No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise Hands-On

Notorious Japanese developer Goichi Suda (better known by his pseudonym, Suda-51) has built a reputation around presenting gamers with bizarre characters in crazy settings. His previous work includes Killer7, the upcoming Shadows of the Damned, and the Wii title No More Heroes. Despite getting its birth on Nintendo's family-friendly console, the latter is now making the journey to the PlayStation 3. So what do three years and a new platform bring to the table? We recently had the chance to fire up the old beam katana with No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise on the PlayStation 3 and find out how the transition has fared.

As a brief recap to those unfamiliar with the original Wii version, No More Heroes puts you in the shoes of Travis Touchdown, a guy with a professional wrestling and anime obsession that borders on the unhealthy. His home base is a hotel named No More Heroes in the city of Santa Destroy, California. Keen to turn a quick buck after running out of cash, Travis decides to do a bit of wet work, but in doing so, he becomes involved in a ladder competition for the top spot of the United Assassins Association.

So what's new in the PlayStation rerelease? Like the PS3 version of Dead Space: Extraction, No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise doesn't appear to have received much by way of new art. While the game's publisher, Konami, claims it will now run in glorious high definition, from our time with it, the game looks more like a scaled-up Wii version rather than a whole new game.

True to its Wii heritage, Heroes Paradise on the PS3 can be played using Sony's Move and sub-controller motion-sensing peripherals or a standard DualShock 3 pad. As you’d expect, thanks to the similarities between the Wii Remote/nunchuk combo and the Move, anyone familiar with the Wii game will be able to pick it up almost instantly. Movement is handled by the analog stick on the sub-controller, while attacks are performed by tapping the Move button. You can lock on to targets with the L2 button, while pressing and holding the Move button charges up an advanced attack. With the exception of executions, despite supporting Move play, none of the game's attacks are performed by swinging the controller. Depleting an enemy’s health bar rewards you with a flashy finishing flourish started with either a vertical or horizontal swipe. Keep in mind, though, that the game does not support a Move-only control configuration, which means you will need the Move's controller sidekick to play.

If you're not into waving your arms around in front of your television, the game does support the DualShock 3, but in doing so, it will take away from the experience of wielding a sword. It's all pretty standard stuff, with the two analog sticks being used for moving Travis around the world, while the triangle button unleashes attacks. Unfortunately, even if you opt for the simplicity of a game pad, the game forces you to shake the controller to charge your weapon. On more than one occasion, we were attacked before having the chance to successfully charge up, leaving us unarmed in battle.

The biggest new feature in the PlayStation version is the inclusion of a new boss battle mode called Score Attack. As the name suggests, it focuses entirely on boss encounters and gives you the chance to replay key fights from the main story with the goal of beating your previous scores. Successfully completing the fight rewards you with a rank report. We're eager to see if the final version of the game includes some form of online leaderboard support. Though we didn't see any, the game will apparently also include a handful of new boss fights.

From our time with it, No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise appears to be a complete although unadventurous repeat performance of the Wii game on Sony's big black box. While the scaled-up graphics and Score Attack mode are nice additions for those who missed the game the first time around, the small smattering of extra goodies in the box makes it a hard sell for anyone looking to pick it up for a second time. Look out for our full review soon, with the game slashing its way onto shelves in April this year.