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When Suda51 said there were big changes in store for the open-world segments of No More Heroes, we didn't expect a change this big. According to GameSpot's preview, roaming around Santa Destroy in search of t-shirts and Lovikov Balls (and odd jobs) has been nixed in Desperate Struggle in favor of a world map.

It should speed up the pace of the game significantly, and we know there were plenty of complaints about these segments of the game, but we'll personally miss tooling around the city on the Schpeltiger. You can read way more details about the game at GameSpot, though we wouldn't necessarily suggest it if you're trying to live a spoiler-free lifestyle.

Three brief new trailers for No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle have appeared online, each highlighting a different aspect of the game. The first trailer (after the break), from GoNintendo, shows off the cute retro-themed job minigames that Grasshopper has added for Travis's second outing. There's some kind of motorcycle racing game, a training game in which you kick weights back at your trainer, and ... oh, no. A plumbing game that's like the bane of our existence, Pipe Dream. Great.

The second trailer, from IGN, features quick clips of fighting from all three playable characters (plus Jeane the cat! Plus NSFW language). The third, from 1UP, features Shinobu being really creepy.

Japanese publisher Marvelous just uploaded a quite lengthy and quite new trailer for the Xbox 360 and PS3 port of No More Heroes. It's all in Japanese, but it speaks the universal languages of crazy bosses and near-naked-babe quite well.

Aside from that, it also shows how much better the game looks compared to its Wii counterpart -- all of those Ps really make a difference. Be sure to check out the last few seconds of the trailer, which show us the Japanese version of the game just may not be censored after all. The original censored Wii game certainly didn't have that much blood in it!

Japanese retailer Amiami includes a note on its listing for the Xbox 360 version of No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise that suggests that because it is based on the North American version of the Wii original, it is likely to carry the CERO Z rating (think an ESRB M rating, but harsher) when it is released in February. Because it is the North American version (with "bloodshed" intact), the site says, it will hold a special appeal for game fans.

The same message doesn't appear on the PS3 version's listing, suggesting that it'll be the same censored game that was originally released in Japan. CERO Z-rated games often don't get displayed on shelves, so if this is accurate, it'll ensure that only the hardcore will even know about the Xbox 360 version of the game. That would limit sales severely, if sales weren't already limited severely by its status as an Xbox 360 game in Japan.

[Via Siliconera]

Not the state -- we don't know how he feels about that, nor do we think he'd have the power to remake it. Michigan (the game) was a 2004 PS2 adventure developed by Suda's Grasshopper Manufacture and directed by Contact's Akira Ueda, in which the player controls a cameraman who follows, and indirectly influences, a reporter investigating mysterious phenomena.

"There's a Spanish horror film called REC," Suda told Gamasutra, "and when I watched it, I realized it was pretty much Michigan, right there. I still have a lot of ideas along those lines, and I'd love to work with Spike sometime to make a new Michigan or a remake." Interviewer Brandon Sheffield discussed talks he'd had with US publishers about the game, who told him Sony declined it due to a lack of gameplay. So a remake would probably include more direct gameplay or ... would be for another platform.

Suda also said that he never expected to become a superstar game designer as a kid. "I wanted to become a sushi chef or an astronaut."

This No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle trailer introduces Henry, who appears in the first game in a series of very exciting, eminently spoilable sequences. It appears to do for the former villain what Metal Gear Solid 4 did for Raiden -- make the fans love a once-despised character. Coincidentally (according to the tenuous comparison I've set up for the two), both characters are voiced by Quinton Flynn. He's just got a talent for characters that you'll probably like better the second time!

The end of the trailer features Henry fighting a young girl with some kind of giant robot arms. Thanks for existing, game.

When we came into Marvelous Entertainment's hotel room, we witnessed another outlet recording a video interview with Suda 51, producer of No More Heroes and its sequel. Marvelous brought this, well, marvelous beam katana prop, which lights up and makes appropriately lightsabery noises, and someone pretended to attack him in the conclusion of the video interview. Suda gamely displayed mock fright at the beam katana attack for multiple takes while someone waved the device around in front of him.

All we did was ask him some questions about No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle and Grasshopper's other work.

Above, you'll find a look at one of No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle's playable characters, Shinobu, straight out of TGS 2009. You may recognize her from the first game -- if you don't, we're no longer BFFs and we totally want our mixtapes back. Shinobu's going to be fully playable in Desperate Struggle and looks like quite the killing machine, though we must say her weapon's lack of beam and laser technology is somewhat off-putting.

If you're wondering about series protagonist Travis Touchdown, know that he's also here in this Joystiq post. Past the break, we've got two videos showing off some of the jobs Travis will undertake for spare cash in the sequel: coconut gatherer and rare steak preparer. What? You've never gathered coconuts for some extra spending money?

