No More Heroes



""I wanna be number one. How's that? Short and simple enough for ya? It's gonna to be a long, hard road. But who knows? Could kick ass. Could be dangerous. Could totally suck. Whaddaya say bro, join me: let's see how far we can take this. And for you out there holding the Wii Remote right now? Just press the A button... Let the bloodshed begin!""

- Travis Touchdown, in the opening lines of No More Heroes

No More Heroes is the story of Travis Touchdown, a perennially-broke otaku who wins a beam katana off of "an Internet auction site" and becomes a part-time assassin to help pay for his pro wrestling videos and Anime merchandise after meeting with the mysterious Sylvia Christel in a bar. Upon becoming ranked the 11th-best assassin in the United States, Travis proceeds to climb the ladder of the United Assassin's Association the hard way: challenging the ten assassins ranked higher, and taking them all out.

From Suda 51, the mastermind behind the divisive Killer 7, it's simultaneously a celebration and a Parody of sandbox games, American geek culture, and the concept of an Anti-Hero. With its tongue planted firmly in cheek, the game makes a point of never really taking itself or its medium seriously and fervently bulldozes the fourth wall from the second you turn it on. Combine this with the fast-paced hack and slash battles, no game lets you rain down on the bad guys like some sort of angry nerd god quite like No More Heroes. Well, except when you're taking part-time jobs. Assassination just doesn't pay like it used to.

One of the most niche types of games, it still managed to be a modest hit, and Suda's biggest selling game. This especially stands out when it's on the Wii, a system supposedly unfriendly to those kinds of games. While initially deemed a massive bomb after its disastrous launch in Japan, the game became a sleeper hit as it rolled out overseas.

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is the sequel, also for the Wii. It was released outside of Japan first, and was released in Japan in October 2010. With three different collectors bonuses for the continent with the game's smallest fanbase... You can watch the trailer here. The original game was given a remake in Japan for the Xbox 360 and Play Station 3, based on the belief it didn't sell well because the Wii supposedly couldn't sell those games. This belief got a dose of reality when the game opened only a little better than the first game (on both systems), and sales legs dropped off even more quickly.

