No More Heroes (not a review)

I had resolved to finish Killer 7 before talking about No More Heroes, but I cannot in any way stand to play Killer 7. People talk about that game in terms of its polarizing effects and they are right to do so. I am obviously on the "HATE" side.

Regardless. Please stop reading if you don't want to know anything about Killer 7 or No More Heroes, because I'll probably be spoiling some things.

When the Greek playwright Arisophanes wrote The Wasps in 422 BC, he created a comedy which relies somewhat heavily on slap-stick humor. There's a bit of drunken debauchery and characters wearing erect phalli, all of which would appeal to the baser sort of audience. Some suggest that he did this to address the complaints he had received the previous year for his The Clouds which was a more erudite comedy which he felt was viewed unfavorably by the public because they didn't understand it. In short, he tried to do something intelligent and nobody liked it, so he did something stupid to teach them a lesson.

I find it hard to ignore Aristophanes in considering Suda 51, the man who is largely responsible for both No More Heroes and Killer 7 which preceded it. Killer 7 is moody and strange, with haunting laughter and confusing dialog which slowly unravels a fairly interesting plot (I read the synopsis). The gameplay consists of something like an FPS on rails with light adventure game motifs. He blended, in other words, three genres together, two of which are all but dead. Kudos, and all that, but when a story takes two viewings to properly appreciate, it might be wise to make the game fun to play.

Suda apparently heard the complaints which I echo above and created No More Heroes, and it's 422 BC all over again. The plot is straightforward, there's no real reason why you wouldn't be able to understand it in one go, and the game, instead of relying on genres that people don't like any more, mixes a bunch of things that people DO like. There's a city in which to drive around, which will appeal to the Grand Theft Auto types, a lightsaber (well, for all intents and purposes) for the Star Wars people, customizable clothing for...I don't know, the Sims people? The WoW people? Maybe that has a broad enough appeal to be for almost everyone. There are fake anime references for anime types. There are mini-games for people who can't seem to get their dick out of the Wii, and of course, dismembering people who bleed gallons and gallons of blood. Suda thinks we're too stupid to play a unique game so he puts everything we already like onto a disc to shut us up.

Or at least that's my theory. I don't know for a fact that he is essentially flipping us the bird with this game, but I suspect it might be the case.