Travis Touchdown, the loser with a love for magical girl anime, pro wrestling, and all things pop culture, is back with his latest adventure of wild and epic proportions, No More Heroes III, published by Xseed Games, and developed by Grasshopper Manufacture. Originally released in 2021 exclusively on Nintendo Switch, the man who won a beam katana at an auction, and somehow got involved with the United Assassins Association, now makes his way to PlayStation 4|5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Travis Touchdown is back once again as an assassin betrayed by FU, the young alien he cared for, but returned to Earth 20 years later to destroy everyone and everything. In order to save the planet, rise to the top of the Galactic Superhero Rankings, and of course score with Sylvia, Touchdown must take down the evil Prince FU and his ten alien assassins.

Beginning the game, players will be thrown right into the action from the get-go and be given tutorials to learn the combat mechanics, and more later on for the other aspects, such as the open world segments and even part-time jobs in the form of minigames. Every single thing about the No More Heroes series makes great use of Travis Touchdown’s personality and mannerisms to help illustrate his highs and lows, and his latest outing is no different.

Being a hack-and-slash game, there is a wide range of bone-crunching and slice-and-dicing action with various weapons, including his iconic beam katana, in this wild and trippy setting of an open world. Traversing from island to island on his tricked-out motorcycle, players must take on waves of enemies and work part-time jobs in mini-games Travis Touchdown-style, all to earn enough money to buy themselves into a fight against the next alien henchman. The boss battles are full of chaotic fun that will keep players on their toes, while the minigames can range from being over-the-top and hilarious, too tedious and unnecessary. Even when things might get a little boring, it won’t be long before players get thrown into more mayhem.

The best feature of No More Heroes III is its combat, which has a nice mixture of quick and light attacks, along with stronger heavier moves. Successful hits will fill a tension bar that can deliver a barrage of devastating combos, creating some epic and satisfying moments on screen. Even basic moves have so much style and flair that something as simple as a dodge, stun or block, will create some epic and glorious action on screen. There will, however, be occasions where players will find themselves just trying to charge their weapon in the heat of the moment, which can dampen the excitement of the battle. Thankfully, the number of times players will pull off some epic combos makes it all worth it.

The graphics and presentation are an odd but interesting mix of different styles, textures, and colours, which comes across as absurd at first, but somehow actually grows on you and is a big part of the game’s identity. It just seems to mesh perfectly with all the mayhem this game has to bring. The 80’s futuristic retro style with a modern sound is just as confusing as it was to describe just then, but it somehow works and has to be seen to be believed.

The cutscenes are really something to look forward to and are also one of the game’s best features. The fact that the game can’t decide what media type it wants to present actually makes it part of the charm of the No More Heroes franchise. It’s full of ideas that shouldn’t mix well together, but they do, and there aren’t many games or other media out there that can pull this off.

The Switch version had its fair share of graphical faults with frame rate drops and texture pop-ins. Its re-release on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC manages to eliminate those imperfections and greatly improves the overall look, presentation, and stylish action of No More Heroes III, and is complimented by its soundtrack. The hard-hitting, alternative, metal-like music suits the game perfectly and always kicks in at the right moment.

No More Heroes III is a beautiful mess of hilarious and diabolical ideas. It feels like the developers had the impossible task of having every possible idea piled on them, and they made it work. No More Heroes III is a solid entry for the series and sets expectations high for the future of the franchise, but no matter what, Travis Touchdown is the perfect (or not so perfect) man for the job.

Written by: Sammy Hanson