This game has examples of:
" : Lemme ask ya... how do you plan to put an end to all of this?
 * Action Commands
 * Affably Evil: Death Metal, Dr. Peace, Harvey Moiseiwitsch Volodarskii and.
 * Alliterative Name: Travis Touchdown.
 * All There in the Manual:
 * Literally, when you need info about Travis's Dark Side moves.
 * On a New Game+, you can find design art cards. They contain many facts about the characters in the game, including the real names of most of the assassins. And the breed of Travis's cat.
 * Also subverted, as the instruction manual states that Naomi has a mysterious secret about her. All she does in the game is upgrade Travis' beam katana. Either this idea was dropped or Suda51 loves messing with ya. This could also be a possible Metal Gear Solid shout out. Rumors have it that Naomi is in her 60's, which would probably be the secret.
 * American Kirby Is Hardcore: The American box art of the first game has Travis Touchdown holding his beam katana with an aggressive look. The European and Japanese box art has Travis standing in the streets of Santa Destroy with a smile on his face and an arm around Sylvia's waist.
 * And Your Reward Is Clothes: Which you have to pay for.
 * Or dig out of the dumpster.
 * Animal Motifs: Travis is associated with tigers in a number of ways: many of his optional clothing items have tiger designs; the meter for his Dark Side mode is a tiger walking across the screen; his bike is named the "Schpeltiger"; the guard of the Tsubaki Mk III is a stylized Japanese "tiger" kanji; and his ultimate wrestling move is the Tiger Suplex. One of the obtainable shirts explains this: It has Travis' name transliterated in katakana ("TORABISU") and has a tiger ("tora") design on it. In Desperate Struggle
 * Anti-Hero: Travis Touchdown seems to be an experiment as to how far you can push the "anti" of Anti-Hero before he lapses into Villain Protagonist. Also, he is a Type I and a Type V anti-hero.
 * Ascended Fanboy: The Anarchy in the Galaxy attack is the same attack used by the Glastonbury in the Pure White Giant Glastonbury game. It's also implied that his other Dark Side attacks are from Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly. The characters are Strawberry, Blueberry, and Cranberry. The attacks are Strawberry on the Shortcake, Blueberry Cheese Brownie, and Cranberry Chocolate Sundae.
 * Awesome but Impractical: Charging the katana hits tons of enemies--while leaving you extremely open to attack and only dealing about as much damage as two or three quick regular attacks and it uses a lot of energy before the katana is upgraded. Once you get the unlimited energy upgrade though, it becomes much more useful to spam. In the "impractical weapon" department, the way Travis' beam katana is built means it should actually be pretty fragile.
 * Awesome McCoolname: Some of the song names are pretty weird and/or awesome, like "Mach 13 Elephant Explosion".
 * As for actual names, there's Travis Touchdown, Henry Cooldown, etc.
 * Awesomeness Meter
 * Ax Crazy: Beating blindfolded men to death with a baseball bat is Bad Girl's idea of a fine time. While she is far from the only psycho Travis ends up fighting, she's by far the craziest.
 * Badass Biker: Travis' bicycle is impressively tricked out, and intentionally designed to look like an X-Wing Starfighter.
 * Badass Creed: Travis has far too many to tell.
 * Badass Family: Although they don't fit the trope perfectly
 * Badass Normal: While not normal in any sense, Bad Girl is the only assassin who doesn't use crazy tricks (apart from the gimps used as projectiles). The only things she has are a baseball bat and a serious problem. Well, she does also have her flask and lighter...
 * TRAVIS TOUCHDOWN, of course.
 * Batter Up: Bad Girl's Weapon of Choice and apparently, one of her combos. Travis is also occasionally seen using his beam katana as a bat "substitute".)
 * Big Damn Heroes: in the 1st rank fight,.
 * BFS: Death Metal's Orange MK II, and Travis' most impressive Tsubaki MK-II, comprised of five beams at Buster Sword length; consequentially, it looks more like a club than a sword.
 * Black and Gray Morality
 * Blade Lock: Whenever you and an enemy try to attack each other at the same time. Winning the ensuing struggle gets you a free death blow. Also happens during the cutscene following the boss fight.
 * Blood Knight: Travis Touchdown. Most of the assassins probably qualify to some degree.
 * Bond One-Liner: Precedes every ranked battle, and sometimes right after them, too. "It's open mic night in Hell, old man."
 * Boss Battle: The 10 Assassins all meet certain boss tropes:
 * Duel Boss: All of them
 * Warmup Boss: Death Metal
 * Stationary Boss: Dr. Peace
 * Wake Up Call Boss: Shinobu
 * Braggart Boss: Destroyman
 * Get Back Here Boss: Holly Summers
 * : Letz Shake
 * Cat and Mouse Boss: Harvey Moiseiwitsch Volodarskii
 * Level in Boss Clothing: Speed Buster
 * Flunky Boss: Bad Girl
 * : Dark Star
 * Final Boss:
 * Bonus Boss:
 * In the remake Heroes Paradise at least five of the bosses from the sequel appear as optional fights namely though the fights happen as dreams.
