No More Heroes 3, the preview
No More Heroes 3
No More Heroes 3 is literally a dream come true for fans of the series created by Suda51 in the now distant 2007. A franchise that has always been linked to Nintendo platforms and therefore could not avoid returning to the current flagship of the Japanese house on the occasion of the release of the third chapter.The preview of No More Heroes confirms that the game is the umpteenth representation of Goichi Suda's visionary abilities: an action experience that puts us in the shoes of professional killer Travis Touchdown, armed with a sort of lightsaber with which he faces from time to time dangerous criminals with a bounty on his head, against the backdrop of a metropolis called, not surprisingly, Santa Destroy.
History
No More Heroes 3, Travis Touchdown with his inseparable sword. Completely crazy narrative assumptions, which return to the fore in No More Heroes 3 becoming, if possible, even more absurd and unlikely. After defeating practically all the opponents that came in his path, Travis finds himself fighting an extraterrestrial enemy, such Jess Baptiste VI, for friends FU (yes, exactly, as the English acronym), to defend the world from a ferocious invasion.Saved at an early age by a human boy who helped him return to his planet, where he was crowned prince, FU returns after twenty years to conquer the Earth with the help of his friend who, taking advantage of alien technologies and some special abilities given to him on that occasion, became the CEO of an important multinational, Utopinia.
Gameplay
No More Heroes 3, the protagonist's repertoire naturally includes the German Suplex. One of the peculiarities of No More Heroes has always been to take advantage of the motion detection controls of the Nintendo platforms in an effective and fun way, and the new episode is no exception. In the demo shown during the Treehouse at E3 2021 it was shown how the combat system also uses gestures to allow Travis to inflict devastating blows against his new opponents.It comes to every way of an optional feature, in the sense that it is also possible to use the normal buttons of the Joy-Con (and therefore a Nintendo Switch Lite, or a Pro Controller), with no differences whatsoever beyond the possible involvement in the action. From this point of view the mechanics often and willingly recall those seen in the recent Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, although the fights generally boast a greater thickness.
In short, do not expect to defeat dozens of aliens by waving the katana to the energy of the protagonist: in No More Heroes 3 you will have to take the measures to each individual opponent, study his moves and his reactions, then find the right gap in their defense to beat devastating blows and maybe close the practice with a spectacular trigger from the inevitable quick time event.
In the aforementioned Travis Strikes Again we have seen how the guys from Grasshopper Manufacture know how to create numerous types of enemies to send against us, thus increasing the variety of the action and always introducing ideas new. The same is obviously true of the boss fights: according to what we have seen so far, the third chapter of the series will live up to expectations in this area as well, offering crazy and original sequences.
Structure and realization technique
No More Heroes 3, one of the spectacular boss fights. From the point of view of the structure, No More Heroes 3 returns to embrace the open world setting of the first episode, but hopefully with the intention of giving us a more complex, rich and interesting Santa Destroy than in the past. Two generations of consoles have always passed since the debut of the original No More Heroes, so expectations are inevitably higher.What is certain is that in the role of Travis we will be able to try our hand at a series of nice side activities , mostly inside his apartment. Between collectibles, electronic games, cats, power-ups and food, we will have more than one occasion to distract ourselves in the middle of the campaign, catching our breath after a particularly complex mission and preparing ourselves for the next one. the moment there is nothing to tear your hair, but we are largely within the canons of the series: more style than muscles is a bit the motto of the formula developed by Suda51, which aims to surprise us with its visual ideas and with a always fluid action, rather than ultra-detailed scenarios. The important thing is not to overdo it with essentiality, because we all agree that the eye also wants its part.
No More Heroes 3 is preparing to deliver an absolutely crazy, fun experience and engaging as per tradition for the series. Suda51 has repeatedly proven its capabilities in terms of direction, style and solidity of the combat system, which once again will certainly live up to expectations, providing us with a repertoire of devastating moves with which to eliminate dozens of enemies different. A package that would leave us satisfied in this way, but finding some extra elements beyond the traditional formula would be a nice surprise.
