For the media, the Penny-Arcade expo opens the door an hour and a half early on the first day. This means if any press wants to get a free shot at something that will soon have long lines (see: Diablo III), they have a little time to find it and begin playing before the convention’s 70,000+ attendees rush the doors. When I walked in, I began to look around, quickly trying to decide which game would be one of the few I would enjoy over the weekend without the hustle and bustle of the convention whirling around me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw my old friend, Travis Touchdown, waving me over. On the other end of the floor, Blizzard's Diablo was, too, attempting to get my attention. I turned my back, walked over to No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, and didn't regret the choice one bit.

When we last left Travis he was the world’s top assassin, number one in the UAA. Now, something has happened, and Touchdown is, once again, thrust into the competitive scene. Ubisoft is being tight lipped on Suda 51’s excuse, and the hands-on demo at the show didn’t really give any more information. It did, however, quickly show off the improvements over the prequel, and gave hints to great things that will await gamers when it is released next year. Right away, a pixelated Travis Touchdown greets players, something that will apparently be a frequent occurrence in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. The odd jobs of the first game return, I was told, with occasional retro gaming tossed into the mix.



These weren’t shown off at the show. But enough about things that weren't shown - on to the things that were. As soon as the game begins the graphical improvements were apparent. No More Heroes looked good, with an appealing art style that made it stand out among Wii titles, but there were some other issues. Besides being stylized, it also looked rough, something that has been fixed in the sequel. Beyond that, what was shown off at the show was combat, and the combat is good.

It opened up in a small room, with a few enemies working their way towards the protagonist. Fighting them was a simple task – Travis is the world’s best assassin, after all, and he’s learned a few tricks since the original. There are small updates that would likely be more obvious to someone who had played the game recently, but there’s one that will be obvious to just about anyone who has played the original: dual wielding. With a simple tap of a button, Travis takes out a second weapon, changing his fighting style significantly. It also means that the finishing blows are different, so expect to see people cut in half in two directions at once.



After finishing off a few rooms of enemies I made my way into the final area of the demo: a boss battle. If you played the original, then you’re already chomping at the bit to hear about the boss battles in No More Heroes 2. If you haven’t, then know that they were all entertaining, unique, and hilarious. The one shown in the PAX demo was no different. Sitting in the room was a black preacher that spreads the word of god through rap. Oh, and he has a Scottish accent and a boom box that shoots rockets. The battle begins when he throws two women at Travis, and both characters begin slashing at each other (with the women in-between), and ends with Travis slicing the preacher apart.

A short cinematic ended the demo, bringing to a close my short time with No More Heroes 2. It really appears that Suda 51 has heard the complaints from the first title, and comes ready to impress even more in the sequel. Many questions still are unanswered: How will the story continue? Will the ending of the original actually carry over to the sequel? Will Travis ever bang Silvia? Hopefully these questions and more will be answered when the game comes out next year.