No More Heroes--The Circle of Death pt.2--this game is for the Wii?

A motley crew of sociopaths

                                   


With its adult themes, No More Heroes debuting on the Nintendo Wii was an unusual choice giving the system's reputation for "kiddie" games.  Not to mention that it was created by a kooky director who typically wants to push video games in a more artistic direction.  From the start of the game Travis Touchdown says, "I know a lot of gamers out there who don't have much patience, 'least that's what Bishop the dude at the video store said."  The player is pushed into the bizarre plot at a breakneck speed.

We continue with assassin #4 Harvey Moiseiwitsch Volodarrskii who is a stage magician that resembles a certain Mindfreak!  Here Harvey presents violence as a theatrical form of entertainment, throwing knives into his lovely assistants during his performance.  Eventually he calls Travis to come up as a volunteer--not surprising since he's one of the only two people in the audience (the second being Sylvia Christel whom Travis is still hoping to score with). 

Harvey tells Travis Touchdown that he must owe his spectacular name to his parents.  "My parents are dead," Travis replies as he grins at the non-existent audience before him.  This is the first insight into Travis's backstory.   

The 3rd ranked match features the misandrous old woman known as Speed Buster.  The phallic imagery is through the roof here as her weapon of choice is an extremely elongated cannon which has a base that resembles a rooster's head.  Cock-a-doodle-doo!


Despite being a few blocks away from his target--Travis manages to close the gap and castrate the cannon--making up for the missed opportunity he has against prior assassin Letz Shake.  He approaches the now defenseless Speed Buster who has changed her harsh tone--Travis she deems a worthy man.  She kisses him on the cheek and wishes him farewell before he lops her head off.  It is a grisly form of character development as it is Travis's first time killing a female assassin.  Sylvia shows up to admire the decapitation stating in her French accent, "It is really cool how they all die," a jab at how we as gamers (and media consumers in general) have a thirst for blood when it comes to entertainment.


Ranked match #2 is the most bizarre encounter in the game.

--and that says a lot in a Suda 51 production

                                              

We meet Bad Girl in the basement of a baseball stadium beating bound men to death with a bat in some scary BDSM ritual.  Even Travis is puzzled by her sadistic behavior.  "You have no right to look at me like that!" she shouts at him as she sits on her couch--legs spread and panties clearly visible.  Is she talking to Travis or the player?

Travis Touchdown: You're no assassin, you're just a perverted killing maniac.

Bad Girl: In essence they're the same--don't go on thinking you're better than me.

Travis is disgusted with Bad Girl's actions.  Perhaps his character is developing...or maybe he's just a hypocrite who can't recognize the atrocities of his own ruthless behavior.


Finally Travis reaches #1.  In a desert he is approached by a man in black, cape blowing in the wind, dark helmet over his face.  This is Dark Star, and he claims to be Travis's father.

Also worth mentioning, he wields the biggest beam sword in the game.

Dark Star's false paternal claim causes Travis to search his memories for a moment and he thinks back to the day his real parents were killed. Our "hero" seems to have had a bit of amnesia.  He suddenly recalls that he didn't enlist in this string of death matches to be number one, he did it in hopes of finding the assassin who killed his family.  In his mental flashback, behind his parents' corpses stands a bloody blonde woman. 

Before Dark Star can make a move, a fist breaks through his chest killing him instantly.  The killer fist belongs to the blonde from Travis's nightmarish memories--Jeane, the girl who murdered his family.  But why?  Travis wants to know who she is and why she offed his mom and dad when he was younger.  She refuses at first claiming the story alone would raise the age rating for this video game even higher.

Travis tells her he'll fast forward through her story--sparing we gamers from its contents (remember earlier he claimed that gamers have no patience for this kind of thing).  Jeane's story is a tragic one--turns out she's Travis's half-sister, she was regularly molested by their father (who's indiscretions with Travis's mother drove Jeane's own mom to suicide), and eventually sold her body into prostitution--all before becoming the toughest assassin on the planet.  These are very serious plot points in the story, by having Travis fast forward through them, Suda 51 is challenging the player--are we really ready for mature story lines in video games? Sure we can handle the gore, the swearing, the half-naked chicks, but can we develop beyond this into deeper thematic elements?

As the fight begins between Travis and Jeane, the energy from the deceased Dark Star's sword sprouts an energy dragon which forms a circle from head to tail around the fighters. This is reminiscent of the ouroboros, the ancient symbol of the serpent eating its own tail expressing the cyclical nature of life.  Suddenly Dr. Peace's quote comes back to haunt us,

  The Ouroboros--The cyclical serpent--the dragon of destiny--looks hip on t-shirts

                     

  "The words reservations only apply only to those outside the circle--it's getting into that circle that matters."  Congratulations Travis you made it into this circle of death--you'll never need reservations again.  Notably, the circle shrinks tighter and tighter as the fight against Jeane continues.

Of course Travis comes out on top vanquishes his sister and retires happily as assassin #1...except for the fact that, that Henry bastard is still out there waiting to lock horns with Travis.  Before the game can end the player is forced to confront Henry in a final battle right outside the protagonist's motel room.  Here the villain reveals himself to be Travis's twin brother much to the main characters confusion.

Also Henry turns out to be Sylvia's husband.  Travis won't be sleeping with her anytime soon

  He responds, "Why would you bring up something like that at the last minute of the game?"

So in the past few minutes we learn that Travis has parents who were murdered, a half-sister, a twin brother--the plot is getting crazier by the moment but there's no end to the story in sight--our protagonist can't see his way out.  Like the hell bound cast in Sartre's No Exit, or Patrick Bateman at the end of American Psycho, there is no way out of this damn thing.

 Travis concludes "I want to bail but where the hell's the exit?  There's no way out is there?...Then let's find that exit they call Paradise."   Hey--Death Metal warned him.