The first clip is of alternate playable character Shinobu getting her slice on. The second is of one of the first baddies in the game, Skelter. Lastly, get a look at some of the mini-games (including the super-cute cat weight loss program) in a montage clip.

Given the nature of No More Heroes, I'm not sure whether my altered perspective detracted from my experience or enhanced it. I'm going to go with enhanced because as I read over my notes from that meeting all I see are good things written around giant smiling cats I don't remember drawing. It must've stuck some kind of chord.

The thing I feel bad about, though, is not knowing how to say "stress fracture" in Japanese. Suda 51 was kind enough to inquire why I was limping at the end of the appointment and the best I could do was "It's a little broken." Which I think freaked him out because either something is broken or it isn't right?

What Is It?
No More Heroes 2 is the sequel to Wii game No More Heroes in which players take the role of Travis Touchdown and go about laser-swording various enemies to death for cash and stuff. The third person action adventure game is broken up quite nicely with some motorcycle segments and 2D mini-games. The major appeal comes from the game's insane brand of mature humor, which targets a very niche and dedicated audience of Wii owners.

In NMH2, Travis is dragged back into a tournament-style chain of fights once again as part of a revenge quest. Many character favorites from the first game return and you actually get to play as other characters besides Travis, like the sexy Shinobu.

What We Saw
I shared a playthrough appointment with some journos from 1UP where we passed the controller around for a series of mini games, a section in Travis's apartment, part of a Shinobu level and the first level of the game where Travis fights Skelter, brother to some dude you killed in the first game (which I confess I never beat).

How Far Along Is It?
Near final. The game is due out January 27th.

What Needs Improvement?
If You Can't Stand The Crazy, Get Out Of The Game: No More Heroes 2, like its predecessor, is weird, violent and totally proud of both. The narrative is bizarre, the action is gory and the mix of gameplay types between story missions and side missions can leave you reeling. Do not ride this ride if you have a heart condition, a poor sense of humor or a weak grasp of Suda 51's brand of insanity.

Camera Is A Little Bit Too Crazy: I noticed during Shinobu's level that the camera would sometimes have trouble keeping up with her during sharp turns in narrow corridors. Shinobu seems to move a lot faster than Travis, so I could see this becoming a real problem if you're racing through the level, slicing up a storm.

It's No Longer "Open" World: If you liked the open world of the previous game (although some people found it small), you're going to be disappointed to hear that NMH2 sticks to a map system instead. The map system marks where story and side missions are in town and when you select one, you teleport there. To me, it didn't make the world feel small or anything (and given my drugged state, I actually really appreciate the hand-holding with regards to knowing where the next story mission is), but I can think of a few people who wanted more open world, not less.

Shinobu's High Heels: Just watching her sprint in those thigh-high puppies made me want to cry, imagining my poor ankle going through the same motions.

What Should Stay The Same?

Still Endearingly Crass (And Violent): "Tone it down" is not in Suda 51's vocabulary — not even in its Japanese equivalent meaning. From the fourth-wall-breaking narration where Sophie dismisses the need to catch the audience up on the plot of the first game to chopping off people's heads in slow motion with buckets of blood flecking the screen, NMH2 is every bit as inappropriate and violent as the first game. And I don't think the fans would want it any other way.

Still Pretty Easy To Pick Up: There are some updates to gameplay that make bosses more complicated to beat and the training gym mini-games are notoriously difficult. But other than that, it's not hard to master the sword fighting moves or the procedure for charging up your weapon. Newcomers won't be lost.

Fashion Statements Are An Option: You can take Tavis clothes shopping and customize a great deal about his outfit — right down to some shades straight out of the 80s. But what I found really cool is how developer Grasshopper Manufacture gave a nod to Japanese fans by holding a shirt design contest. You can find the winning entries on the racks at the clothing store.

OMG Kitty~! My favorite thing next to the anime video game you can play in Travis's apartment is Travis's cat, Jean. At the end of the first game, she appears to have let herself go and is now a big ball of cat blubber. A mini-game lets you train her with "cat exercises" and arrange her diet so that she loses weight over time. The cat exercises were pretty hilarious — one of them involves Travis hoisting her up over his head, which probably benefits his weight loss more than hers. So adorable! And probably the reason I drew giant smiling cats all over my notes.

Final Thoughts
Now that my ankle is mostly better and I no longer am under the effects of painkillers, I realize how ridiculous the cat thing is. My cat would kick my ass if I tried to lift her over my head under the pretense of trying to make her lose weight.

