How I'm Ruining "No More Heroes"
11 07 07 - 22:26
I hate the internet. Sure it has its good points but it does tend to ruin other things. Take for instance, Video Games. It used to be that I'd find a game in a store - the cover would look cool or there'd be a sweet ass screenshot and I'd think "Hey, This could be fun". Buying it and bringing it home, whatever happened happened. It was good, it was crap, it was whatever it was. If it was a good game, I was psyched. It if was a bad game, I was pissed. But I was never broken hearted. Cut to the age of information, where pretty much day-one of production we can hear rumblings about a game. Concept art and screenshots follow. Then interviews with the developers. Then gameplay footage emerges. And so begins the analysis amongst fans. Everyone is chirping and chiming on what they think is right and wrong with pretty much anything you can think of. Graphics, character design, even the name of game.
All of this occurs so very very long before the game actually comes out. We're given such an opportunity to form opinions and attachments. This is how I'm ruining No More Heroes.
For those not in 'the know', No More Heroes is an upcoming title by game design master Suda Goichi (Suda51)... the genius behind Killer7. NMH finds you in control of Travis Touchdown, a hardcore geek with a nerd-on for anime, sci-fi and pro wrestling who wins a 'beam katana' on eBay and decides "double-you, tee, eff... I'll become an assassin". And so he does! Using the power of pro-wrestling and his anime power-up tshirts, Travis free roams through a GTA like city named Santa Destroy killing off all of the higher ranking assassins. Through the misting clouds of dust and blood, Travis just basically hangs out and digs everything cool there is in the world. Assuming that NMH inherits some of the schizophrenic genius of Killer7, this is basically a game that I'd gladly buy a Wii for - had I not already owned one.
I find myself buying anything related to the game. I purchased the last two months of FamitsuWAVE - the Japanese DVD magazine, because it had articles related to the game. I can't speak or understand Japanese, but that really doesn't stop me. I have google alerts set up to "No More Heroes" and "Suda51", desperately trying to pick up any new information. I have the character art saved on my Wii so that I can send messages to my friends with the graphics as attachments.
I'm becoming ENTIRELY too hooked on the game. This has been growing since last September when the first video snuck out. Being a tremendous fan of Killer7, the thought of a new game got me all rigid with anticipation. And that anticipation has yet to stop. It's reached a point where the game can't possibly live up to the expectations I've created for it. It's not fair to the game. It's not fair to me. It's wrong. I just can't stop.
I did something very similar with Contact. I built it up, I bribed the game store guys to let me have the point-of-sale displays for the game. I figured I'd have the artwork framed. Maybe when the game became cheaper, I'd buy another copy of it for the framed art. Make a nice lightbox. Hang it on the wall. Hurrah! Know what? The game was okay. Nothing amazing, glad I played it, glad I beat it, but it wasn't the life changing experience I sorta brought it up to be.
It's so much better when I have no expectations. I find a game I like and I'm pleasantly surprised. Wetrix, SoundVoyager, KeroKing, MadTV, Kirby's Dream Course, Lords of Thunder, I-Spy, Cosmic Smash, Gunbird2, Natural Selection, Fallout, Grim Fandango, Lunar:SSS... games I knew little or nothing about before playing them almost always find a way of becoming my own personal little favorites. Games that maybe a handful of people know and love. There's something special about that. That's something I can't have with No More Heroes.
I'm just too excited. I'm just too emotionally invested.
So I know this pattern. I know where this is going. I just can't... stop.
I already have the frame picked out for my No More Heroes magazines.
I hate the internet.
No comments