 * Boss Game: While there's plenty of Mooks to hack and slash, the bosses are the real stars of the show.
 * Bowdlerise: Though not how you might expect. The original intent for the game had tons of gore and left the bodies of ranked fight opponents after they die. This was how the American version of the game was released. The Japanese version removed all the blood, replacing it with smoke, and removed the bodies. This was apparently intentional, as excessive violence is less acceptable in mainstream Japanese games. To the consternation of many European fans, the PAL version is taken from the Japanese cut, as Red Star games decided this version would appeal to a wider audience and improve sales. It had also just released after the classification controversy over Manhunt 2, and Red Star may have been attempting to avoid a similar problem. They have promised the sequel will not be censored, and it wasn't. The Japanese sequel is intended to remain censored.
 * The Play Station 3 and Xbox 360 remake No More Heroes: Heroes Paradise is uncensored.
 * Brain In a Jar: Letz Shake's machine, Dr. Shake.
 * Broken Bridge
 * Bullet Hell: During a dream sequence before fighting against Harvey, you play a bullet hell game compose of the mech Glastonbury in space based on the Bizarre Jelly franchise, with very simple graphics (closer to Star-fox variety). Afterwards, you can play it some more at Travis' apartment.
 * Brother-Sister Incest:, though the former was unaware of their blood relationship at the time. Squick.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: Half the assassins of the UAA easily fall into this category to varying degrees, including, arguably Travis himself. Not to mention half of the business owners in Santa Destroy.
 * Call Back: During the fight against Death Metal, Travis muses on how having a life like Death Metal would've been, noting several times that he should try and find the exit to Paradise, as it could end up being too much for him.
 * Calling Your Attacks Travis, Shinobu and Destroyman do this. It's played with by Destroyman, whose calling of attacks makes his SFX Converter perform them.
 * Car Fu: The Rank 2 level starts with Travis on the Schpeltiger, which he can use to mow down a bunch of mooks.
 * Carnival of Killers: Indeed.
 * Catch Phrase: Sylvia would very much like you to trust your Force, and head for the Garden of Madness. Whatever that means.
 * The first part makes more sense if you consider two things. One, "la force" is French for "strength" (and could thus just be Gratuitous French). Two, it's a blatant Star Wars Shout-Out. That "Garden of Madness" is probably just "the boss arena".
 * Caught with Your Pants Down:
 * Chiaroscuro: To the point where you wonder if everyone has their own personal spotlight.
 * Chunky Salsa Rule: During the fight with Bad Girl, getting close to her when she's crying results in her repeatedly beating your head with her bat until you're dead, no matter how much life you had before. A couple of other bosses have instant-kill attacks as well; 's is particularly impressive.
 * Cleanup Crew: Nice men show up to clean up the chunks of whatever is left of the assassin you just killed.
 * Cluster F-Bomb: All over the place. You can force Travis to say it by charging a high attack.
 * Code Name: Nearly everybody; in the original, Holly, Harvey, and Travis are the only ranked assassins without one.
 * Compensating for Something: These games take "sword = penis" and roll with it, and then keep rolling and rolling and...
 * Contract on the Hitman
 * Corridor Cubbyhole Run: Speed Buster's battle.
 * Critical Existence Failure
 * Cute Kitten: Playing with Travis' kitten Jeane doesn't actually do anything... but who could resist playing with such a cute little kitty? Also one of the part-time jobs.
 * Dangerously Genre Savvy:
 * Dark Action Girl: Nearly every female character, Speed Buster being an elderly example.
 * David Versus Goliath: Usually, you're fighting someone with far more experience and better weapons than you, on their own turf, on their own terms. Especially true with Letz Shake, and Speed Buster. Inverted rather unsettlingly with.
 * Deconstruction: The game plays out as a mockery of the Excuse Plot and how messed up (an assassin) and simple ("I just wanna be #1") someone would have to be to go through with the kind of violence found in video games. It gets to the point where Travis fights  Henry while Henry openly mocks how Travis doesn't even know why they're fighting.
 * Deliberate Values Dissonance: Everything about the game, right down to the name "Travis Touchdown," is meant to evoke different emotions from Japanese and American gamers. It is supposed to be a linear, pseudo-sandbox game in part because of how differently Japanese and American gamers react to the concept. As for the name "Travis Touchdown," Suda 51 has explicitly said the name was chosen because it sounds like an over-the-top action hero to Japanese audiences but positively goofy to American ones.