Also, here's some news you can use:
—There are about 10 hours of gameplay total (side missions and all).
—No save data from the first game carries over or has any impact on the game.
—It doesn't use Wii MotionPlus.
—The motorcycle returns in some side missions.
—Suda 51 had nothing to say either about the ports of the first game to the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, or about his ongoing project with EA.

Wada tells Edge Online that No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise is getting the high-definition once over to "bring the game to a wider audience." To wit, Marvelous isn't "currently considering to use uncommon new technology" like Project Natal and Sony's still-unnamed(?) motion controller.

No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise is being reworked for a prettier, motion control-free release by Lost Odyssey and Ninety Nine Nights II developers Feelplus. Wada says that the new analog control scheme should "improve the sense of being in the game."

Should No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise find a new publisher and make it to these shores, rest assured, dear reader, that we'll spend ample time sensing the amount of improved being in the remake, holding Wada to his word.

Interview: Yasuhiro Wada [Edge Online]

In a statement to G4, the French publisher said that unlike the original Wii game and its sequel No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise shan't carry the Ubisoft logo on these shores. No reason given, apparently, but here's to hoping Grasshopper Manufacture can find a friend for those of use interested in experiencing "Very Sweet Mode" stateside.

Ubisoft Not Publishing No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise (Aka No More Heroes HD) [G4's The Feed]

Better textures, improved lighting, more pixels, less clothing on the female characters... it's all here! And it can be experienced there—and by "there," we mean Japan—on February 25 of next year. A North American and European release, sure to be announced by someone—a publisher whose name rhymes with Ubisoft, perhaps—is almost a given.

For now, enjoy a batch of No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise screens in the gallery below.

"It's not just that," Suda explains. "I wanted to revisit Travis Touchdown. I wanted to write the continuation of his story." NMH lead hero Travis Touchdown is joined by more characters and boss battles this go round in No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle. The title has been in development for about a year and a half and is shooting for an early 2010 release.

"Right now, I don't think I'll make another one, though," says Suda. "This game does wrap up Travis' story nicely." But so many movies are in trilogies — a point that movie buff Suda is quick to concede.

With the advent of Sony's new wand-like motion controls, it would not be a stretch to see something like No More Heroes ported over to the PS3. "I'm not playing platform favorites," says Suda. "For me, No More Heroes is about two handed controls — the way you play. But I do very much think of the game as being a Wii title."

What Is It?
No More Heroes 2 is the sequel to the oddball Wii action game No More Heroes, progeny of colorful game designer Suda 51 and the only game that had a sexy female voice playing from the Wii Remote speaker to urge you to perform ever bloodier kills. The sequel brings some tweaks.

What We Saw
The game is making its worldwide playable debut here at PAX in Seattle this weekend. I played the demo, which involved fighting a group of suit-wearing enemies in what I think was a hotel. I also watched a Ubisoft rep try to beat a boss, Irish rapper and cult leader Nathan Copeland, a man who shoots missiles indoors.

How Far Along Is It?
The game is slated for an early 2010 release, though the rep showing me the demo was still talking about control tweaks. Seems like there's plenty more work going into this game.

What Needs Improvement?
Camera: NMH2 uses a revised camera system that is supposed to follow Travis. During the demo it sometimes followed right into the floor, creating angles that were more awkward than dramatic.

Graphics Clash: The No More Heroes can get away with having blocky graphics. Its treasure chests, for example, are designed to look like 3D versions of 8-bit objects. The characters; however, are rendered more smoothly with dark comic book shadow. The aesthetic mix is a cool blend of retro gaming style and some modern graphic novel influences. The problem — sorry to say — is that some of the new sparking and fiery special effects that flare during the sequel's combat look too high-resolution, too advanced and begin to shift what was a striking and dissonant visual style into something that seems messy.

What Should Stay The Same?
Top Wii Combat: No More Heroes had among the most fun and physically satisfying combat on the Wii. The sequel has more of it. Tap the A button to attack with a lightsaber (laser sword, whatever). Use B to melee or do crazy pro-wrestling moves. Z locks on for more controlled combat. And, when an enemy is dazed, an arrow appears indicating which way you need to swipe the remote to perform a brutal finisher. It worked great last time. It works great this time. And it looks cooler when Travis dual-wields his 'sabers.

Nutty Plot: This game takes place three years after the first game and Travis has abandoned his ranking as the world's top assassin. The returning Sylvia is back, again offering Travis sex to coax him to climb the rankings of the assassin's tournament. He won't have it. But his best buddy, Bishop, who owns a video store, has been killed. So Travis is out for revenge and — conveniently! — believes his friend's murderer is in the tournament. So back he goes into the fray of assassinating assassins. I'm told it get wilder. Good.

