Review: No More Heroes III Paves Its Poor Open World with Nonstop Snark

No More Heroes III shows no respect for the artistry or cultural context of the pop culture that it pilfers from.

No More Heroes III
Photo: Grasshopper Manufacture

Grasshopper Manufacture’s No More Heroes was driven by the idea that fun should be at the forefront of all game design and that state-of-the-art graphics and deep gameplay are beside the point. After all, the 2007 game’s most notable feature was the charge mode for the protagonist’s weapon that mimics the act of masturbation. Now, nearly 15 years later, we get a second numbered sequel that, while noticeably longer and more expensively produced, is no less snarky and, sadly, disdainful of its own medium.

Back in the saddle is Travis Touchdown, a Japanese-obsessed otaku who spends most of his time playing video games, watching anime, and, yes, masturbating. In the first game, Travis took to fighting villains not out of any kind of heroism or call to action, but because he was broke. The stakes in No More Heroes III are higher, as an alien overlord, FU (pronounced, wrongly, as “Foo”), has come to conquer Earth, and only the unemployable Travis stands in his way. But before he can take FU on, Travis must work his way up the ladder of Galactic Superhero Rankings, taking on jobs between fights to raise money for admission to boss battles. None of this makes any sense, but incoherence is part of the game’s mantra.

No More Heroes III’s core gameplay loop involves taking part in “designated matches,” where Travis fights groups of enemies in exchange for gems required for boss battles, and completing various side jobs to earn money. While some of these jobs are so inane and unenjoyable that they can be seen as parodying the kinds of pointless busywork and half-baked side content that’s central to many a Rockstar game—such as your having to painfully and methodically mow lawns—others are so off-the-wall and hilarious that they nullify potential boredom.

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Why not defend Omaha Beach from a congregation of giant alligators using a cannon, or unclog toilets in public bathrooms using a motion-controlled plunger? As No More Heroes III never forces the player to even take part in specific side activities, there’s freedom to bypass sections that feel like a chore. The game is intent on never languishing in stagnation, as its constantly introducing new, pop-culture-referencing minigames and non-sequitur sequences. There’s a Kamen Rider-inspired battle and a mysterious codec conversation that recalls Metal Gear Solid, and game chapters are bookended with characters discussing the films of Miike Takashi. The levels themselves sometimes break from third-person combat to riff on other genres, such as the first-person, flashlight-assisted exploration of a haunted school.

The majority of No More Heroes III is spent in combat, and even though it boasts more refined mechanics than its predecessors, the game cannot compete with its contemporaries. Some of this comes down to the Switch hardware itself, as every controller configuration suffers from input lag that negatively affects timing windows. The game’s difficulty also swings wildly, with encounters that are either pointlessly easy or frustratingly hard, especially during higher-level play: Against larger groups, Travis is easily overwhelmed, especially during long recovery windows after being knocked down, when using the motion controls doesn’t help.

No More Heroes III also continues the series tradition of featuring an open world whose areas not only want for more detail and interactivity, but also quality control. For one, traffic is limited and cars usually disappear if you touch them. Even interesting settings, such as the bombed-out, military shooter-inspired Call of Battle, are absolutely crowded with invisible walls, making traversal and exploration at best inconsistent and at worst painful.

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Despite wearing its influences on its sleeve—Travis drives a facsimile of Kaneda’s bike from Akira and can transform into a Gundam rip-off—No More Heroes III shows no respect for the artistry or cultural context of the pop culture that it pilfers from. In fact, Given its alternately snarky, nihilistic, and condescending opinions of just about everything, you would be justified in feeling that the game doesn’t just dislike the things that it references but even itself.

The game was reviewed using a code provided by Grasshopper Manufacture.

Score: 
 Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture  Publisher: Grasshopper Manufacture  Platform: Switch  Release Date: August 27, 2021  ESRB: M  ESRB Descriptions: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes

Ryan Aston

Ryan Aston has been writing for Slant since 2011. He lives in Perth, Western Australia.

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