No More Heroes

Writing about the Force Unleashed and realising, as I wrote, that I was mentionning a passable (yet enjoyable) game while I hadn't mentionned another (others in fact) that was truly great finally made me take the decision to finally repair this obvious anomaly.

I bought No More Heroes by chance. It did have raving reviews and seemed to be bound to be of my taste, but somehow the screenshots I saw didn't really appeal to me. But when I saw it at budget price, I just couldn't resist to take the chance.
And I'm glad I did.

Your usual good (to very good) game will usually rely on a solid gameplay. Not something especially original but solid and very enjoyable. And then you have the excellent game that manage to break out of the mould and take that gameplay further, including it in an atmosphere, a story, a world. To me that's when a game becomes an "experience". Big word, but still.
And to me No More Heroes just does that and some.

At its core it's a very well designed brawler. The controls are tight and make good (and parcimonious) use of the motion control: you control your stance (high or low) and carry out wrestling moves with it. Your foes will also take stances so you have to adapt yours to hit them (high beats low, low beats high), bringing a bit of strategy in the mix. And you get to wield a lightsaber!! :)
Graphics are very cool, at least in my opinion. They have character. Actually they remind me of Interstate 76, in their (wanted) polygonal look. The thing is that it's what didn't catch me in the screenshots, but it takes another shape when it all starts to move.

The game itself is linear. The designers tried to create a pseudo-GTA in which you move freely around the city to gather money and other power ups. But the things you can do outside the missions is pretty limited, which is OK, because it's not what the game is about.

It's the story and characters that won me over. It's like being in a crazy anime. And there's a sort of postmodernist touch, the game knowing it is just a game, that takes the whole thing as a joke. You have this feeling that anything can happen. You never know where it's going to go next. I think it's genius.

So here's an example where various excellent bits come together and adds up to actually more than their expected sum...
And to me that amounts to one of the best games I've ever played.