 * Design Student's Orgasm: Travis' shirts.
 * Disappearing Box: Harvey's instant kill move.
 * Distant Finale: The jazz album The Outer Rim features drama segments starring Travis and Sylvia. Turns out they're immortal. And on the moon. What.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: If the Beam Katana runs out of power, then in order to recharge it, Travis has to furiously shake the handle. And he does this while holding it directly in front of him and gyrating his crotch, grunting if you have to do it long enough. It, of course, requires shaking the Wiimote in a similar fashion. Destroyman also fires giants lasers out of his crotch.
 * A protagonist motivated by something dangling in front of him--an attractive blonde, specifically--that's almost given to him but keeps getting yanked away? Sorry, Travis, but your chances of sleeping with Sylvia are in another castle.
 * Downer Ending: One of the endings of the first game:
 * The Driver: Bishop Shidux.
 * Drunken Master: Randall Lovikov is the town lush. He's also implied to be way beyond Travis in ability, and his advice to "keep practicing" might as well be continued with "and you'll be almost as cool as me one day."
 * Dude, Where's My Respect?: In the first game Travis gets strung along by Sylvia and tricked...a lot.
 * Eagle Land (Santa Destroy, California, is depicted as a culture free, poorly planned, nihilistic American wasteland.)
 * Enormous Engine: Travis's badass scooter, the Schpeltiger, painted to look like an X-Wing from Star Wars. Definitely compensating for something. This is Travis, after all.
 * Environmental Symbolism: Throughout the game, but most notably in the Final Boss fight with, where both you and your opponent are motivated by and Travis' unusually eloquent last words before the fight starts are  Appropriately, you and your enemy are in a ring made from an energy-dragon-sword-thing that looks like a representation of the Ouroborus and shrinks as the fight progresses.
 * Everyone Is Related: Played for laughs most of the time.
 * Evil Albino: Helter Skelter, and his brother Skelter Helter.
 * Evilly Affable: Destroyman, Bad Girl
 * Expy: Ermin Palmer, the man who attacks Travis at the end of the game, is based off of Emir Parkreiner... aka Garcian Smith. They also share a basic MO of attacking assassins in apartments while their guards are down.
 * Helter Skelter is an expy of Cloud from Final Fantasy VIII. Also, Dark Star is very similar to Darth Vader, with his gray skin, heavy black armor, and needing to say that he is Travis's father.
 * Speed Buster is a pretty sadistic Marisa expy. Complete with Nuclear Master Spark.
 * The Faceless: The taller of Sylvia's cleaners never has his face shown on-camera. Even happens when she tosses him  and he grabs it and holds it in front of his face for way longer than necessary.
 * Fake American: The British Robin Atkin Downes as American protagonist Travis Touchdown.
 * Fake Irish: The American Quinton Flynn as Irish Henry.
 * Fake Weakness: Bad Girl.
 * Fan Nickname: Mister Sir Henry Motherfucker.
 * Fan Service: The 360/PS3 versions have a mode that ups the sexy for the already provocative female outfits (see through shirts, cheerleader outfits, bikinis etc)
 * Fast-Forward Gag: One late game conversation is fast forwarded; The game hints ("It's impossible, It'll only jack up the age rating of this game even further") that the conversation was fast-forwarded to avoid a higher rating, but this isn't actually the case: Suda 51 states that it was actually sped up due to Rule of Funny...that, and the dialogue is a fairly lengthy Info Dump. Travis' shocked reactions are priceless.
 * Fixed-Floor Fighting
 * Finishing Move: Travis randomly screaming "FUCK YOU" as he callously rakes his beam saber across the chest of some dude he just suplexed makes it even more awesome.
 * Floral Theme Naming: Aside from the Blood Berry, all of Travis's beam katanas are named for flowers; the Tsubaki Mk. I, II, and III in the first game, and the Camellia, Peony, and Rose Nasty in Desperate Struggle.
 * Foreshadowing: Going through the game a second time around reveals hints about
 * Fragile Speedster:  can dodge most of your attacks, but can take only a few of them.
 * Free Rotating Camera
 * Freudian Threat: Sylvia says to Travis: "If I ever hear you mumble another woman's name in your sleep, you'll wake up the next morning with your joystick missing."
 * Funny Background Event: In the bedroom of Travis's apartment, a cat toy is hanging from the ceiling fan. Occasionally, Travis's cat Jeane can be seen swinging around in a circle, hanging from the cat toy.
 * Fun T-Shirt
 * Gainax Ending: Played for laughs.
 * Game Breaking Bug: If you load a saved game right before the Bonus Boss at the very end, the Dark Step ability will be disabled. On Mild this is only a minor inconvenience, but on Bitter...
 * Genre Savvy: Travis acknowledges he's in a video game at one point or another, but  flat-out calls him on it:
 * Genre Savvy: Travis acknowledges he's in a video game at one point or another, but  flat-out calls him on it:

Travis: Wait a sec... you want me to tie up all these loose ends? I don't think so!

I'm just the cool, handsome foil,. Hate to say it, but it's your job!"

"Travis: Answer me!
 * Even moreso is, who is not only savvy about the game itself, but other games and the rating system itself! As shown below when Travis asks who is.


 * It's impossible.

Travis: Impossible? What do you mean?!


 * It's too terrible. It alone would jack up the age rating of this game even further.

Travis: So what? Who cares?!


 * What if the game gets delayed? You wouldn't want this to become No More Heroes Forever, do you?

Travis: Alright, I'll fast forward this so you can tell me."

"Travis: "Blueberry Cheese BROWNIE!""
 * Good Old Fisticuffs:
 * Glass Cannon: Oddly for a boss, . Her health is relatively low, but she dodges most of your attacks, will counter your grabs, moves really fast and has a large number of unblockable attacks and damaging abilities. The cutscenes actually imply that she isn't even glass, as you'd never win without help. An even straighter example is Speed Buster, who has a huge-ass laser cannon, Arguably a Justified Trope with her: being that her primary weapon is a Wave Motion Gun, she's probably not very well versed in close combat. Even if she was,.
 * An earlier example is Shinobu, who makes up for her extreme fragility with ridiculous power and speed. Even her taunt can do significant damage if Travis is careless, and several of her later attacks leave him one hit from death. Doubles as a Wake Up Call Boss, since the only way to beat her is to out-maneuver her.
 * Graceful Loser: Every battle with a ranked assassin is a fight to the death, but some of the assassins you beat will calmly admit they were beaten, possibly even congratulate you, and wait for the killing blow with their heads held high. The clearest examples are numbers 10, 6, 3 and.
 * Gratuitous Japanese: Travis. Also Shinobu, the 8th boss' nickname.
 * Groin Attack:  is punched through the groin by.
 * Heroic Comedic Sociopath: Travis.
 * Hide Your Kids: thank god.
 * Hidden Depths: Nice singing voice, Dr. Peace.
 * High-Pressure Blood: Not just blood, when you kill a minor enemy, tons of cash also showers out of them.
 * Hoist by His Own Petard:
 * Holly Summers' instant death attack is evaded by deliberately falling into one of the trap holes she dug to trap you.
 * I Know Mortal Kombat: Travis learns new moves by renting wrestling videos, and "remembers" other moves by finding wrestling masks lying about.
 * Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels: Sweet, Mild, and Bitter.
 * Idiot Ball: Travis has it during the leadup to the seventh battle.
 * Improbable Weapon User: Death Metal has a giant katana that transforms from something resembling a briefcase, Destroyman has a laser codpiece, Holly wields a shovel and fires rockets out of her prosthetic leg, Letz Shake has a giant earthquake-maker, complete with a brain in a jar!, Speed Buster has a shopping cart/WaveMotionGun, Bad Girl has a baseball bat and gimps (she attacks by hitting gimps hard enough to send them flying at him which he can hit back or land and serve as regular mooks), and Dark Star pulls a lightsaber dragon out of his helmet. A lightsaber DRAGON.
 * Improbably Cool Name: Word of God claims Travis Touchdown was used because it sounds cool in Japan. Yet there's more to it than that; see Deliberate Values Dissonance above (which Suda is known to do in his games).
 * Indecisive Deconstruction
 * Invulnerable Attack
 * Infinity+1 Sword: The Tsubaki Mk. III is the infinity sword, with a price comparable to the entry fees for Ranking Matches, it doesn't just increase your attacking power, it also has increased range with its finishing moves, allowing you to kill several enemies at once, and extends the charge attack to a slightly more useful three hit combo. The Tsubaki Mk III's Energy Saver is what makes it an Infinity+1 Sword, costing a whopping $999,999, it gives the Tsubaki Mk III infinite energy. You never need to recharge it again. In effect, this means you can spam the charged attacks as much as you want. The sole downside is that it's not quite as powerful as the Mk. II.
 * Inherently Funny Words: Killing enemies occasionally causes them to shout "My spleen!" as they die. See also some of the luchadore mask cards. Clearly someone recognized the comedy in a name like "La Guerra, Jr." and ran with it, because "Jr." recurs several times in the card collection and keeps getting funnier. It's Truth in Television though, as many Luchadore names are passed on this way. 'Hijo de ____', '_______ Jr.' are very common things to see in a Luchadore name.
 * Interface Screw: Literally, one of the moves of the 4th rank assassin, complete with screwed-up controls.
 * Katanas Are Just Better: Beam katanas, no less. They're really just called that, since they're more your regular lightsaber... Hell, Death Metal's sword resembles a giant straight razor more than anything else, but is still called a beam katana.  is a bit of an inversion however, as his style, or at least the stances, seem to be far more based on Western styles of swordsmanship, and his weapon, the Cross Sabre looks much more like a Claymore. It's worth noting that he's faster and stronger than Travis, and his weapon is parallel to if not greater than yours.
 * Shinobu stands out by using real genuine katana. No crazy electric beams here. She's consistently considered one of the harder bosses to fight as well. Quite literally stating that REAL Katanas Are Just Better.
 * Kill Steal: in the 5th battle.
 * Kitsch Collection: Travis' collection of luchadore masks that you amass through the game. There is also his massive collection of Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly merchandise.
 * On a side note, if you have save data from this game and you start the second one, the masks you have will be in Travis' room.
 * Klingon Promotion: Exactly how the UAA works.
 * Laser Blade: All over the place.
 * Leitmotif: Travis
 * Limit Break: Amusingly preceded by Travis loudly yelling the names of his favorite anime characters' attacks.

