Imagine a video game made up of different playable experiences, all brought together within the same cartridge. That is Travis Strikes Again, and for the curious, it is not a sequel to No More Heroes, but an experimental spin off with the ability to especially attract fans of the extravagant Suda 51.
During one of the sections that contains Travis Strikes Again , the protagonist himself, upon losing his life and being overwhelmed by the gameplay of the title, exclaims that “this game sucks.” It was there where I understood that the creators do not take themselves seriously, and in fact I think they are aware that the game itself is not necessarily good, due to the great monotony in its approach.
A lot of frustrations that I thought were forgotten have come to me. Absurd loading times, conversations that do not end, need to save every five steps, screens that sometimes only change one color to let you understand that you are passing a level, a concept of difficulty difficult to tolerate today … There are many conventions Classics from the video game world that are recovered in Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes , a title that should not be understood as a sequel to No More Heroes, but rather as a spin off based on experimentation .
Not surprising in Suda 51 . The Japanese creative stands out for being out of the ordinary, with often absurd approaches, which nevertheless have a loyal wave of followers. It will not be difficult for them to understand what this is all about: a succession of experiences with lightsabers in hand and that represent, more than a competent video game, a compendium of geekism with all the references to pop culture that you can imagine. That, and nothing else, is this exclusive release for Nintendo Switch : an author’s video game in which Goichi Suda has literally done whatever he wanted. And I must admit that, regardless of the regular result obtained, this has its merit, today more than ever.
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes second gameplay trailer
A tribute to video game cultureTravis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is a tribute to the classics of the 80s and 90s, all the way to the 32-bit era. As such, everything is presented in 4: 3 format, mimicking the tube televisions of the time, as well as loading screens and all kinds of conventions from the video game world. The scheme is that of a very traditional hack ‘n slash , which is combined with a series of playable concepts corresponding to genres such as conversational adventure, puzzles, driving and a considerable etcetera.
The central scheme is a hack ‘n slash, with the presence of some final bosses and the possibility of local cooperative for two players.
More than a good video game, the new Suda 51 in Grasshopper Manufacture aims to be an exercise in freakiness multiplied with respect to what we saw in No More Heroes. For more information, we have the argument. Travis is sucked into a legendary console: the Death Drive Mk II . It works with those known as Death Balls (in reference to the Dragon Ball series), which we must recover in each of the six available cartridges in order to fulfill a wish.
This is the approach for us to take Travis’s katana beam and beat ourselves up against the bugs (programming errors) that populate the game environment. An absolutely surreal one, very much in keeping with Goichi Suda’s taste for mixing dreams with reality (the creative himself has recognized his inspiration in Kafka). This is how we get an adventure that starts the moment we sit in Travis’s caravan to put a new Death Drive Mk II cartridge, which we get as we play.
It is a tribute to the classics of the 80s and 90s, until reaching the 32-bit era.The approach is very crazy, and also innovative in terms of staging. Every scenario we see is half finished, with parts that seem to show us the source code. That, paradoxically, is the same feeling you get while playing the game. All video games are simple and seem unfinished. The difficulty setting isn’t bad (maybe the highlight of the set), but the experience gets uncomfortably monotonous . Replay is, in fact, a trait that persists throughout the game.
The title is actually made up of 6 video games, each with its own playable scheme. There’s exploration, driving, conversational adventure … and all with lots of quirkiness and pop culture nods.
Travis Strikes Again offers a multitude of winks and breaks the fourth wall on a few occasions in a brutal way. However, behind that facade, which will delight fans of Suda 51 and its style, there is not much else. As a tribute, it’s crazy. As a video game, it is very discreet. Too. And that his hack ‘n slash approach is not bad at all, with combos and abilities that we unlock as we progress through a campaign that lasts around 8-10 hours .
The biggest problem I detect is that the variety is scarce, and the playable approaches are out of date. Sometimes I have wondered if everything was intentional, but then I thought it was inconsequential: even if it was, it is a mediocre video game. Your playable scheme is to blame. It can be summed up in brandishing the sword against right and left, level after level, with few variations and starring in variants with puzzles, exploration or driving that sin to be repeated and simple. It’s like the joke that, a thousand times told, ends up not being funny.
If despite everything you are interested in the proposal, I would tell you to try to play it cooperatively , since it admits two players on the same console, making the experience a little more bearable. It is less complicated and the bosses (perhaps the most interesting of the game) will handle them better. It will also help you get collectibles and money more quickly, something that allows you to buy shirts that correspond to some of the most recent indie hits, such as The Messenger, Undertale or Hollow Knight.
The game is loaded with references, in a rather surreal and strange compendium, the work of Suda 51.
As an exercise in nostalgia for how video games were made in the past, it is a great experiment, since the audiovisual section of classic games is emulated . The conversational adventure is built on monochrome vector graphics, while other parts resort to the use of an overhead plane similar to the first GTA, or to low-resolution textures and computer-generated intros from the era of the first PlayStation.
As an exercise in nostalgia for how video games were made in the past, it is a great experimentI must admit, it has its charm, and in particular, a detail caught my attention. In Travis’s caravan, you can browse a specialized magazine with reports on the video games you are going to play. In some, the scores were not particularly good; of acceptable games, but not very prominent. Practically the same as in this analysis. And that has given me pause … In the end, this categorizing things with a number is the simplest thing, but the reader should ask himself what he is looking for, because if what he wants to find is Suda 51 , This is probably one of your most daring and personal bets, even though it can be improved as a game.
“Discreet”
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes
5.5
Readers
(1)
Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is a tribute to the world of video games, while an explosion of geeks references to pop culture that its unmistakable creator likes so much: Suda 51. The work of Grasshopper Manufacture stands out more for breaking the fourth wall and speak to the players directly that by proposing a varied and interesting playable experience. That is why as an exercise in homage it is outstanding, but as a game it is repetitive, and on many occasions even mediocre. In any case, if you like Goichi Suda’s works, this is one of his strangest and most personal works … and that must also be appreciated.
- Author’s video game, with the unmistakable creative aura of Suda 51
- Good repertoire of nods to the video game industry
- Co-op for two players adds interest to the proposal
- Simple and monotonous game experience
- More dedication is needed in the audiovisual section
