Travis Strikes Again (Again…)
Seven years have passed since the events of No More Heroes, and The Bad is determined to exact his revenge on Travis Touchdown. Just like the original cult classic, players will have to battle through multiple punk-rock levels and defeat over-the-top bosses.
The spin-off of No More Heroes “Travis Strikes Again” was a Nintendo Switch exclusive but has found its way to PS4, which is surprising since the only other NMH game to ever hit a non-Nintendo console was a port of the original game with the subtitle “Paradise” but the sequel never made its way across. Maybe this PS4 port of Travis Strikes Again is testing the water for a 4K remaster of both previous games? We can only hope, now let’s look at the spin-off…
The game is a nod to indie games and Japanese/American culture with it’s Suda51 influence. Combat is hack-n-slash like the original games, but from more of an arcade style gameplay. It’s clear that Travis Strikes Again was made on a much smaller budget than the main series, which unfortunately shows as it stretches out its gameplay which can become repetitive and simplistic. However, it doesn’t stop it from being enjoyable in short bursts and while the story itself won’t win any awards, it does enough to get it over the finishing line.
Visually, the game has a superb art style and works well. It runs at a smooth framerate and load times are relatively short. The voice-acting is cheesy in true No More Heroes style and the soundtrack is crazy madness from the first note to the last.
The Verdict
Travis Strikes Again is a fairly decent spin-off of No More Heroes, but it’s smaller budget shows with it’s simplistic and repetitive gameplay. It is fun though and hopefully with pave the way for past games and hopefully No More Heroes 3 to hit the PS4 in the future.