"Travis: You're no assassin. You're just a perverted killing maniac.
 * Lovely Assistant: Features Harvey Moiseiwitsch Volodarskii, an assassin magician. His two silent, lovely "asseestahnts!" are under his loyal command, until Travis blinds him and they provide the wheel saw for his execution.
 * Ludicrous Gibs: The first game has plenty of decapitations, severed limbs, and people getting cut in half both ways. Desperate Struggle kicks this up another notch by having enemies cut into more pieces and even a disemboweling.
 * Luke, I Am Your Father: Subverted at first, when . But then played straight (well, so much as anything in this satirical game is played "straight") when . . Although
 * Macross Missile Massacre: Holly Summers' fake leg creates a miniature version of this.
 * It's also the only attack Helter Skelter shows in the game's teaser trailer/prologue.
 * Made of Iron:
 * Travis can survive things that would otherwise be fatal, especially in cutscenes. These particularly daring feats include.
 * Destroy Man
 * Magic Realism
 * Man On Fire: One of the mooks during the Rank 8 level has the ability to set Travis on fire. If this happens, Travis runs around, slowly burning to death until he can get his hands on an extinguisher.
 * Manipulative Bastard:
 * Martial Arts and Crafts: We've got a lady who launches massive amounts of fireworks, people clashing bright, giant lightsabers, gaudy superheroes, and overall people who make a lot of noise and gain a lot of attention. Can you honestly say there is a single character that qualifies an an ASSASSIN?
 * They are assassins in a literal sense. They are the hitmen (and hitwomen) for hire that kill whoever for the money type, not sneaky silent killer type.
 * Masked Luchador: This is Suda. None make an actual appearance, though Travis learns new wrestling moves by examining Luchador masks and watching lucha libre videos. And few masks might look a bit familiar to you.
 * Meteor Move:  has a spectacular one. Check out that page for a synopsis.
 * Mind Screw: Watch it here. Not Quite a Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty/Recap, but it's very, very close.
 * Mini-Dress of Power: Bad Girl. She even sashays in it.
 * Morality Pet: Jeane (the kitten) is literally Travis' Morality Pet.
 * Multiple Endings
 * Never Mess with Granny: Speed Buster in the first game with her Wave Motion Gun in a shopping cart.
 * New Game+
 * Nobody Poops: Averted, hard. Toilets are save points, and they are everywhere.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed: Dr. Peace bears a great resemblance to actor Charles Bronson, and is a doctor, a policeman, and an assassin, three roles Bronson was famous for playing.
 * Travis Touchdown's design is heavily based off of Johnny Knoxville... with a lot more otaku thrown in. His design is also reminiscent of Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden in his first appearances in Fight Club.
 * Then there's Sylvia Christel, which is either a Shout-Out to softcore actress Sylvia Kristel or a hell of a coincidence.
 * No Export for You: Averted with the HD port Heroes Paradise. When Ubisoft, the publisher of the original for the Wii, decided not to pick up the HD port for release in North America. Thankfully, Konami has stepped in and will be publishing Heroes Paradise as a Play Station 3 exclusive in the west with Play Station Move support.
 * Not a Scratch on It: You can crash Travis motorcycle all you want, but it will always stay in perfect condition.
 * The Obi-Wan: Thunder Ryu, to a tee. Except for the implications about sex with Travis. But the fact that he still instructs Travis as
 * One-Hit Kill: Almost every boss after Shinobu has one in the first game, though they are relatively easy to dodge or escape for the most part. Shinobu herself has a very near OHK that functionally serves the same purpose.
 * One-Scene Wonder: Technically speaking, most of the Assassins. The match is set up, they appear out of nowhere, some character development here and there, boss battle, then BOOM! Dead and gone. Not to mention, a few of them get a rather touching sendoff. This is grimly noted in the sequel.
 * One Steve Limit: Averted with three characters named Jeane.
 * Overly-Long Fighting Animation: Subverted: Letz Shake's "Disaster Blaster" Earthquake Generator has this massively long cutscene where it charges up and prepares to flatten the battlefield, but then.
