A little janky around the edges and filled with charisma, the No More Heroes series are quintessential Grasshopper Manufacture games. Action games that lean heavily into their crude humour and fan-service, they’re unapologetic about themselves on the surface, while genuinely attempting to be thought-provoking through its bravado.
All three games focus on Travis Touchdown, a shlubby nerd who has a penchant for cute anime girls, porn and his cat, Jeane. Also, murder, as he soon discovers.

After accidentally getting himself into the rankings for assassins after trying to make some quick cash, Travis begins to embrace it as he works his way up the ladder. Introspection might come in 2018’s side story and a massive departure from the norms, Travis Strikes Again and a complete abandonment of the deeper meanings in the second title, 2011’s Desperate Struggle, but the original No More Heroes sets everything up for each title to explore in different ways that make each game still worth your time entirely.
Especially now that they’re available on Switch! All at a delightful 60fps, quality of life changes and an excellent choice to leave the PS3 version behind.
No More Heroes was originally released for the Wii in 2007, being tossed between multiple publishers and rereleased or remastered multiple times since then. It’s a fascinating game, not only looking at it as a time capsule in 2020 but also just as a piece of work by legendary game director, Goichi Suda (SUDA51).
SUDA himself is an extraordinary character within the world of video games. Known for his punk mentality, his games are riddled with thought-provoking moments, unique storytelling techniques and each title that he’s made with his team at Grasshopper has been – outside of direct sequels – fairly different from each other in style, tone and ultimately, how they play. While the industry zags towards uniformity, SUDA and Grasshopper will almost always be there to zig in the same direction, but in their own way.
Nothing epitomizes this as No More Heroes, a hack-n-slash game that goes against the grain of where other games that would sit alongside it were heading. Bear in mind that this is a post-God of War and Devil May Cry 3 world, games that ultimately defined where action games would head for the entirety of the next generation of consoles. Instead of following suit, No More Heroes seems to follow God Hand – Clover Studio’s impossibly decisive beat-em-up – with a low behind the back camera, focus on one-on-one combat (even in groups) and flashy combat not coming directly from the player, but that of the game taking those reigns, while the player watches in anticipation of the next. Even before No More Heroes, Grasshopper were doing weird things with genres like the first-person-shooter. In Killer7 you are forced on rails, controlling movement with A and B and provided a shooting gallery rather than the expected free-movement popularised in the 90s and then again on consoles in Halo and Call of Duty.

No More Heroes builds upon the core of most Suda directed games with his likes and previous life experiences building up the foundations of his game. His methods for writing the story before making the game, using it to influence how a particular game will pan out when actually playing it directly go against the majority of major games – with countless stories about games that have everything in place before the story even gets slotted in, or sometimes neither.
If it has affected Suda’s life in some capacity, it’s probably going to wind up in his games at some point. For instance, Travis’ past experiences as either an in-training or actual pro-wrestler reflect within the game as unlockable finishing moves become available, which in turn reflects Suda’s roots working on the Fire Pro Wrestling series, where-in he began going against the grain by delivering a bleak and mature story within an era where this was unprecedented outside of very, very few titles – especially for a wrestling game.

This use of real-life comes full force with the activities you do between each ranked fight. In No More Heroes, you can’t just walk into each fight as you see fit, but you have to pay a fee each time. Every single piece of high-octane and ridiculous action that the game has in store for you is hidden behind the world’s most menial tasks.
You literally go to the Job Centre, get a part-time job and proceed to either collect coconuts, find cats, catch scorpions or fill petrol for cars.
They’re monotonous, hideously tedious and absolutely suck the life out of you until you finish the gig. From there, you’re given access to more busy-work, but one that allows you to do a bit of murder on the side via an agency.
While from a gaming point of view I think they’re just downright terrible and hope to god to never have to collect rubbish off the floor or grind out the only reasonable payout for an assassination mission for upgrades, from a critical analysis point of view they’re actually quite hilarious.
It’s like a good joke on the player, that to do the stuff you want to do, you really have to earn it.
However you manage it, just do it, because how else are you going to proceed up the ranks? It’s also funny having to do these part-time jobs so that I can participate in some murder, you know? The social commentary might not be subtle, but much like its shadows, the blunt nature of it works fantastically amongst the less-than-subtle game.
The game’s social commentary doesn’t end there. While the game’s side stuff is used to explore the themes of a world slowly going to shit, where to make ends meet, you’ll need to do some bad stuff, the one-on-one fights between Travis and the assassins are more of a look at Travis Touchdown’s goal, what that means for him and ultimately, the player.

We as an audience are consistently lured into the fray via fourth-wall-breaking. Characters will actively talk about the controller, massive plot details with minutes of the game to spare and even talking directly to the player as the game starts. It’s through this that we begin to immerse ourselves within this kooky world a little deeper, the cracks made in the wall a way for our soul to spill in, inhabiting it just a little bit.
With this in mind, each fight then elaborates on Travis – or yourself – and the path that could follow if you happen to begin climbing whatever ladder it is you’re on.
Do you begin to lose touch with loved ones? Get an ego? Perhaps you can see yourself accomplishing everything and hitting your peak? Or do you wind up old, out of touch and with nothing left around you?
In some cases, you might even begin to dissociate with everything, like in the Rank 2 fight with Bad Girl, a character who plays no part or has any bearing on the story as a whole. She’s going through the motions. Will you?

No More Heroes, through its crude and boisterous charm, is attempting to reach out to the player via Travis. Don’t fall into the traps these people he’s facing have fallen into. Learn from them, but don’t follow them.
It might not be particularly deep and to be honest, it doesn’t need to be. You can take it at face value perfectly fine or you can analyse it for every single drop it provides (incidentally, I highly recommend Ghenry Perez’s videos on Suda’s games, including No More Heroes).
I love how this game plays during these big boss fight sequences. While the big rooms of nearly faceless dudes might provide light entertainment, the one-on-one fights that you’ve worked towards are so delightfully filled to the brim with things that it’s an absolute joy – even when getting your ass handed to you multiple times.
They’re what I’d classify as “Squeaky Bum Moments”, tense filled battles of whittling down health bars and managing yours and the beam katana’s battery. Knowing when to strike and when to go in for a couple slashes, learning how each sequence operates and how to flip on the fly whenever they might suddenly whip it out.
Combat might not be as smooth as its compatriots in the genre and I can tell you now, turn that motion controls off if you want a good time, but it’s so satisfying. There’s a moment in these games where you’ll feel as if you can’t do it and suddenly, it’ll click. Yeah, you might be some person with a controller in their hands, but goddamn if you don’t feel good.

Highlights include figuring out how Dark Stepping works in the true final boss fight, as well as getting over the third rank fight’s shtick without breaking a sweat, whereas back in 2007 when I got this game on Wii, I bailed out during this point.
Of course, performing all the ridiculous power-ups on the goons is an especially good highlight. One of my favourite things in games is having lots of smaller, weaker enemies for me to dominate before the tables are turned on me.

No More Heroes is a delight. Certainly rough in spots and while parts of it might be a slog while actually playing it, it all works to drive home the message over the course of the game of the world is unfair. There are no heroes, but, maybe look around you and see where others have gone wrong and try to set out on your own path and be the best at that.