No More Heroes III is a game that many thought would never even come out, a proper mainline sequel over 10 years in the making and maybe I don't have the proper authority to say this because I just played the originals for the first time 2 weeks ago, but I think NMH III does a wonderful job of honoring the legacy of the franchise and was well worth the wait.
The story of NMH III has to be the most over-the-top and extravagant the series has seen to date. After the events of the previous NMH games Travis Touchdown has become the best and strongest assassin on Earth, so where's there to go now? If you said "space" you are correct. In NMH III we follow Travis Touchdown as he fights to protect Earth from the invasion of the alien warlord Jess Baptiste VI (Better known as FU to his friends) and his squad of criminals known as the "Galactic Superhero Corps". This story might not hit as hard as the existential and thought provoking themes of TSA or be as consistently thematically strong as the first NMH, but where it fails there it succeeds at being thoroughly entertaining and hilarious satire of the superhero genre from start to finish. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard while playing a game. There's just as many wacky twists and turns you'd expect from a writer of Suda51's stature to keep the narrative consistently fresh as well. All I can say is expect the unexpected when playing any Suda51 game because right when I think I've seen it all Suda never fails to find new and interesting ways to surprise me.
No More Heroes III sees a return to a classic 3rd person styled action game format not unlike the first two NMH games, but this time the combat feels faster, smoother and more fluid than ever. While the core is still quite simple in nature the combat now has some extra depth thanks to the added features from Travis Strikes Again like some Death Glove abilities (Ranging from a teleport dropkick straight out of Kamen Rider, a telekinetic grab and a time slow down) and jump attacks alongside the incredibly stylish visual presentation making this the most fun the combat has ever been in the series as far as I'm concerned. My two biggest minor complaints about the combat is how the kill move slot machine bonuses make a return, but most of the best ones from past games have been removed (Thankfully we get a new really cool Gundam-like henshin transformation mode though) and there being no new Beam Katanas to collect like in the first 2 games.
No More Heroes is one of the few series that I can think of that truly tries to make each and every boss character and their fights have just as much personality and charm as the main cast themselves and NMH III is no exception to that rule because Suda's signature charm and style shine through here more than ever. From a Tokusatsu style rock quarry battle to a Final Fantasy-esque turn based RPG and even literally playing MUSICAL CHAIRS every single boss fight has so much quirky charm to them that makes them super memorable, the fact there's a cut-scene between FU and the boss themselves hanging out before the fight also helps to humanize and flesh them out more. FU himself is also a fantastic antagonist who steals nearly every scene he's in. I would definitely rank some of these bosses right up there with the best NMH has to offer and I legitimately felt bad when I had to kill some of them.
I will say No More Heroes III is an amazing game in nearly every way, but it's not without its flaws. One major complaint I have is removing the actual level based/mission structure of going through areas and fighting waves of enemies until reaching the boss room. How they mitigated this was by making you do 3 mandatory fights before even being able to qualify to challenge the boss and these are essentially just kill rooms where you teleport somewhere and fight some enemies. The enemy variety is nice, but I do think a couple of them are poorly designed and break up the flow of combat. However since everything about the game is so stylish and nice to look at plus the combat being so much fun it never gets too repetitive, but I do still miss running down halls and exploring the levels because older No More Heroes games had some legitimately good level design, for all my problems with NMH II at least that game had actual levels. Unfortunately now it's just 3 different small square rooms with a handful of enemies in them before teleporting to the boss fights.
My other complaint is the side content (or lack there of I guess) and the open world. Glad the open world returned because I enjoyed it in the first NMH and found it a nice way of breaking up the non-stop combat. Not happy it returned with a more typical modern "checklist" gaming formula. Granted it is a small open world so there aren't too many checkmarks on the map to go to, but it is still a formula I am just tired of and I'm not a fan of the over abundance of collectibles either. There's very limited clothing customization options and you can't even go to the gym to work out and increase your stats like in the first NMH, but now instead there's a more RPG-esque stats system like in TSA (Loved it in TSA because it fit the "game within a game" narrative that game went for, but not a fan of it here) I did however really like the handful of Travis Strikes Again VN style side quests though, those were really cool. Also glad to see classic mini games like mowing the lawn and picking up trash back, but some of the new mini-games I didn't find to be as enjoyable as ones that were left out from the first NMH (They're all still vastly superior to NMH II mini-games though). While this may sound like a lot of flaws, these are all quite minor complaints for me in the grand-scheme of things and they don't detract too much from the overall game which I still think is quite amazing.
NMH III takes many of the best elements from all the past games and melds them together (Unfortunately leaving a few out that should've been included as well IMO) while wrapping it all up into a hilariously clever satirical superhero package alongside the best combat the series has seen to date and though I might not consider it the best NMH game for some personal reasons, it is certainly the definitive one which captures everything that makes NMH one of the most genuinely special, unique and creative series across the entire medium of gaming and it'll certainly be an experience that I think will leave the majority of NMH fans and Suda51 fans as a whole very satisfied.