We happened to think that the motion control finishers in No More Heroes made the fighting a lot more interesting, but if you disagree, Grasshopper Manufacture has a solution. No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle will allow players to use the Classic Controller, according to 1UP.

Suda 51 told 1UP that the Classic Controller functionality is intended to attract Monster Hunter fans, many of whom play the game with the Classic Controller or Classic Controller Pro (which is bundled with Monster Hunter 3). It's a purely optional move that may help get the game in the hands of more people.

Warning: Some of the information in the 1UP article may be considered spoilers by more sensitive readers, including news about playable characters.

Suda Goichi takes the throne once again to narrate (in curiously deep voiceover) a new trailer for No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. While the last trailer was mostly narrative-focused, this trailer (posted after the break) goes into detail about new features in the game, including new controls for the Beam Katana(s), the ability to kick and punch with the B button, and the new 8-bit-style job missions! Be warned (explicitly, if not by knowledge of previous No More Heroes promotion): there is some toilet humor.

Additionally, we've posted two gameplay clips below the new trailer, as featured on IGN. While the footage in the trailer is from the Japanese version and therefore blood-free, the gameplay footage is very bloody and includes some tasteless (even for NMH) violence. The clips also include proof that if you thought the sword's battery charging couldn't get any more phallic, you were mistaken.
[Thanks, Ihar]

A few months ago, Marvelous and Famitsu held a No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle contest in Japan, allowing fans to submit t-shirt designs for possible inclusion in Travis Touchdown's wardrobe. Today, Ubisoft announced that it is giving American fans the chance to outfit Travis as well.

From now through September 5, you can submit a t-shirt design to Ubisoft through this site. Suda 51 will personally select the winning design. Amusingly, this is the only contest we can remember whose official rules state that the prize has an approximate retail value of $0.00. That's the most exciting nothing we've ever considered competing for!

Awesome news for No More Heroes fans: creator Suda 51 told Edge that he wants to continue the series. "I really want to make NMH a big franchise," he said, "and with this second episode have bigger success."

Slightly less awesome news for certain No More Heroes fans: if the series does continue past Desperate Struggle, it probably won't be on the Wii. "I think this is the last NMH that is going to be developed on Wii," Suda said. "To expand NMH to new possibilities, we need a new platform. Wii is a great platform, but we've done everything we can with it now."

Recent comments from Suda suggest that he's looking toward the Natal-enhanced Xbox 360 for at least one future project -- and No More Heroes was originally planned as a 360 game. Perhaps he's realized that charging Travis Touchdown's beam saber could be made even more embarrassing without a Wiimote prop.

In any case, it may be a bummer for Wii-only gamers, but at least if No More Heroes comes out on one of the other consoles, the "hardcore" types will be able to admit it's wonderful without having to say something nice about the Wii.

Grasshopper Manfacture boss Goichi "Suda 51" Suda likes to do everything to the extreme, whether it's the ultra-violence of No More Heroes or -- as we now know -- playing other developers' games, specifically Criterion's Burnout Paradise. The British dev's head honcho, Alex Ward, issued a tweet revealing that Suda had recently popped by his studio (likely after the recent Nordic Game Conference) and is a "hardcore Burnout fan."

"Hardcore" may be an understatement, as Ward disclosed that server logs show Suda has played more than 700 hours of Burnout Paradise. So, there it is: Even more proof that Suda 51 knows great games and takes everything to the extreme. It may also explain why we haven't heard anything more about the horror title he's working on for EA alongside Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami.

[Via VG247]

In this week's Famitsu, three major Japanese developers discussed this year's E3 and how they feel about the various motion technology displayed. Grasshopper Manufacture's Suda 51, Q Entertainment's Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Level-5's Akihiro Hino all somewhat agree on what they see as the future of gaming. "Hardware-wise, it was all about Project Natal," Mr. Suda said, as translated by 1UP, noting his excitement on the possibility of creating a game specifically based around its technology.

"It's not a shift from 2D to 3D or in the number of polygons, but it's games trying to open up an entirely new door," Mizuguchi agreed, continuing, "I thought it would take longer, but it's happening faster than I expected." Ironically, when the trio chose the most exciting games at E3, the list quickly filled with Western-developed games, from Splinter Cell: Conviction and Assassin's Creed 2 to The Beatles: Rock Band. Could they resist the ubiquitous Final Fantasy name drop? No, no they could not. "The visual quality was so impressive that I doubted it was even a game," Hino said of AC2, adding, "Final Fantasy XIII is the same way." Impressed/interested by the motion technology but still loving AAA-franchise sequels? Sounds like the whole game industry right now.