 * Our Dragons Are Different:
 * Painting the Fourth Wall: The final ranked battle does this impressively, with characters discussing changing the rating of the game and possibly delaying it, including a Take That against Duke Nukem Forever. The following scene is then literally fast forwarded to avoid that. If you slow down the speed, you can get more detail. The True Ending is even more crazy: Clearly, No More Heroes not only breaks the 4th wall, it takes a sledgehammer to it.
 * Pet The Kitten: Travis Touchdown: assassin, otaku, kitty owner.
 * The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Averted; several of the assassins make reference to "outside work". Travis himself seems like an example, although he takes assassination missions from K Entertainment. Additionally, his ranked fights COULD be considered an assassination (he is, after all, being paid to kill a certain person).
 * Playing Tennis With the Boss: when Bad Girl bats projectiles at you, you can deflect them back, although it's optional. Her projectile of choice is gimps. Travis also tries this before the fight with Dr. Peace, but there is more to his gun than his gaudy tastes in coloration.
 * Also can be done in both Dr. Peace's battle (Slashing back his explosive quick draw) and Destroyman (Knocking back Destroy Cannon). Both are of course Optional.
 * Post Modernism: Both games are Suda ridiculing the player. See Travis Touchdown, the loser otaku who spends all his money on anime and fights rather than moving out of a hotel? This Loser Is You! The empty sandbox of the first game plays into that, as the only locations are a few nerdy stores and Travis' various jobs. Despite having a beautiful beach nearby. Nevertheless, many fans think he is awesome. No doubt Suda finds this hilarious.
 * Premiseville: Santa Destroy.
 * Psycho for Hire: Most of the UAA members, most notably Destroyman, Letz Shake and Bad Girl. qualifies too.
 * Rank Inflation
 * "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Given to Travis (and you, by proxy) by Sylvia via cellphone right before the Dark Star fight.
 * Reference Overdosed: See the shout outs below.
 * Refuge in Audacity: Nearly every aspect of the game reeks of this trope.
 * Revive Kills Zombie: Shinobu on Bitter, while a hard boss in Sweet and Mild, becomes insane dodging every other attack including your killing blows and using her own even if you win the bladelock and you can only hit her for two or three hits at most in each opening. Charging the katana in low stance, normally not very useful even with the infinite power upgrade that removes it's excessive cost, will make short work of her.
 * Ruins for Ruins Sake: Speed City is a modern metropolis that's abandoned and dust-choked for no adequately explained reason.
 * Fridge Logic says the reason might be the woman occupying the city with a Wave Motion Gun, who happens to be named Speed Buster.
 * Rule of Cool: Beam katanas are impressive, but more impressive is what can block them-- can even block it with a kick. Holly could somehow block it with a shovel, too.
 * Rule of Fun : Where to begin?
 * Rule of Funny: Again, where to begin?
 * Save Point: You save in the bathroom. And there's always a bathroom right by the boss area. Even in the middle of the woods.
 * Schmuck Bait: Bad Girl when she pitches a fit.
 * It depends. Sometimes it's a trap, sometimes it's actually happening (and leaving herself open).
 * Second-Person Attack: A gruesome example.
 * Self-Made Orphan:
 * Sequel Snark: The very last line is Sylvia lampshading the bizarre ending of the game with "Too bad there won't be a sequel!" This, of course, turned out to be a lie.
 * Serious Business: All the part-time jobs.
 * Sex Is Violence: All over the place.
 * Sexy Walk: Bad Girl.
 * Shirtless Scene: Henry gets one in the sequel, and in the first game, you have the option of removing Travis's shirt.
 * Shoot the Dog: Travis definitely didn't mean it this way, but most of the assassins are probably better off dead.
 * Show Within a Show: The Magical Girl Super Robot anime Pure White Lover Bizarre Jelly, and the shmup minigame that is based on it.
 * Shut Up, Kirk: Travis is on the receiving end of this just before his fight with Bad Girl:

