out. Gamestop wouldn't sell it to me, because I didn't give them a 5 spot in advance.
I got it at (ick) FYE, where the morons that work there didn't know what I was talking about when I asked for it.

WARNING: This post contains personal opinions and experiances. May not be suitable for all auidences.

I've been playing this since yesterday, and I gotta say the game is fun (which to me is really all that matters). If you play the game on normal mode the combat actually seems alot deeper than Insomnia makes it sound. I died twice fighting the opening boss trying to figure out his tells, and by the time I got to the third boss this at about noon today I was so frustraited that I was seriously considering restarting the game on easy mode. The discrepency between my experience and the Insomnia review makes me think they just defaulted to easy mode (admit it you do it too). Something I resolved not to do on new years eve.

To be fair, i completed the entire first level of Heavenly Sword without having a clue what any of the buttons did. I just ran around and mashed the X button.

@ceilingFANBOY: gets shrinkage on Saturday: Being easy isn't an excuse for a 40%-esque score for the game though. Considering it's target audience was those picking up the DS, and they wanted to have everyone able to play it, of course it was going to be easier than some earlier iterations. The game was good, asides being a little too easy for anyone real familiar with Mario or platformers.

No, I'll agree with Prof, this site seems to reek of some terrible. From the looks of it, they review mostly obscure stuff, and tend to love it, worship it... where as more popular things like Resistance, Mario Kart, FFXII Revenant Wings get crapped on.

I already got my copy but everyone else ive been talking to who wants the game says it's already tough to find in stores does this mean it's going to end up like Killer 7 where you have to be lucky to find a copy or just invade ebay like everyone else does?

*Sigh* I wonder if that guy was playing this on sweet or on mild. If it was sweet fuck em, if it was mild BULLSHIT! Enemies WILL kick your ass especially the ones with their own beam swords and the combat is only repeatitive if you let it be, Travis has enough moves to keep the combat fresh IMO if you want to just mash on the A button the whole time you can just don't be surprised at the enemies that block your attacks. Also mashing A for bosses = instaFAIL! the second boss alone will block all your attacks and counter with a charged shot that knocks your ass flat.

do gamespot reviews even matter anymore? I mean reviews are meaningless to begin with, but gamespots should be considered even more meaningless.

its more user-friendly than killer 7, and though the combat can be shallow, it never stops being fun.
It reminds me a lot of GodHand, so if you're not IGN, you'll like it.

@Omi: While I agree with what you said, it's hard to argue that the players choosing the easy option (or 'Sweet' as the game designers dubbed it) are taking the easy way out when it's the default choice- not every game is designed to be much fun the first time on the hard (or 'Mild') difficulty setting.

That being said, Insomnia doesn't know what the hell they're talking about if they can't find this game very enjoyable. It's a tribute to the hardcore gamers of the world- it delights in its own idiosyncratic world and pays homage to the culture of videogames while doing it in high style.

I'm enjoying it more than... *gasp* Mario Galaxy!

@ampillion : Will comment for money.: Exactly, take this gem:

"But this simplicity means nothing, because Mario doesn't feel like he used to. And that's not just my rancid age talking or my dislike of the cheap, crude, charmless "2.5D" cardboard cutouts that serve as graphics -- control is less precise, less responsive, less fun. With this fundamental aspect, not broken, but imperfect, the unimaginative stage design combines and conspires to make playing through the quest a chore."

Really, there was no charm to the graphics and the control was not good? You are right these guys are some full of themselves snobs who think obscure games are the only good ones.

I'm really interested in this game. But like all Wii games, it seams to be a rental at best.

This is a fucking masterpiece, pure and simple. Rough at the edges, some of it's ideas too big and strange for it to even wrap it's OWN head around them, but it's glorious in the whole. Insomnia has it's head up it's ass about the combat sequences - the fact that you're "stance" is actually MAPPED to the angle of the remote makes the swordfighting ridiculously visceral and involving - especially the finishing moves.

It's like the first "post-modern" video game in the way that it wants to look and feel as much like a VIDEO GAME as it can. Most games now are either trying to look like reality or like some subgenre of animation - this one wants to look like an early-90s arcade brawler in a free-roaming setting; complete with pixel-art powerups, hordes of identical enemies with themed costumes, the funky half-cel/half-textured character designs, the "high score" ranking screen... beautiful. It's like the bastard offspring of "Shenmue" and "River City Ransom."

For what it's worth, I rank this up with Mario Galaxy in terms of how much fun it is to play. (and watch! The cutscenes are great fun.)

I've put in about 4 hours so far (Shinobu is fucking awesome) and I can hardly wait to put in more.

It really is like a love letter to a very specific kind of geek. Much as was Kill Bill. And like Kill Bill, if you're the kind of geek they're aiming for, you need to experience this.

Here in Canada it's not even released until the earliest Feb 1st.

Damn French translation for the manual, not to sound Xenophobic but is it really necessary and why the hell didn't Ubisoft get their act together in the first place.

Ahh Insomnia.ac, where everything popular sucks, and everything obscure is a godsend. Reminds me of the goth kids on South Park.

I like how the only negative review is from some super-obscure site that nobody has ever heard of.

[www.metacritic.com]

I don't know it I'd quite say reviews are "polarized." That Insomnia one is pretty much the only bad review I've seen.

Yeah, that Insomnia site feels like it's kinda...pretentious, much?

I don't understand why people insist on comparing this game to GTA.

Oh, you guys should check out Insomnia's forum. Ihe reviewer is banning everyone who disagrees with his reviews.

[forum.insomnia.ac]

@jive238: I heard if you beat the game you can play on a harder mode once you go though the game once. But knowing killer7 and the extra diffculty modes this will make for much more replay value.

Don't forget, everyone, a review is an opinion.

I'm playing it right now, and i'm loving it. But don't take it from me, just go out and buy this game now.

@onidavin: WhoamyGOD, don't tell me that. Anything but that. DMCry?! Really?!

I was disappointed at first, but after about 2 or 3 hours I really got into the swing of things (now I'm about 8 hours in and love it). It's a really well balanced game I think. The combat could be reduced to button mashing, but in true Japanese action game style playing that way will get you a shitty "grade" for the mission. The minigames (side jobs) are entertaining just long enough to get a gold, which is all you ever really need to play them. The driving part of the world map is pretty shitty, until you realize that it can be circumvented basically, with boosting and Wii Remote gesture based "drifting" you can get anywhere in a matter of seconds. Plus, running over big lines of trees is strangely satisfying. And the treasure hunting, dumpster punching, ball collecting aspect is basically just like GTA games (one of the most fun aspects IMHO).
I think the world map is basically just there to lend atmosphere, and make it more of a cohesive story really. Perhaps it's unnecessary, but again it can basically be bypassed.
This game is really about two things: the boss fights, which are really fun, and the "atmosphere" (graphic style, music, voice acting) which are all very over the top and cool.
GTA was made by European hipsters, and this is a Japanese hipster's take on that style of gameplay. A postmodern GTA. Sure it lacks the polish of GTA in some respects (the open world) but it beats GTA by miles as far as "atmosphere" goes.
All in all I would say it's the best 3rd party Wii game yet. Now that I think about it, it's the only one that I have, besides RE:4.

P.S. If I was a few years younger I would probably think this is the best game of all time.

@ProfWho: All I can say is... wow.