Hands-On – Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes

Designer-developer Suda51 is known for creative, stylized games that stand out from the crowd. Titles like killer7 and Lollipop Chainsaw helped keep Suda51 and his company Grasshopper Manufacture in the spotlight, but some will inevitably know him best for the No More Heroes series. This franchise features stylish action, insane stories, and the dry wit of its impossibly-well-named main character Travis Touchdown, but it historically never sold well, and the main series has not seen a release since 2010. That’s about to change, however, with Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes on the way; fans of the series will be happy to know something new is coming, but it may not be exactly what they’re expecting.

As you might expect, Travis Strikes Again is a stylish beat-em-up, but the plot seems pretty simple this time around: Travis, having been sucked into a video game console, must use his trusty beam sword to hack and slash his way to the baddies who trapped him there. Travis can, of course, just jump around and swing his sword to defeat enemies, but he can also deploy various special moves to turn the tide of battle, such as a vortex that sucks enemies into it and a portable wall that will shield you from fire. The plot of the game naturally lends the game a neon-and-digital graphical style, which complements the flow of combat nicely.

That’s all well and good, but the main problem seems to lie with the depth of the combat system. Travis’s move set is limited compared to previous games in the series, with notable mechanics like wrestling moves and flashy deathblows absent as far as we can tell. The unique special moves spice up the gameplay to some degree, but not in a transformational way. The demo level on display at PAX featured Travis more or less moving in a straight line through a digital hallway, taking out enemies one wave at a time. There may well be more explosive and engaging levels that we haven’t seen yet, but one hopes that Grasshopper isn’t putting its best foot forward with this demo.

Thankfully, much of the quirkiness that made the franchise famous is on display here. Spectral NPCs will often spout strange last words from their grandparents, and Travis has plenty to say to the boss characters you’ll encounter. The game featured loads of PAX-exclusive cutscenes and dialogue, which was quite funny to see. The text-based cutscenes feature plenty of snark and wit, but the dialogue itself could absolutely use an extra proofreader or two.

It’s difficult to muster up strong feelings about Travis Strikes Again. On one hand, it’s exciting to see Travis back in action and swinging that beam sword around again. At the same time, hardcore fans of the original two games may be disappointed by the different and decidedly more mundane feel of the new title. With no firm release date to meet, there’s still time for Grasshopper Manufacture to refine and amp up the game, but as it stands today, it feels like something’s missing. Let’s see if there’s more to come.

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes will be released this year exclusively on Nintendo Switch.