is a 2007 action-adventure game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture for the Wii. The game was directed, designed, and written by Goichi Suda, also known by his nickname Suda51, and is the first installment in the No More Heroes series. The game follows Travis Touchdown, an otaku who wins a beam katana in an auction, from which he inadvertently becomes involved in the United Assassins Association and forced to kill assassins higher in rank to prevent them from targeting him.
Gameplay takes place across linear stages with Travis killing enemies and fighting the ranked assassins using a mix of hack and slash combat with his beam katana and an assortment of pro wrestling moves, as well as the open hub town of Santa Destroy where he can take on part-time jobs, assassination contracts and other activities to earn money to upgrade equipment, purchase items or pay the necessary fee to participate in more fights under the UAA.
No More Heroes was released by Marvelous Entertainment in Japan in 2007, Ubisoft in North America and Rising Star Games in PAL territories in 2008. The game was met with generally positive reviews from critics, with its gameplay, writing and soundtrack receiving high praise, though its perceived repetitiveness was criticized. The game had a muted Japanese launch and ultimately sold 40,000 units in the region by February 2008. The title was comparatively successful in North America and Europe, and sold a further 208,000 copies in the former. No More Heroes was quickly regarded as a cult classic, remarked upon for its offbeat narrative and distinct style, as well as for its unconventional standing as one of the few mature games among the Wii's casual-oriented library.
An enhanced port of the game, titled No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise, was released in 2010 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with additional content in Japan. Unlike the original, the international version of the game was published by Konami, and only the PlayStation 3 version of the game was localized in English. A port of the original Wii version developed by Engine Software was later released for the Nintendo Switch in 2020, and for Amazon Luna and Windows via Steam in 2021. The game was followed by three sequels: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (2010), Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes (2019), and No More Heroes III (2021).
Gameplay Throughout the game, the player controls the character Travis Touchdown. The game has a free roaming world, allowing Travis to move around on foot or on his modified scooter, the "Schpeltiger". Gameplay is open-ended, with the condition that the player must kill the top ten assassins to make the storyline progress. There are numerous part-time job side quests to earn money which can be spent on weapons, training sessions, clothes and video tapes. Money is also required to compete in a Ranking fight.
Control is handled through the Wii Remote and Nunchuk attachment, with the Remote controlling his weapon, the beam katana, and the Nunchuk moving Travis. Most attacks are performed using the "A" button, with certain other moves, including the "death blow" and sword lock struggles, executed by following on-screen instructions. Further, since the beam katanas run on batteries, they must be charged from time to time by pressing the "1" button on the remote and shaking it.
Travis's beam katana can also be upgraded and replaced throughout the game by visiting Dr. Naomi. While the katana does not follow the exact position of the remote, it is able to distinguish between a "high" and "low" position which varies the character stance and the attacks done. In addition to attacks with the beam katana Travis can kick and punch, and when enemies are stunned he can throw them with a number of professional wrestling maneuvers, done by manipulating both the Wii Remote and Nunchuk.
Travis has a secondary mode, "Dark Side", that is accessed when three icons line up in a slot machine after a successful death blow. In this mode, Travis gains a super powerful move depending on what symbols are lined up ranging from a speed increase to outright killing every enemy on screen instantly.
Plot The story follows Travis Touchdown, who is a stereotypical otaku – his motel room decorated with professional wrestling and anime collectibles – living in near poverty in the No More Heroes motel of the fictional town of Santa Destroy, California. After winning a beam katana in an internet auction, he runs out of money to buy video games and wrestling videos. After meeting with Sylvia Christel, he accepts a job to kill Helter Skelter, also known as "the Drifter," which earns him rank 11 by the United Assassins Association, a governing body of assassins. Realizing that he has the opportunity to make it to the top, he sets out to secure himself the coveted position of number one assassin in the UAA.
After killing the tenth ranked assassin, Sylvia reveals that if Travis stops killing, he'll eventually be targeted by other aspiring assassins. Travis, now convinced there's no way out, goes on to kill every other assassin except for number eight, Shinobu, whom he spares because he wants her to get stronger. During the 5th ranked battle he meets Henry, a mysterious Irish man who wields a beam katana similar to Travis' own.
