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.

Grasshopper Manufacture has been quietly working on a PS3 game whilst working on their No More Heroes games on Wii. The mysterious PS3 game will be published by Marvelous Entertainment, but the ambitious nature of the project may compromise the small company's financial stability. "If we do that [game] we might go bankrupt," Yasuhiro Wada, president of Marvelous Entertainment, joked to Siliconera. "We are making it, but if we make everything then it's a little too risky."

Suda51's studio is known for creating hyper-violent and stylized games that tackle controversial and difficult subjects. In addition to No More Heroes, the studio has made killer7 (pictured) and Flower, Sun and Rain.

Yours truly and JC ran into the one, the only Suda51 last night, and proceeded to approach him. Despite his inability to understand much of the English language, he was accommodating and posed for a picture. We asked his translator why No More Heroes 2 was nothing more than a small mention during the Ubisoft keynote, and she told us that it was simply bumped due to time. Sadly, she couldn't elaborate any further than that, but we have a feeling James Cameron had something to do with it.

Coming one day in advance of the announced May 30 reveal date, a new trailer for No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle has just captured the hell out of our attention. Yes, that is a random shot of a luchador as a backdrop for Suda 51's credit -- why not.

If you wanted to see more of the dual-sword moves shown in the Famitsu scans, well, here you go -- this video is loaded with shots of an older-looking Travis Touchdown swinging two Beam Katanas around. It also introduces the new assassin Nathan Copeland, who starts his fight with Travis by throwing ladies at him. Even with that weirdness, the tone of this trailer is much more serious than before -- though it ends in a very No More Heroes way.

If that's not enough for you, check Famitsu for new screens!

[Thanks, Mr Khan!]

The latest Famitsu issue, in addition to some stuff about Metal Gear or whatever, also features a blowout article about the latest game from Kojima's friend and colleague Suda 51, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. The article shows that the UAA assassin's organization and its liaison, Sylvia Christel, have returned, along with (necessarily) new assassins like the #50-ranked Nathan Copeland. Desperate Struggle occurs three years after the events of the first game, and Travis Touchdown has been called back into action after Bishop from Beef Head Video is captured by gang members, according to IGN's translation.

To take on these new assassins, Travis Touchdown has developed new techniques -- like dual wielding beam sabers, as seen in the scans. It may just be because the scans are tiny, or because we're insane for No More Heroes, but it seems the graphics have been refined for this adventure. We'll find out on the 30th when a new trailer debuts!

Well, today officially sucks, because the game we anticipate the most -- Suda51's No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle -- won't be available to play at next month's E3, Goichi Suda told 1UP. We'd cancel our trip, but we already bought the frakking plane tickets!

It's not all bad news, however, as Suda51 does hint at the game being at the show, just not in playable form. He also says that the game is "at the very end of production," providing hope that it will meet its scheduled US release of January 2010 on the Wii.

The website for Suda 51's development company, Grasshopper Manufacture, features a list of the No More Heroes developer's "principal business partners" -- publishers and developers with whom the "video game band" has worked.

The products of each company's collaboration with Grasshopper can be identified (well, kind of in the case of EA and Q? Entertainment, both working with GHM on a currently unknown "action-horror game"), with one exception: Square Enix. According to the site, the only work done for Square Enix has been sound design for RAD, and GHM doesn't count the companies for whom it does sound work as "principal business partners."

It's possible, then, that Square Enix could have plans to publish an unannounced Grasshopper Manufacture game. The company has at least one project in the works that it has yet to divulge details on -- the mystery game with the Kennedy quote that we believe to be a Front Mission series entry. The more GHM games in the world, we say, the better!

[Via Siliconera]

Since first whispered eerily in our ears, we've been eager to have our pants scared off by the Tecmo/Grasshopper Manufacture collaboration, Fatal Frame IV. Now it seems like our slacks will be staying firmly buttoned. While Nintendo published the Wii-exclusive in Japan, the company has no intention of making a repeat performance stateside with Nintendo boss Reggie Fils-Aime telling MTV, "We are not the publisher of that title in the Americas."