Increased Variety: The Ubisoft reps showing me the demo said the game will have 10 times more enemy types than the previous game did. It will offer breakable environmental objects that hide power-ups. Stuff like that doesn't sound incredible, but it does sound like the detail-light levels of the first game are getting enriched at least a little more.

Final Thoughts
The first No More Heroes was hilarious. It had crazy boss battles that I'd still feel bad spoiling. It continued to violate its own level structures and standards. And it was stylish, violent and sexy in a smart and fresh way.

The biggest failing of the first game was its barren GTA-lite open world. How that element will be handled in the new game wasn't shown in today's demo. Hopefully it'll be improved. What was here wasn't revolutionary and still could become too messy, but it feels like the spirit of madness and creativity in the first game is back. That's great news.

While No More Heroes and its star Travis Touchdown have captured the hearts of many fans on the Nintendo Wii, Suda's ambition might just be too big for the platform. Once the sequel hits store shelves in early 2010, it could be curtains for the Wii franchise.

"I think ['No More Heroes 2'] is the last ‘NMH' that is going to be developed on the Wii. To expand ‘NMH' to new possibilities, we need a new platform. Wii is a great platform, but we've done everything we can with it now."

While disappointing news for Wii owners, it is a move that makes sound business sense. Despite an excellent reception, the first No More Heroes didn't exactly fly off store shelves. One would imagine that a mature title with the charm of NMH would do amazingly well on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or even the iPhone.

Where would you folks like to see No More Heroes go next?

No More Heroes Will "Need A New Platform" [Edge Online via MTV Multiplayer]

The "middle audience".

Here, let's let Suda explain. "Well, there are a lot of core gamers, and a lot of lighter users playing on platforms such as the DS - but there's nothing in-between," he said. "I think it's going to be very important for games to be created for that middle audience, and that will help bring the market back on-track. "

This sounds like he's talking about the hard casual players. So, yeah, it could happen.

"Middle audience" to spur Japanese market revival [Games Industry]

Marvelous publishes Grasshopper's games in Japan, and the exec says this about that mysterious PS3 title: "If we do that [game] we might go bankrupt," Wada joked to game site Siliconera. "We are making it, but if we make everything then it's a little too risky."

Taking risks is good. Taking risks that bankrupt your company? Less so.

Marvelous Entertainment Publishing A PS3 Game Made By Grasshopper Manufacture [Siliconera]

Sadly, those ideas don't seem like they'll make it into the follow up to Wii adventure No More Heroes. And the Grasshopper Manufacturer CEO wouldn't tell us what those ideas were. But considering Desperate Struggle's focus on revenge and Wii Remote swordfighting, one would think monitoring a player's pulse would be regularly up.

Vitality Sensor use in Suda's upcoming game probably won't happen, but Wii MotionPlus support might. Suda says Grasshopper is "going to definitely try to use" the peripheral for No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, one of the few properties the developer has worked on that's spawned a sequel.

If they can figure out how to dual-wield beam katanas with one-to-one motion tracking, we could have something interesting on our hands. Just not our fingers.

Game site 1UP asked Goichi Suda, the game's designer, whether No More Heroes could ever appear on another platform in the future. "Actually, a lot of the fans were dying to play the game on other consoles, so I think it'd be great if I could do it, but there's no plan yet," said Suda. "[If so,] I would match the content to [fit] the other consoles. No More Heroes could be a big title, like a big IP, so it'd be good to have a chance to release the game on other consoles, and that would maybe maximize the market."

The designer also revealed that the game's sequel, No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, is at the "very end of production". Desperate Struggle, however, will not be playable at E3.

Suda 51: No More Heroes Sequel at "the Very End of Production" [1UP via Develop] [Pic]

Via website Siliconera, here's a breakdown of companies that Grasshopper has worked with, and the titles that were produced. Companies such as D3 Publisher that hired Grasshopper for audio assistance are not listed as primary business partners.

ASCII: The Silver Case
CAPCOM: killer7
TECMO: Fatal Frame IV
ELECTRONIC ARTS: Untitled horror game
MARVELOUS INTERACTIVE: Contact / No More Heroes
UBISOFT: No More Heroes
NAMCO BANDAI: Samurai Champloo / Blood+ One Night Kiss
Q ENTERTAINMENT: Untitled horror game
SEGA CORPORATION: Shining Soul II
SPIKE: Michigan Report from Hell
SQUARE ENIX: ???

Also included in this list of primary business partners are platform holders Sony and Microsoft. But Square Enix? Sure, we knew that Suda was working on something with EA, but did we know about Square Enix? We do now.

