Category:No More Heroes

No More Heroes is a series of games featuring an otaku protagonist named Travis Touchdown. The series is notable for being extremely graphic in the depiction of violence. In the first game, Travis is recruited into a federation of assassins called the United Assassins Association (UAA). He spends his time fighting ranked assassins, climbing the ladder to number one. When not participating in deathmatches, he collects anime paraphernalia, luchador wrestling cards and sits at home alone with his cat.

Travis is a parody of the young, lonely gamer archetype. The original No More Heroes game was seen by many as a criticism of gaming and consumer culture. The environments were bland and uninteresting and the gameplay consisted of performing mindless tasks to earn enough money to enter a bossfight. Travis' personality consists of one part bored loner, one part lustful teenager and one part homicidal maniac. The game itself condemns its own medium and laughs at its fans, by showcasing the pointless and mundane hoops it can make the player jump through to reach more mindless killing. The unrewarding and arbitrary nature of the game is referenced inside the game by Travis himself to confirm its satire.

The apparent effort of game designer Goicha Suda to bring to light the baseless nature of his industry, has perhaps backfired, as many fans ended up loving the game for its surreal violence, over-the-top characters and the many pop culture references. Despite the attempt at a meta-theme, the game plays well, has an interesting story and well honed action. The game was popular enough that its publishers were excited to start work on a sequel, and an amenable Suda has since agreed. No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle is slated for release on the Wii system in early 2010. Suda has stated that although the new game will also feature Travis Touchdown and other recurring characters, it is a bit more serious than it's predecessor, with more focus on fighting and a more detailed game world.