E3 2016 - Let It Die

Suda 51 and pals talk us through Let It Die, Grasshopper Manufacture's upcoming free-to-play brawler. Based on this footage, players get to ramble around squalid environments in their underwear, stealing blunt objects from other wandering lunatics. Since this is a Suda 51 game, players are also able to execute a variety of pro-wrestling maneuvers and gather up a wardrobe full of post-apocalyptic fashion staples.

E3 2014 Let It Die - GUY SAVAGE

Let It Die is Suda 51 and Grasshopper Manufactures's PS4 exclusive. Details are scarce, and the trailer isn't much help, but it looks like the Killer7 studio are taking a pass at a competitive online version of Rockstar's sociopathic sneak 'em up Manhunt.

20XX's Seventh Gen Favs #12 - No More Heroes

The gamification of the single male dilemma. Aspiring assassin Travis Touchdown lived in a shitty apartment full of dust and wank prompts. The city around him was an anonymous jumble of brick warehouses, spotted with pop culture outlets that sold nothing but wrestling tapes and gaudy t-shirts. Unlike other video game cities, there wasn't very much to do in No More Heroes. Presumably this was because Travis' had an extremely narrow world view. He just wasn't interested in anything other than himself. Since our hero was a complete narcissist, there were a few token sops to self-improvement. There's a gym to improve stamina which, thanks to having to pump the Wii Remote like a dumbbell, inspired an actual sweat. Brand new special moves could also be learnt by visiting a bar and getting into fights with a drunken, surly Russian. Most open world games are stuffed full of distractions. Acres and acres of malfunctioning content, designed to actively waste the user's time. No More Heroes bucked this trend, narrowing its focus onto one sweeping hand gesture, the Wii Remote as lightsaber, and then working hard to make that as fun as possible through buzzing feedback and exploding enemies.

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Baseball as musclebomb meltdown! Suda 51 and Grasshopper Manufacture's latest video game sketch, Diabolical Pitch, will see players flinging their arms wildly at the 360's Kinect sensor, imitating homicidal home plate deliveries. But that's not all! If this trailer's gameplay accurate, expect to mime bazooka zap arms, Super Sentai poses, and Dragon Ball Z fusion dances.

NIGHTMARE TEAM

Shadows of the Damned gets a narrative ad, complimenting the previous seizure-comic-meets-Dead-Space pitch with a haunted world framing device that recalls Suda 51 and Shinji Mikami's last collaboration effort, the wonderful Killer7. That title drafted Lucahdor wrestlers, suicide bombers, and schizophrenic Mr Fix-Its, hurling them into a mess of vote rigger sleeper cells, and country ender conflicts. Killer7 suffered reception wise thanks to an eccentric control system, with that issue apparently licked for this title, perhaps more players will be inclined to indulge themselves in Suda and Mikami's interactive delirium?

MUSCLE BOMB

Japanese box art for 1994's Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special, one of the first games to wear Suda 51's sticky little fingerprints. Mr 51 served as a scenario writer for this grappler installment, drafting a story mode that moved on unrequited love, depression, and eventually suicide. Gives that heroic cover a whole new context doesn't it? It's all a show!

ABSINTHE VENDING MACHINE! ABSINTHE VENDING MACHINE!

First glimpse of Shinji Mikami and Suda 51's Shadows of the Damned, looking very much as if EA have turned over their Dead Space engine and told the two developers to go absolutely bonkers. Players seize control of a shouty Colin Farrell lookee-likee as he boulders through the shuffling and demonic; set to music, and guided by situations, expertly calibrated to be a thirteen year old boy's idea of 'totally fucking rad'. Skull gun! Computer crossbow! ABSINTHE VENDING MACHINE!

No Zaka-TV HD for EU?

Japanese Xbox 360 and PS3 fans rejoice! Despite all the delays, you might eventually get to play HD remix No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise! What about the rest of the world? A US release is looking unlikely, with Wii Heroes publisher Ubisoft publicly stating their intention to pass on a publish. What about Europe? The 360 port would seem to suggest worldwide ambitions, wouldn't it? Would Grasshopper Manufacture really plow effort into a port for a system utterly marginalised in the only announced territory? Apparently so. Nosey Disaster Year recently fired off an email to the European publishers of Wii No More Heroes, Rising Star Games, asking when fans could expect the next-gen do-over. A reply was received this morning stating there are no present plans to publish Paradise. How disappointing! New Game + fans better hope the Japanese mint is import friendly.

Yes Please! More Heroes!

Marvellous! Wednesday saw an exciting Tokyo Game Show reveal from Suda 51 and Grasshopper Manufacture; people living in disaster year 2010 can expect to be charmed smiley by Wii colon sequel No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle. T2 teaser tribute trailer here! Quite apparently the only gaming outfit dedicated to the knockout combo of exciting wavey Wii controls and PS2 prowl beater aesthetics, Grasshopper have returned to the well for another grin 'em up. 2007's No More Heroes is mainly noted for letting you smash about the local criminal element with a George Lucas laser sword, whilst it succeeds manfully in this department, it's also worth remembering for packing in directionless young male melancholy and in-action adventure yarn deconstruction thesis. That game had chops! No More Heroes narrative backbone was a brutally aimless assassination competition in which our hero Travis Touchdown must off a succession of ranked murderers. In encounters patterned after Chilean psychedelic western: El Topo's Four Master of the Desert sequences, Travis' showdowns were neither heroic nor uplifting. Aim for the top! The only thing that matters is being the best! But not before you've completed a raft of (actually really fun) dead-end mid 20s gopher jobs. Travis can only get his foot on the ladder by engaging in repetitive time-waste tasks designed to ingratiate himself with local folks of note who can make pally pally big money hook-ups. Lawns mowed and thugs vapourised, you'll find yourself cash-heavy. You can either blow it all on Wrestling VHS' and gnarly threads, or stump up your union fees and battle those with which you have no quarrel. Be the best! Fingers crossed and shaking for much more of this.