GRASSHOPPER MANUFACTURE > company [Grasshopper Manufacture via Siliconera]

The Nordic Game Conference pulls devs and industry pundits from all over Europe for their speakers list. As the event has grown in scope and size, they've started scheduling speakers from North America and Japan. Last year, the conference guested ICO and Shadow of the Colossus dev Fumito Ueda.

From the press release:

"Having Keiji Inafune and Goichi Suda join Nordic Game this year highlights the strong and growing relationship between the Japanese and Nordic games communities" said Tom Felices, executive director of the event, "and will offer attendees a unique opportunity to meet two of the most exciting game creators today".

The Japanese duo joins a roster that is guaranteed to draw the attention of the industry around the world: Tom Edwards, Englobe (US), Lars Gustavsson, EA DICE (SWE) and Ryan Schneider, Insomniac Games (US), as well as speakers from Media Molecule (UK) and Grin (SWE) are among the industry heavyweights appearing at Nordic Game 2009.

Nordic Game 2009 kicks off in Malmö, Sweden May 19. Check out the official site for more info.

Don't count on seeing an Xbox 360 version anytime soon. "We don't have plans for an Xbox 360 No More Heroes. There is nothing of that sort scheduled in our development cycle." When No More Heroes was originally slated for the Xbox 360, Suda hoped to capitalize on the system's graphical power. That doesn't mean he's given up on the Wii's power. "There's still room for the Wii's graphics to get better and better," Suda said.

Grasshopper Manufacture Licenses Unreal Engine 3

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

TOKYO, Oct. 7 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ — Iconic Japanese developer Grasshopper Manufacture has licensed Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 for a new multiplatform action horror game to be published by Electronic Arts Inc. (Nasdaq: ERTS). The new game is directed by innovative game designer Suda51 and produced by legendary Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami.

"Unreal Engine 3 is a powerful, easy-to-implement game engine that is helping the creative team at Grasshopper quickly bring our vision to life," said Goichi Suda, CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture. "The innovative tools and technology in Unreal Engine 3 help developers create games faster, easier and with less risk."

"It's an honor to work with Suda-san and Mikami-san on their next project," said Jay Wilbur, Vice president, Epic Games. "Grasshopper Manufacture is one of the most daring and innovative studios in the world, and we can't wait to see what they're able to do with Unreal Engine 3.

For more information about Grasshopper Manufacture, please visit http://www.grasshoppermanufacture.com

For more information about Epic Games, please visit http://www.epicgames.com

For more information about EA, please visit our press Web site at http://info.ea.com

About Grasshopper Manufacture Inc

Grasshopper Manufacture Inc. is an independent interactive entertainment studio based in Suginami-ku, Tokyo. The studio was founded in 1998 by CEO Goichi Suda, who is known around the world for his distinctive style and innovative work as a game designer and scenario writer. To date, Grasshopper Manufacture has shipped 11 titles, including 2007's breakout hit, "No More Heroes." More information about GhM can be found on the internet at http://www.grasshopper.co.jp/

About Epic Games

Epic Games, Inc., based in Cary, NC and established in 1991, develops cutting-edge games and cross-platform game engine technology. The company has created multiple million-selling, award-winning titles in its Unreal series, most recently shipping Unreal Tournament 3 for PC, PLAYSTATION(R) and Xbox 360(R). Epic's breakthrough game, Gears of War, sold 5 million copies and won over 30 game of the year awards. The highly anticipated sequel, Gears of War 2, is scheduled for release on November 7, 2008. Epic's Unreal Engine 3 is the current holder and three-time consecutive winner of Game Developer magazine's Best Engine Front Line Award. Additional information about Epic can be obtained through the Epic Games Web site at http://www.epicgames.com .

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTSTM, EATM, EA SPORTS Freestyle TM and POGOTM. In fiscal 2008, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.67 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is http://www.ea.com . More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com .

EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS Freestyle and POGO are trademarks or registered trademark in the U.S. and/or other countries\ Epic, Epic Games, Unreal, Unreal Engine, Unreal Tournament and Gears of War are trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States of America and elsewhere. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Electronic Arts Inc.

Suda51's PS1 Game The Silver Case Coming to PSN [1UP]

Suda tells the Official Nintendo Magazine that the main character of No More Heroes, originally planned as an Xbox 360 title, was inspired by a pants down sit down session.

"I actually came up with the initial idea for a game featuring a [Johnny] Knoxville-style character whilst on the toilet," Suda says. "I decided to use that inspiration as the save game mechanic." Knoxville's penchant for Jackass toilet humor, we assume, was Suda's muse, as it later also fostered inspiration for one of the game's more memorable marketing campaigns.

The Making Of No More Heroes [ONM UK]