Game #1273: No More Heroes III(Playstation 4)

 Travis takes another stroll outside Nintendo.

 I've already written about No More Heroes III back when it first released on the Switch, so I'll try to keep things relevant only to this new release as a port, as there's no reason to tread old ground!

 First and foremost, the game runs beautiful. I only noticed a few framerate drops in a few battles, but overall, in and out of battles, the game runs really well. And I'll make it short, THIS is the ideal way to play the game, not the Switch original, as much as it hurts me considering how much I love the Switch and how this used to be an exclusive. The overworld is as barren as always, but dude, I found a new appreciation for how pretty it can look. I actually enjoyed riding the bike, or just walking from place to place, since Santa Destroy and the other mini-cities are kinda nice to look at.

 The mission cleared jingle is fantastic, could never get tired of it... and while this is clearly a Switch game, as the graphics weren't touched up, it looks BEAUTIFUL, which speaks volumes of the game's art direction. And with the smoother framerate, it's much easier to appreciate.

 Being separated from all my expectations and the hype... I like the game now more than I did before. Losing some customization options and not having different Beam Katanas is still disappointing... but not as much as I felt it was before. The combat is super satisfying, despite how simple it is, so I loved slashing and slicing every alien to bits. What's more, I was hooked right from the start, once again, I couldn't just stop and drop the controller, once I got into the No More Heroes III, there was no stopping it.

 That said, I also noticed some design elements that weren't very good, for instance, I finished the original not knowing how to unlock the missing alien battle(Defense) missions... well, you have to return to previously cleared battle icons on the map and maybe, depending on your story progression, a new mission icon will be on the floor next to the original. This is dumb, and nothing in the game tells you that this is how you find the other fights. And it's surprising, because so much of the overworld is empty, they could've peppered these icons throughout the city and have them pop up, in a different color(showing that you haven't attempted them yet) as you defeat bosses. It's a very minor thing, but hey, it's something that should've been done better. And Suda 51 did it better before, by having a list to select these missions from in NMH1.

 Yeah, No More Heroes III is fantastic. And this version runs better, so it was easier to appreciate, this time around I found pretty much every collectible and even found sidequests I didn't know existed in the original. So yeah, there's never been a better time to play No More Heroes III.

 9.0