"Wii has no hardcore games" is about as old, lame and untrue as "the PS3 has no games," and "Xbox 360 has only shooters." Real gamers know that each of the platforms has its gems -- but not everyone can afford all three gaming consoles.

Marvelous may be expanding its portfolio to include more non-Nintendo systems. Already, the publisher is working on a PS3 and Xbox 360 game, Rainy Woods; however, according to a report by Siliconera, the publisher may look into porting some of its diverse Wii lineup onto the HD systems. Games like No More Heroes and the upcoming Muramasa would certainly appeal to the hardcore PlayStation and Xbox crowds. In fact, Suda 51's most recent comments suggest an HD future for his franchise. With just a little bit of polish, those two could easily transform from good-looking Wii games into gorgeous PS3 and 360 titles.

[Thanks, tmacairjordan87!]

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.

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.

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.

Marvelous Entertainment, whose game division develops and publishes the Harvest Moon series, in addition to publishing games like No More Heroes, Muramasa, and Hero for 30Sec, is seeking "voluntary retirement" from around 20 staff members as a cost-cutting measure.

Employees are incentivized to take the company up on its "offer" between now and April 3 with a special severance package. The retirements will take effect April 30 -- right around when Muramasa comes out in Japan. That's kind of unfortunate, because it'll make playing this awesome-looking game in a bit more bittersweet for all those former employees.
[Via Edge]

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]

No More Heroes' combination of simple-but-fun brawling, compellingly freaky storyline, and, uh, t-shirt collecting just worked for us. We could play (and have played) that over and over again. If you never picked it up (and you're not too young to do so), maybe this latest offer of No More Heroes plus a game that isn't as good as No More Heroes will finally entice you into checking out Grasshopper Manufacture's very weird action game.

GameStop is currently taking preorders on a NMH/Red Steel bundle for $30. We suspect that it'll just be a shrinkwrapped package of two games, rather than a single box like the image suggests -- having to print new boxes wouldn't really help Ubisoft clear out its back stock.

[Via Kombo]

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.

The Daily Telegraph has thrown two pence in with its own "best of" video game round up, naming its top 50 games of 2008. Like X-Play before it, the conservative UK newspaper named Lionhead's Fable 2 as the best game to come along in the last 12 months, romancing the crown out from under near-winners, Fallout 3 and LittleBigPlanet.

Other games sitting atop the heap included Rock Band 2, Gears of War 2, Spore, Grand Theft Auto IV and No More Heroes, with Left 4 Dead and Professor Layton rounding the publication's top ten. Check out the rather comprehensive list and let us know if your favorites made the cut.

As happens each month, some of the more interesting tidbits from the holiday issue of Nintendo Power have been transcribed by the tireless folks at Aeropause.

The most eye-catching news, for us? A novel and particularly painful-sounding attack in Platinum Games' MadWorld. According to the magazine, you'll be able to lodge "a trumpet where the sun don't shine, leaving the unfortunate fellow to stagger around as he inadvertently toots the horn." Awe. Some. What's a trumpet doing lying around on the set of a futuristic game show about death and wanton bloodletting? Heck, don't ask, just shove.

Other worthy factoids drawn from the mag deal with how No More Heroes creator Goichi Suda relaxes (by playing Burnout Paradise), and the news that Onechanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers will have a two-player splitscreen mode. Hit up Aeropause for the rest!


[Via Go Nintendo]

GameSetWatch has been running an interesting two-part column on the success and failure of the Wii in its first two years on store shelves (2nd anniversary arriving soon, read our 1st anniversary theme week here!). The second part of the piece, which focuses on the negatives, has a couple of interesting tidbits worth pointing out.

The first thing the piece focuses on is waggle and how the early promises of a more immersed experience for the gamer have not been fulfilled. We're willing to concede that, because of how great the console has sold in such a small period of time and how many developers and publishers have proceeded to churn out shovelware and dirty ports just in an attempt to cash in. There are always exceptions to the rule, however, with not only Nintendo showing us the amazing and unique things that can be done with the control scheme, as well as some other third party developers and their titles (Zack & Wiki, Let's Tap, and No More Heroes, just to name a few).

We won't spoil the rest of the piece for you, but, to be honest, it's really good. It calls the Wii out for a lot of its shortcomings, and not in a totally biased tone. And, if bashing the Wii doesn't sound like an interesting topic for an article to you, read the first part, where it's nothing but Wii love.

Source - Two Years In - The Wii's Successes
Source - Two Years In - How the Wii Has Failed

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.