A Tecmo spokesperson put the lens cap on the scary sequel, telling IGN that Nintendo of America still holds the publishing rights, and its decision to not release the game means "the title will not be released in this territory."

Read Tecmo's official statement: "As the owner of the IP, Tecmo feels very unfortunate that the fans of the series in North America will not have a chance to play the game, but respects the final decision made by Nintendo of America." If you could take a picture of our faces right now you'd see our jaws on the floor at bearing witness to Nintendo's own unique brand of horror.

Source: Fatal Frame Never Coming to America?
Source: Reggie Talks Wii: Not Paying For Exclusives, Avoiding The Japan Wii Slump

Josh Keaton, voice actor extraordinaire, recently dropped a huge bomb during an interview about his work on a new Spider-Man cartoon. Gaming enthusiasts will likely recognize Josh as Ocelot from the Metal Gear Solid games, but he's expanding his gaming portfolio, as he just finished doing Destroy Man for No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle. Considering Destroy Man faced off against Travis Touchdown in the first game, we're wondering just how he could make a comeback. Son of Destroy Man, maybe?

Keaton describes Destroy Man as an "unapologetic jerk of a character," which we guess is techincally correct. We'd personally go with the awesome guy with the crotch laser. Or maybe the world's best handshaker, but that's just us.

[Via Go Nintendo]

Some people didn't find Santa Destroy to be as open and navigable in No More Heroes as the rest of us did, and Suda51 has definitely heard those concerns. During a recent interview with GameSetWatch, he said to "expect big changes for No More Heroes 2's open world." If by big changes, you mean bigger lawns to cut, more trees to shake, and bigger alleyways to mutilate dozens and dozens of enemies in, then we're on board with Desperate Struggle!

Other than that, the interview mostly focuses on the difficulty foreign talent has adapting to their new surroundings at Grasshopper Manufacture. That doesn't mean you shouldn't read the interview in its entirety, however. So hit up this link right here.

One of the most significant criticisms leveled at Wii's superb and stylistic No More Heroes was that its "open world" wasn't, well, very open. That's set to change for the sequel, says creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda.

In an interview on GameSetWatch, Suda51 was asked about his long-time desire to build a true open-world game. He acknowledged that No More Heroes was a step towards realizing his goal, but as for the sequel, he said to "expect big changes for No More Heroes 2's open world." And what of series star, Travis Touchdown, now that there are truly no more heroes in the game's universe? "Actually, there are still some heroes left," he teased.

All we've heard about the release of Fatal Frame IV in the US is that Nintendo apparently isn't publishing it. According to retailer Play.com and Official Nintendo Magazine (via reports on NeoGAF and also this sliver of a scan found on GoNintendo), the Tecmo/Grasshopper Manufacture survival horror title could be headed to Europe on February 6, under the name ... Fatal Frame IV, rather than the series' customary European Project Zero title.

Nintendo of Europe's apparent decision to publish this makes Reggie's snub seem just a bit more painful, though we believe that it would be good business for the newly-combined Tecmo/Koei to publish it in North America themselves.

No More Heroes was without a publisher in the US until Ubisoft picked it up, since Japanese publisher Marvelous Entertainment didn't have an American branch at the time. Since then, they've made a multi-game agreement with XSEED, and thus we assumed that company would handle the distribution of No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle when that title is released stateside in early 2010.

According to secret sources in contact with IGN, the Marvelous/XSEED partnership may not extend to Desperate Struggle after all -- Ubisoft is "in negotiations" to distribute the new game. It doesn't actually matter who localizes the game in terms of content, if the new game's anything like the original, whose voice work was already in English. But Ubisoft is probably capable of getting more copies into more stores, so we approve of this potential arrangement.