Bad Girl: In essence, they're the same. Don't go on thinking you're better than me. You think you're hot shit! Who the fuck do you think you are?!"


 * Sidequest
 * Small Girl, Big Gun: Speed Buster is anything but small or a girl, but the gun is very big, so it kind of balances out.
 * Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Travis' goal is essentially to run through this and put himself on top.
 * Sorting Algorithm of Weapon Effectiveness: Played straight, each new sword basically replaces the last.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance: A surprisingly touching, well-sung ballad precedes the 9th rank fight and plays over the end credits in the normal ending (though "normal" fight music plays over the actual 9th fight). There is also an instrumental version of the song that plays in Gold Town, the bar where Lovikov is. (It should be noted that the lyrics to this song, 'the virgin child makes her wish without feeling anything', are actually very dark, but that this trope still occurs due to the upbeat melody of the song).
 * Heavenly Star, the incredibly sweet Genki Rockets song that plays in shops and is available in music video form (complete with birds, sparkles, and rainbows) in the Japanese and European versions of the game, strikes a stark contrast with the game's content and overall theme. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing.
 * Sprint Meter: One of the Lovikov Ball upgrades is the ability to run outside of battle, which uses a Sprint Meter.
 * Stealth Pun: In wrestling, to win a round is to perform a hold, lock, or pin on a downed opponent. In the world of assassination, when Travis finishes off a wrestling move, the beam katana falls and skewers, or pins a downed enemy. Nothing says genius like having that weapon of yours landing on the opponent like divine retribution.
 * Sucking-In Lines
 * Super-Powered Evil Side: Every so often after landing a deathblow, Travis will randomly enter a "Dark Side Mode" where he can do some crazy stuff. (Well, crazier.)
 * Which turns your beam katana red and causes your hair to turn blonde and stick straight up.
 * Surprise Incest: See Brother-Sister Incest, also the cause of the Take That quote below.
 * Take That: "What if the game gets delayed? You wouldn't want this to become No More Heroes Forever, do you?" The fact that the name is also a nice pun just makes it gravy, considering what could have been the canonical ending.
 * Technology Porn: Before the boss fight with Dr. Shake.
 * This Loser Is You: The main character is a 20-something anime obsessed, professional wrestling watching, video game playing loser who dreams of adventure and getting laid. Even if you become the world's deadliest assassin, you are still a stain of a human being. This might qualify as a deconstruction. What kind of person buys a lightsaber off of ebay and becomes the world's greatest assassin? An otaku, that's who. Of course, if you see it that way.
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Travis does this in order to
 * He also tosses it into the air when doing a wrestling move. Some times he just catches it, majority of the time it falls perfectly into the mook's vitals.
 * Title Drop:
 * It's both the name of the motel Travis lives in and displayed in one way or another in every save bathroom.
 * says it during their fourth wall demolition.
 * To Be a Master: Mostly Deconstructed.
 * Uh-Oh Eyes:, who has Red Eyes.
 * Ultra Super Death Gore Fest Chainsawer 3000: Lampshaded interestingly. The game is in many ways a violent slugfest, but the game (and Suda51) has no problem in lampshading this repeatedly and mocking you for your violent, mindless tastes (also see the Analysis tab).
 * Unexpected Gameplay Change: Travis' dream sequence on the way to the fourth-ranked battle, which is done in the style of a Galaga-type shooter.
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: One your way to the Rank 5 fight, a trail of blood pools leads you to a dead body (which also leads you to a path to the same fight) and everybody just goes on with their business. Possibly justified, considering what kind of environment Santa Destroy is.
 * Updated Rerelease: No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise for the Xbox 360 and Play Station 3 features improved HD graphics and a 'Very Sweet' mode which features the female characters in skimpy outfits (who weren't already).
 * Useless Spleen: Several types of enemies yell "MY SPLEEN!" upon getting killed. Considering that they usually get chopped in half, you would think that would be the least of their concerns.
 * Vice City: Santa Destroy
 * Virtual Paper Doll: The clothing.
 * The Voice: The long-suffering Diane, from Beef Head Videos.
 * Wave Motion Gun: #3 ranked Speed Buster's weapon, which is the end result of a transformation of a shopping cart.
 * What Could Have Been: Travis's fight with Helter Skelter in the original trailer looks like it could have been fun. As for the voice acting ... well, Your Mileage May Vary.
 * The battle in the theater looked pretty cool.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: More or less everything in the game. Parodied by "The Technique of Crazy Awesomeness" being the only regular jumping attack.
 * Where It All Began: The Final Battle with takes place where the game started: the parking lot of the NO MORE HEROES Motel.
 * Also, in the first REAL level, Dr. Peace, the boss fight itself takes place on the baseball diamond in Santa Destroy Stadium. The next-to-last level, Bad Girl, takes place entirely on the very same baseball diamond, you just happen to be riding a Cool Bike at the time.
 * White-Haired Pretty Boy: Helter Skelter, although he's a parody of the trope.
 * Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him: In the ending,.
 * In the Letz Shake cutscene,
 * Wide Open Sandbox: Subverted; you are given an overworld to explore, but you can't actually interact with much of anything beyond searching for collectibles in the alleys...
 * Wouldn't Hit a Girl: The real reason Travis couldn't kill Shinobu or Holly, and why Holly had to kill herself. He gets over it, demonstrated when he.
 * Even then,
 * He's definetly over it by the second game;
 * World of Badass
 * Wrestler in All of Us: Because sometimes, using a suplex is more satisfying than a beam katana. Using wrestling moves is quite effective during most of the boss fights, taking off a good chunk of the victim's health. The fact that they don't work on makes  as hard as . This is justified though; Travis apparently has dabbled in wrestling in Calgary and at the beginning of the game is still very friendly with his old teacher, the legendery former pro Thunder Ryu.
 * You Killed My Father: Shinobu to Travis, and.