Before meeting the top-ranked assassin, Travis calls the number he got from Sylvia's business card, but it connects him to her mother instead, who reveals that the UAA was just an elaborate con set up by Sylvia, who overheard his drunken ramblings and organized his entry so that he could finally have revenge on his former childhood love, Jeane, who murdered his parents. Travis briefly meets Dark Star, the final ranked assassin, who were then swiftly killed by Jeane. Jeane reveals in a fast-forwarded cutscene that she was his half-brother, and her mother killed herself after her father left her for his mistress, which was Travis' mother. Their father, knowing that she has nowhere to go, had sexually abused her all her life, thus forcing her to become a prostitute to survive and become a killer to get revenge on her father, thus killing their parents in front of Travis' eyesJeane: You are my half brother. You know that manga called Miyuki? The Japanese one. Well, it's like that. Your father abandoned my mother to run off with your mother. It broke her heart beyond repair. She killed herself. Knowing I had nowhere to go, he took advantage of me. Ever since I can remember, he molested me. We lived in this rotten apartment... And I was his slave. Every day I cursed his soul. I swore that I would kill him one day. But cursing didn't change anything. That's when I decided to become a killer. With no money to pay for training, I paid with my body. But to you, I bet that son of a bitch looked like a hard-working family man. That was all an act. He didn't give two shits about cleaning up my life so I decided to clean it up myself. That's why I do what I do. And I got what I wanted. Killing him in front of your very eyes. That's my story.. Jeane almost killed Travis in a final clash, but Shinobu save him and he finally kills Jeane.
The game really ends with Travis being attacked by another assassin while taking a dump in his motel room before Henry saves him, and challenges him to one last fight in the motel's parking lot. It is during this fight that Henry reveals two twists: first, that he is Travis's twin brother, and second, that Sylvia is his wife (which would make her Travis' sister-in-law), and has a habit of disappearing before returning with lots of money (presumably due to conning people). Travis insinuates to Henry that he slept with Sylvia after becoming the #1 ranked assassin. Still locked in combat, the brothers discuss the nature of these revelations and their situation while they run down a long street. Finally, as the two leap towards each other for the final clash, the screen flashes and is revealed to be a painting hanging in an art gallery, where a little girl, Jeane, and her mother, Sylvia, are observing it.
The Japanese version's instruction booklet, entitled the United Assassins Association Official Manual, contains a small manga which contained much of the backstory about the UAA and Travis' first kill. This manga was not included in the North American release of the game, but is available on the official website.Media | No More Heroes | Ubisoft
Characters Above Travis in the UAA are ten other assassins. The UAA official that provides ranks and sets up matches for the assassins is Sylvia Christel, a "mysterious" and "cold" woman who constantly flirts with Travis. Travis is aided by a weapons maker named Doctor Naomi, former pro-wrestler Thunder Ryu, and a drunk, Randall Lovikov. Naomi sells beam katanas and upgrades for them, Ryu operates a gym and trains Travis – allowing him to increase his strength, combos and health for a small fee – and Lovikov is a drunken old man who teaches new maneuvers and techniques in exchange for Lovikov balls which are scattered around the city.
Development No More Heroes, under its working title Project Heroes,GamesTM #50 (November 2006) was initially planned as an Xbox 360 game, until Yasuhiro Wada suggested the Wii and its unique control structure to director Goichi Suda ("Suda51"). Previously titled Heroes., Suda51 has said that No More Heroes focuses on social issues.
A number of films, actors and music have inspired Suda51's design for No More Heroes. Besides the title coming from UK punk band The Stranglers 1977 album No More Heroes, the structure of the United Assassins' Association is based on the film El Topo which features a similar, albeit smaller, ranking system. Travis Touchdown and his antics are based on Johnny Knoxville of Jackass and wrestler Josh Barnett, who also served as the persona from which the Destroyman character was created. Contrary to popular belief, Travis' weapon, the beam katana, is not based on the lightsaber from Star Wars but from the 1980s Japanese TV series Space Sheriff Gavan and 1987 film Spaceballs. Other character influences included Scarlett Johansson as the UAA's Sylvia, Ian Curtis as Travis' twin-brother Henry, Charles Bronson as assassin Dr. Peace, and Genichiro Tenryu as Travis' mentor Thunder Ryu.
The city of Santa Destroy is based on San Diego, California (though, possibly mistaken, Suda implied that he used the version of San Diego shown in Dirty Harry, which takes place entirely in San Francisco, California), with the "No More Heroes" motel inspired by a similar one from the movie Memento. The Japanese cult movie Gozu provided the basis for the in-game video store "Beef Head". Two fictional anime series, "Glastonbury" and "Bizarre Jelly", that are shown within the game were influenced by Space Runaway Ideon and Pretty Cure, respectively. Suda also noted that Grasshopper Studios also worked on the anime-based video games Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked and BLOOD+: One Night Kiss, both which inspired the development of No More Heroes, considering the three together as a "sword action trilogy".
In one interview Suda wanted to make No More Heroes "as violent, or even more violent than Manhunt 2," a game that received an AO rating from the ESRB in its original form. A trailer shown at the March 2007 Game Developers Conference featured Travis Touchdown using the beam katana to decapitate or cut enemies in half, with copious amounts of blood being spilled. Later videos featured clouds of black pixels and objects resembling coins spurting from enemies instead of blood. It was later explained that the "black clouds" version would be released in Japan, while North America would receive the game with the previously seen blood. Later, however, Suda51 decided to release the bloodless version in Europe as well. The two versions both feature common enemies eventually burning away and a fountain of coins, with or without the inclusion of blood.