Well, Steam Deck users, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that despite a ton of PC users reporting constant crashing and this game showing up as "unsupported," so you'd figure the game would be unplayable... Set compatibility to force the game to run on "Experimental" and you should get zero crashes. That's right. I just played from beginning to end without a single crash. Now, I didn't test out some of the reported crash triggers... (eg apparently a common crash trigger is trying to speed up through the ranking updates after each boss fight? I don't know. I played it safe & just let the animation go through.) But that's right. No crashes. Not one. The bad news? Well, JFC, it's No More Heroes and it's Travis Touchdown. Depending on your point of view there is no bad news or it's all bad news, right? I first played this game long ago on the Wii. I couldn't believe how perfect this game was. On most games, once I beat it, I'm done. Oh, there's a "NewGame+" option where you can play at a higher difficulty? Pfff. I beat the game. I'm done. NMH is one I played through several times, just because it's that much fun. Let me be clear: if you're looking for something deep, something thoughtful, something that requires a fine art of gameplay.. go play something else. If you're looking for a button-mashing killfest where you slice people in half/cut off 5 heads at once, blood spraying everywhere in fountains, weird perverts, semi-fake badassery, ultra-meta "break the fourth wall" nonsense, ADD-level distractions and a story-line that is about as thick as chicken broth... Well, this might be the one for you. Now, a lot of that sounds like a "bad thing," but let me tell you, it's not. This game is all about being... or trying to be.... the biggest, toughest assassin ever. To that end, killing is a game, and one to be taken to the next level. As Travis, you won't have ninety-two weapons to choose from, special weapons like grenades, and all that nonsense. You've got your beam katana and some wrestling moves. That's it. And even your beam katana doesn't start off as a flawless weapon.. you've got to charge it from time to time. You've entered an 'assassin ranking list,' where you have to kill your way to the #1 position by killing each of the other assassins in turn. Of course, each of those assassins has a plethora of bodyguards you've got to slice your way through first, so... have fun. 'Be careful?' pffff. Run in and go nuts. Get creative with your killing. It will be satisfying. Along the way, you've got to experience all Santa Destroy (where Travis lives) for all the money you can get. You'll need to earn plenty to pay the fight fee for each next level assassin.. and buy cool T-shirts and jackets (and more), buy videos, upgrade your katana, train with your sensei, and more. You'll have to start with menial physical labor jobs like picking up trash and wiping down graffiti, but do well and you'll be referred for some more 'shady' jobs, such as killing a hundred people before the timer runs out and things of that nature. There are tons of little side quests such as finding balls hidden around the city so you can get an old drunk to beat you up, digging up buried treasure, and other stuff. And, of course, this game will NEVER let you forget that you're playing a video game. Ever. Don't even try for immersion. It won't happen. The game is silly and makes you laugh. It's brutal and makes you say "YESSSS!" It's fast-paced so you lose track of time. It's simple. It's bloody. It's... Travis Touchdown. Yes, I remember spending who knows how many hours on the Wii hacking my way through the levels.. I loved the game so much I ended up buying one of those blue light-up controllers just so I could experience the game in a cooler way. I just loved the nonstop nonsense. Couldn't get enough. When I saw it was on Steam, I was so excited.. but then so sad when I saw all the reports of constant crashing. But again... I can't speak for PC, but it ran FLAWLESSLY on the Steam Deck when set to run on Experimental. I was so thrilled I bought NMH 2 and 3 (I had already beat Travis Strikes Again on SD) and will get to playing those... uh... as soon as I play through this title a few more times. Is it worth full price? Should you wait for a sale? For twenty bucks, I'd say this game is not only worth full price, it's worth double full price (to me at least). Yes, it's a little dated... and unlike GTA V, you won't have tons of cars and groups of people walking around the city.. it's a bit old school. But you know, somehow the developers still made such a cool world that it still feels great to me. Still feels like home. Santa Destroy. I wouldn't recommend this game to people who don't like mindless violence... but I'd recommend it to literally anyone else in the world.
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