You should pity eccentric games developer Goichi 'Suda51' Suda - mere moments after the
No More Heroes producer's feet touched British soil, NGamer thrust a microphone right up
his ingenious nostrils. Here's what he had to say...
What is it that drew you to developing No More Heroes as a Wii exclusive?
I was one of the privileged few who was shown the Wii controller before its official announcement [at TGS 2005].
I immediately set out to create a full action game that could take advantage of this unique controller, and No More Heroes was born.
My publishers wanted to make an Xbox 360 game, and actually wanted No More Heroes to go onto that platform, so I had a hell of a time trying to convince them to let me make it on Wii without spilling the controller's secrets (laughs).
From what we've played so far, No More Heroes seems to be more comprehensible than your previous games. In light of Nintendo trying to reach new audiences, is this an intentional move on your behalf?
No, not really. You know, I had experience of working for them with the GameCube, and they're very responsive to developers who are making games that are different. They're very flexible. There was no pressure to make it more accessible, certainly.
You make lots of creative use of the Wii remote - mobile phone calls, repowering the blade, etc - any interesting ideas that didn't make it?
The idea at first was to make it a game that used only the remote - you might recall that was how the Wii's controller was originally going to work.
We tried, and we wanted to make it as simple as possible, but it just didn't feel right. After that, we wanted to steer the bike using the controller, maybe even both using the nunchuk and remote, one in each hand so you can do this (twists the 'remote hand' as if starting up a motorbike). But yes. Didn't work.
Travis has to work hard at lots of grotty jobs. Is that inspired by real life? Have you ever had a terrible part time job?
(A booming, almost disconcerting laugh from Suda and his translator) I've done over thirty jobs in my lifetime. Some were better than others, let's leave it at that.
But there is a link between my and my team's life experiences and the games we make. We want to include the message in our games that "some jobs aren't important, and you may hate them, but if you do them to the best of your ability, it'll turn out well. Better times will come."
Is No More Heroes set in the same universe as your past games? There are clear references to Killer7 and Michigan in No More Heroes.
(After five minutes discussing whether Michigan was released in Europe or not... And it was... Which seems to genuinely surprise Suda...) No.
Your characters have the most interesting names in gaming. Where do you get them from?
I don't name them by meaning, I name them by sound. I want their name to have a certain 'feel'. Travis Touchdown, for example.
It's name that sounds cool to a Japanese audience, but if a westerner hears it... well, then maybe not so much. That's where Travis is in life, really.
Do you see much of yourself in Travis Touchdown, or indeed, any of the other assassins?
Yes, I do to an extent. I wish I could live like Travis. React to things the way he does. Face something different.
We also share many of the same interests, such as a love for lucha libre wrestling, as you can see in his moves. But, you must understand - not the assassin part. (Eardrum-perforating laughter ensues).
Obviously your love of Lucha Libre wrestling is evident in most of your games, and you started out working on the Fire Pro Wrestling series. Do you ever think you'll make another wrestling game, perhaps with some remote and nunchuk power slams?
I can't believe you know about that! As you know, wrestling isn't as popular in Japan as it once was.
I don't think wrestling games would make much of a profit, so I'd much rather include it in a game in my own way.
A lot of noise has been made over the lack of blood in the European and Japanese versions of the game. Do you see the bloody US version as the definitive version of the game?
It's hard to say. I like the 'feel' you get from the coins coming out in the Japanese/European version. It's more eccentric. What do you think?
We think so too.
Good. (laughs)
From what we've played and seen, we think the characters of No More Heroes, and many of your other works, would be well suited to anime. Ever thought of branching out in that direction?
As you may know, our publisher, Marvellous, actually does a lot of animation work, so it's something that has been discussed.
We were actually in discussions to do something with the Bizarre Jelly characters as seen on Travis' shirt, but I have no idea how serious they were.
Hey, tell your readers if they want to see it, write in and give them the feedback. There's every chance it could get made.
We heard that you showed Shigeru Miyamoto the game during its development. What did he make of it - did he offer any words of advice?
That's not true at all, no.
On the subject of other developers, is there anyone's work in particular that you admire or borrow from?
A tricky question. Let's just say I like them all!
We've heard that some of your older titles are heading to the DS - Flowers, Sun And Rain and The Silver Case. Can you tell us anything about these?
That's right. Flowers, Sun And Rain is pretty much finished. It will be out in Japan on 6th March, and we're very interested in bringing it to Europe.
It's a similar story with The Silver Case, but there's lots of text to translate. That one may be a while coming yet.
Any further Wii projects in the pipeline?
Well, my next piece of work will be an Xbox 360 game. Beyond that? I'd love to make No More Heroes 2 for the Wii.
But only if the original sells enough to convince the publishers. That's out of my hands now.
**SPOILER ALERT** DON'T READ ON IF YOU HAVEN'T REACHED THE END OF THE GAME YET...
Finally, we wanted to know whether or not it was Garcian Smith from Killer7 that burst into the toilet right at the end?
No. But you're right. He does look similar! Why? That's a secret.
you also get coins spilling out of the bodies in the u.s. version, so isn't that just as eccentric as the bloodless japanese/european version! it's also such a stupid question to ask, because the guys unlikely to say the u.s. version is better, as it wouldn't really help to sell the watered down version of his game that's just been released over here. it's called PR!
suda is a f**king legend. love his work and can't wait for more. p.s - j billingham is probably a killer or something as he's god damn obsessed with blood. the uk version has better gameplay but the cut scenes are better in the u.s version. end.
i can assure you i'm no killer, i just don't believe in censorship in adult games. the game play is just as fluid in the u.s. version, go look at the youtude vids. now i'm gonna kill ubisoft for not picking up publishing the game here, and letting rising star f it up. end.
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