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]

GamesIndustry.biz spoke to No More Heroes/Killer 7 creator Suda 51 at the Nordic Game Conference, and while it may seem like an odd fit to ask the Grasshopper Manufacture head -- who isn't known for big sales numbers -- about marketing, that's exactly what GI did, discussing the slowing Japanese market.

Suda approached the problem from a game design perspective. "Well, there are a lot of core gamers, and a lot of lighter users playing on platforms such as the DS," Suda said, "but there's nothing in-between. I think it's going to be very important for games to be created for that middle audience, and that will help bring the market back on-track."

Responding to a follow-up question about Grasshopper's signature style, Suda named some mass market games with their own distinct styles. "For example, Call of Duty, LittleBigPlanet or BioShock -- you can feel different core elements in each of those games. Burnout Paradise is my favourite [smiles]."

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.

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]

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]

[Via Develop]

This year's Game Developers Conference will feature a presentation by two Japanese game designers who even Atsushi Inaba probably finds noteworthy: Team Ico's Fumito Ueda and Grasshopper Manufacture's Goichi Suda, aka Suda 51. The Shadow of the Colossus creator and the man behind No More Heroes will join Fallout 3 lead designer Emil Pagliarulo and localization company 8-4's Mark MacDonald for the panel discussion "Evolving Game Design: Today and Tomorrow, East and West Game Design."

The one-hour talk will discuss "recent trends in modern game design" as well as upcoming trends in games, as they relate to both the Japanese and Western game industries. Of course, the short-sighted hope is that everyone involved will reveal a new game, or at least that Suda will let out a bunch of details about No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle.

[Via VG247]

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.

We've recently featured excerpts from Suda 51's Eurogamer interview, but Eurogamer has just now posted the entirety of the chat, and it's excellent reading for anyone interested in No More Heroes Desperate Struggle or Suda. Talking about the new game, the charismatic game director mentioned his desire for a somewhat less jovial tone this time around: "I think it's time for No More Heroes to become serious. But it's going to have humour, don't worry. It won't be too serious."

The revenge-based plot seems to fit in with this idea. In the first game, Travis Touchdown was essentially competing in a big game; having a real, personal stake in the fighting definitely changes the feel of the game. Suda even has a vendetta against Santa Destroy: "I wanted to make a lot more stuff, more detail. So this time in No More Heroes 2, I want to take my revenge. And actually, the theme of No More Heroes 2 is revenge, so..."

There's also the all-important "weirdness" contingent. There's no poop talk yet, but Suda expressed his admiration of a past E3 promotion in which booth babes threw pants at attendees. "One day, I want to be able to throw pants to the public. That's one of my main goals."

"Give us MotionPlus!"

That seemed to be the most popular response when we asked you what changes you'd make to No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle. Luckily for us, Goichi Suda seems to agree (does he read Wii Fanboy reader comments? If so, hai, Suda!). Speaking to IGN (hit the break for the full video interview), the maverick developer discussed how he'd like to utilise Wii MotionPlus in the No More Heroes follow-up, despite not having touched the add-on yet. 1:1 beam katana action? Um, yes please.

He's also "very interested" in online play, though sounded slightly less committed to the idea when he discussed it with CVG, describing it as "still up in [the] air." We'd probably take MotionPlus over some online mode, though if Suda feels like adding both to Travis' next outing, we suppose we can accept that as well.

But, wait, before you break out that pen and paper and start writing that angry letter, know this: you're also going to get a fully-featured, bloodtastic game, just like those of us in North America! This time around, you're going to have the option of choosing which version of No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle you want, though we can't imagine why you'd want one without the buckets of blood and over-the-top violence.

"We won't be able to make the same game for all territories," Suda 51 said. "For Europe, we're going to release two versions. One extreme version, and one with less violence." Why? Well, because so many Europeans bugged him about the version that released to their territory and how it was the same as the Japanese version of the game. "With No More Heroes 2 we want to please the fans too. I want the European users to be able to experience the extreme version."

So celebrate, Europe. For once, you're being taken seriously!

If you're itching a "murder and mystery in paradise" kind of game, you need look no further, but you will have to wait. Marvelous and XSEED have announced (via press release) that the DS remake of Suda51's Flower, Sun and Rain is coming to North America in 2009. While it's not specified when in 2009, the ever-reliable (not really) Amazon UK page lists November 14, so we're hoping early in the year. Flower, Sun and Rain revolves around the eponymous hotel where the main character must repeat the same day -- and terrorist attack -- over and over again. Basically, it's just like Groundhog's Day except with an unfortunate dearth of Stephen Tobolowsky.