Welcome to Santa Destroy, California.  You play the role of Travis Touchdown, living his day to day life.  With a name like that you can’t expect him to just have any normal life.  No, Travis works hard for the citizens of Santa Destroy gathering coconuts, cleaning up graffiti, collecting deadly scorpions, and mowing lawns.  The citizens of Santa Destroy also have an insatiable need for hired killers.  So, after finding that Travis is good at saving kittens they determine that he would be a good assassin.  He proceeds to slash, suplex, and eviscerate whoever his employer asks him to.  Travis is not just killing for money though, he’s killing to be the best assassin in the world in order to impress a woman who organizes these death matches, Sylvia Christel.

If it’s not clear at this point No More Heroes is a very violent and absurd game.  And for that, it is a very enjoyable one.  The game has no intent to build serious characters or much of a story. Instead, it uses a great deal of satire aimed at other games, movies, manga, and anime.  Aside from Travis and Sylvia you’ll meet some of the locals from around town as well as a parade of bizarre assassins that Travis must defeat in order to win Sylvia’s affection.  You know very little about each of your opponents other than their silhouettes and their names when you enter each level.  They are all surprising and outrageous, making for some very memorable boss fights.

The game maximizes the entertainment potential of the wii remote and tethered nunchuck by requiring you to act out most of Travis’ attacks and wrestling moves.  And given the over-the-top nature of the game you will have a lot of fun doing it.  No More Heroes has definitely earned its mature rating and there is very little subject matter that is off limits.  It would be a mistake to let anyone that’s easily offended, has a weak heart, is under 16, or that generally doesn’t have a sense of humor play this game.

No More Heroes is probably one of the best games for the Wii that’s out there, both in terms of game play and humor.  It’s certainly one of my favorite games on the Wii, even though I’ve only played one other Wii game so far.  But it ranks well against games I’ve enjoyed for other consoles as well.  A sequel is lined up for January, 2010.