No More Heroes 3

Travis is back in an overly-bloody hack-and-slash action game! He has many more maniacal bosses to face down as this time, he must save the world. The game series has a satirical feel with some fourth wall breaking and meta humor. The main character, Travis, is a wrestling-loving otaku. I kind of think the director of the game, Suda51, based a lot of Travis’s likes on his own likes. In the game, you must take on ten invading aliens and move up the galactic rankings to become number one!

Find it on Steam.

No More Heroes 3 is actually the fourth game of the series. The third game is more of a side-game called Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, however there are important plot points that happen in that game that greatly affect this game. This game doesn’t really bother to tell you about what happens previously, so you either know it or you don’t. It does seem like part of the joke at times since this game has references to other Suda51 games, all without any explanation. Mixed in are just strange things that seem like you should know what happened but don’t.

The No More Heroes series is always big on vibes. It has an irreverent style all its own. Paired with it is a fun and varied soundtrack with a strong leitmotif. The other big point of the games are just the crazy bosses you get to fight. They started off as assassins in previous games, but now you’re fighting galactic invaders.

The boss designs definitely feels more gaudy this time around to emphasize the alienness of them. They have some cool looks, though, and the pre-fight and post-fight scenes are fun. The bosses all have various levels of quirky strangeness, though some are more engaging than others. Travis’s laidback and confident attitude really makes everything entertaining.

The combat in this game feels improved from the previous games. The series will not be as technical or complicated as some other fighters, but it feels meaty. Hits cause huge geysers of blood to spurt out. Powerful blows cause the entire HUD to shake. The enemies this time around are more varied and difficult. They’ll use their alien abilities to create some tricky and difficult encounters. Overall, this game feels harder than the previous games but still satisfying. The boss fights are also varied. Each one has its own feel and presentation.

Aside from fighting, the game has an overworld where you can wander around in. There are some side missions to do and collectibles to find. The side missions range from simple jobs such as mowing people’s lawns to going down into the mines for alien ore. The overworld has a charm to it, and it keeps the game from being all about going from arena to arena. You get a cool motorcycle to help you get around as well. Sometimes, it’s nice just hanging out rather than rushing to the next boss fight.

Overall, the gameplay doesn’t change much from the beginning to the end, and there aren’t that many enemy types. The gameplay can start to feel repetitious, but you also don’t need to do everything to progress. I do oddly really like mowing the lawn, though.

No More Heroes 3 is a solid installment to the No More Heroes franchise. I think the earlier games had some more memorable bosses, but this game has a few really interesting bosses as well. The fighting and action is great in this game. While there isn’t too much going on in the overworld, it is a good way to slow down the pace of the game. Since it’s the third game, Travis has grown from the immature man he was in the previous games. He’s still an otaku, but now he knows what he’s fighting for.

Get into the action, and get pulled into a world with a fun irreverent vibe. Find it on Steam.