The story of NMH III has to be the most over-the-top and extravagant the series has seen to date. After the events of the previous NMH games Travis Touchdown has become the best and strongest assassin on Earth, so where's there to go now? If you said "space" you are correct. In NMH III we follow Travis Touchdown as he fights to protect Earth from the invasion of the alien warlord Jess Baptiste VI (Better known as FU to his friends) and his squad of criminals known as the "Galactic Superhero Corps". This story might not hit as hard as the existential and thought provoking themes of TSA or be as consistently thematically strong as the first NMH, but where it fails there it succeeds at being thoroughly entertaining and hilarious satire of the superhero genre from start to finish. I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard while playing a game. There's just as many wacky twists and turns you'd expect from a writer of Suda51's stature to keep the narrative consistently fresh as well. All I can say is expect the unexpected when playing any Suda51 game because right when I think I've seen it all Suda never fails to find new and interesting ways to surprise me.
No More Heroes III sees a return to a classic 3rd person styled action game format not unlike the first two NMH games, but this time the combat feels faster, smoother and more fluid than ever. While the core is still quite simple in nature the combat now has some extra depth thanks to the added features from Travis Strikes Again like some Death Glove abilities (Ranging from a teleport dropkick straight out of Kamen Rider, a telekinetic grab and a time slow down) and jump attacks alongside the incredibly stylish visual presentation making this the most fun the combat has ever been in the series as far as I'm concerned. My two biggest minor complaints about the combat is how the kill move slot machine bonuses make a return, but most of the best ones from past games have been removed (Thankfully we get a new really cool Gundam-like henshin transformation mode though) and there being no new Beam Katanas to collect like in the first 2 games.
No More Heroes is one of the few series that I can think of that truly tries to make each and every boss character and their fights have just as much personality and charm as the main cast themselves and NMH III is no exception to that rule because Suda's signature charm and style shine through here more than ever. From a Tokusatsu style rock quarry battle to a Final Fantasy-esque turn based RPG and even literally playing MUSICAL CHAIRS every single boss fight has so much quirky charm to them that makes them super memorable, the fact there's a cut-scene between FU and the boss themselves hanging out before the fight also helps to humanize and flesh them out more. FU himself is also a fantastic antagonist who steals nearly every scene he's in. I would definitely rank some of these bosses right up there with the best NMH has to offer and I legitimately felt bad when I had to kill some of them.
I will say No More Heroes III is an amazing game in nearly every way, but it's not without its flaws. One major complaint I have is removing the actual level based/mission structure of going through areas and fighting waves of enemies until reaching the boss room. How they mitigated this was by making you do 3 mandatory fights before even being able to qualify to challenge the boss and these are essentially just kill rooms where you teleport somewhere and fight some enemies. The enemy variety is nice, but I do think a couple of them are poorly designed and break up the flow of combat. However since everything about the game is so stylish and nice to look at plus the combat being so much fun it never gets too repetitive, but I do still miss running down halls and exploring the levels because older No More Heroes games had some legitimately good level design, for all my problems with NMH II at least that game had actual levels. Unfortunately now it's just 3 different small square rooms with a handful of enemies in them before teleporting to the boss fights.
My other complaint is the side content (or lack there of I guess) and the open world. Glad the open world returned because I enjoyed it in the first NMH and found it a nice way of breaking up the non-stop combat. Not happy it returned with a more typical modern "checklist" gaming formula. Granted it is a small open world so there aren't too many checkmarks on the map to go to, but it is still a formula I am just tired of and I'm not a fan of the over abundance of collectibles either. There's very limited clothing customization options and you can't even go to the gym to work out and increase your stats like in the first NMH, but now instead there's a more RPG-esque stats system like in TSA (Loved it in TSA because it fit the "game within a game" narrative that game went for, but not a fan of it here) I did however really like the handful of Travis Strikes Again VN style side quests though, those were really cool. Also glad to see classic mini games like mowing the lawn and picking up trash back, but some of the new mini-games I didn't find to be as enjoyable as ones that were left out from the first NMH (They're all still vastly superior to NMH II mini-games though). While this may sound like a lot of flaws, these are all quite minor complaints for me in the grand-scheme of things and they don't detract too much from the overall game which I still think is quite amazing.
NMH III takes many of the best elements from all the past games and melds them together (Unfortunately leaving a few out that should've been included as well IMO) while wrapping it all up into a hilariously clever satirical superhero package alongside the best combat the series has seen to date and though I might not consider it the best NMH game for some personal reasons, it is certainly the definitive one which captures everything that makes NMH one of the most genuinely special, unique and creative series across the entire medium of gaming and it'll certainly be an experience that I think will leave the majority of NMH fans and Suda51 fans as a whole very satisfied.