No More Heroes

No More Censors

Finally, I suppose we should speak about censorship because it’s something that really makes a difference for No More Heroes, though perhaps not how you might think. The fact is that, in some territories, No More Heroes is completely uncut and uncensored.

Europe isn’t one of those territories.

Here’s the thing though – the immediate reaction to somebody affected by that news is something along the lines of “Oh God! Why do the old men in suits always have to tell me what is and is not appropriate for me to watch?” and, though there are a number of rational responses to that, I’d urge you to calm down a bit before you react.

Why should you? Because No More Heroes is better in the censored form! As far as we can gather, no actual content or story has been cut from the game and the European version of No More Heroes is still as in-yer-face and rude as every other version. There’s swearing, sex, partial nudity and a whole load of fighting. The only thing lacking is blood.



In other versions of the game there is a whole lot of blood – literally fountains of the stuff. In the European version however killing a foe will scatter them into pixels and shatter them on the floor. So, the question you have to ask yourself is; what does a five minute torrent of poorly rendered blood actually bring to the game?

The answer is; not a lot. The de-digitalisation of the enemies in the European game fits in better with the game’s unusual graphics, cleans up the look of the environments, makes the game easier and more fun to play and removes any worries you might have that the game is trying to thrive on controversy and violence, like other games have.

Really, we know it isn’t exactly the cool thing to say and a lot of you will probably stick to your “Don’t tell me what to do!” rants, but it’s true. Having seen both versions, we have to say that we really do prefer the un-gross version of the game to its grisly counterpart.

There’s nothing really wrong with the uncensored version of the game and you can definitely play and enjoy both versions equally, but the crux is that if you didn’t know that one version had had the incredibly excessive blood trimmed out when you sat down to play it then you’d probably not miss it.

On that basis, there’s really no reason to be worrying and importing foreign versions of the game – not that you could play them anyway since the Wii is region-locked.

Conclusions

No More Heroes is a game that really does thrive on surprising players and it’s great to see a completely accessible game like this that manages to shock players without ever relying on shock tactics.

It’s also one of the funniest and most entertaining games that we’ve played on the Wii – it goes a long way to addressing the huge gap between decent Wii releases. Super Mario Galaxy was a long time ago now, so if you’ve been itching for something worthy to flail your Wiimote at then No More Heroes will certainly fit the bill.

No More Heroes isn’t a perfect game at all and it has some very identifiable problems which occasionally put players off. Given that the appeal of the game lies in blind-siding the player with off-beat humour and wit, it also may not be suitable to everyone. And once you’ve got to grips with it then you may find it a tad tiresome if you’ve not got the same sense of humour as the writers.

No More Heroes is an excellent example of how an eccentric character design and storyline can compensate for some technical failings though and the combination of bizarre characters and striking presentation really do make the mini-games and such a minor concern at best. If you’ve been looking for a more adult game to play on your Wii then No More Heroes should come highly recommended.