Panda King and Dimitri – Sly Cooper 3

Panda King and Dimitri Lousteau have both had run-ins with the Sly Gang before, the former notorious for helping to steal the Thievius Raccoonus. Still, old enemies become new allies in Sly Cooper 3. After the gang rescue King’s daughter and retrieve diving gear belonging to Dimitri’s grandfather, the two former villains are recruited for the Cooper Vault heist.

Originally it was announced that Grasshopper Manufacture’s Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes Complete Edition would be coming to PS4 in Japan on October 17th. However, it seems this will be the same release date for North America and Europe. XSEED Games will be publishing the PS4 version in North America while Marvel Europe handles the European release.

Meanwhile, Steam users can look forward to Marvelous Inc. publishing the PC version worldwide on the same day. Along with the base game, which has improved HD visuals, players will also receive all the previously released DLC. This includes Black Dandelion, which added a new character in Shinobu Jacobs, and Bubblegum Fatale, which makes Bad Girl a playable character.

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes originally released for the Nintendo Switch in January. You can check out GamingBolt’s review of the Switch version to see how it fared. No More Heroes 3 was announced at E3 2019 and will be coming to the Nintendo Switch in 2020.

After many years of waiting, the third entry of the No More Heroes franchise is coming sometime next year. This time it’s once again been directed by Suda 51, promising that whatever it’ll be, it’ll be interesting. But the pseudo-sequel, pseudo-spinoff title, Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, isn’t quite done yet, as the game will be coming near the end of the year for other platforms.

The game released earlier this year as an exclusive to the Nintendo Switch, but was later announced as coming to the PS4 and PC. Now the Japanese branch of Amazon has spilled the beans, showing the game will release on the PS4 October 17 as a Complete Edition that includes both released DLC packs. It will include a new cover and a set of stickers as well.

While there’s been no official announcement, this is most likely the same day the PC version will release in Japan, and probably the same date (or near it) in the west, since the original Switch version had a simultaneous worldwide release. We’ll keep you updated.

Current Switch exclusive Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes will be releasing for PS4 and PC via Steam. This was announced by Grasshopper Manufacture at MomoCon. Though a release window wasn’t provided, the developer said in a recent tweet to “Stay tuned for more information!”

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes released in January for the Nintendo Switch and was an interesting departure from previous games. It saw Travis Touchdown and Badman, the father of Bad Girl, battling in a series of games to collect the six Death Balls. The gameplay is from a top-down perspective and takes inspiration from a variety of genres. The signature Suda51 atmosphere is still intact though.

You can read GamingBolt’s official review for the game here. Creator Goichi Suda has hinted at the possible announcement of No More Heroes 3, and will be in attendance at E3 2019. In the meantime, stay tuned for more details on Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes for PS4 and PC.

We just announced that Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes will be coming to PS4 and Steam! Stay tuned for more information!#Momocon2019 pic.twitter.com/YU4vcSy9Nm

— Grasshopper Manufacture (@Grasshopper_EN) May 25, 2019

No More Heroes came crashing back in the quasi-sequel/quasi-spinoff Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes that released earlier in the year for Nintendo Switch. The game wasn’t what a lot of people were expecting or hoping for to see a continuation of the series, but it did end up being an unexpected celebration and crossover of the weird worlds of Suda 51, and it’s possible we’re going to see more, as he’s teasing something new soon.

MomoCon will run May 23-26 in Atlanta, Georgia, and via Destructoid, the convention has confirmed that Suda 51 will be there and will have an announcement. Nothing else is said, but last year Suda used the event to announce Killer7 coming to PC, which released later that year. Travis Strikes Again also has a bit of a tease for a third No More Heroes after the credits, while Suda himself has spoken about a proper third entry in the series himself as well, so there’s a few ways this could go. Either way, Suda fans have a lot of reasons to look forward to it.

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is available now for Nintendo Switch.

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes represents, in many ways, game director Goichi Suda at his most unhinged best. However, it still isn’t a true No More Heroes 3. We haven’t had a mainline entry in the franchise in almost a decade (No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle launched on the Wii in 2010).

Suda has previously said that he wants to make a No More Heroes 3, and that he has ideas on where he wants to take the story. And, to be perfectly honest, Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes even sets up the stage for a new entry. And now, we could be seeing an announcement for the game happen shortly.

From this point on, there will be spoilers for Travis Strikes Again. Bail out if you don’t want to be spoiled.

A “post credits scene” in the game shows Grasshopper Manufacture very clearly working on No More Heroes 3, which seems to all but confirm a new title is coming. Speaking to Game Reactor, Suda has confirmed that he put the teaser there for a reason, and confirmed that he is attending E3, and hopes to make an announcement there.

“I’m also going to Los Angeles for E3 this year,” said Suda. “It’s been quite some time since I was there last,” he said. “I really hope to be able to make some kind of announcement there.”

Which to me is enough reason to get excited. Hopefully, No More Heroes 3 brings the style of the original two games, and the cleverness of Travis Strikes Again into one package, to deliver what I hope will be the best game in the series yet. Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is out now, exclusively on the Nintendo Switch.

A brand new update for Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is available now, the developers confirmed on Twitter. Version 1.0.1 adds new shirts to the game, as was promised to us ahead of launch, and it also adds a new game plus mode, giving you incentive to play through it yet again in case you have already completed it.

New Game Plus mode will let you carry over any and all skills you have unlocked, as well as your character levels, over to a new game, which should let you pull off some more varied techniques early on in the game, and add better variety to the first few encounters.

The new shirts should be available for anyone who’s has beaten all the bosses in Spicy Mode (you’ll want to do this if you want the shirts). And obviously, the update also fixes some bugs and glitches (though not the ones you’ll be fighting through the game—long story).

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes is out now exclusively on Nintendo Switch. If you’re on the fence about whether or not to give Travis’ latest outing a go, check out our review for the game.

for players who have beaten all bosses in Spicy Mode. And, several bugs have been fixed to ensure the smoothest gameplay experience possible. As these updates were originally reported to be made available on launch day, we apologize for the delay and thank you for your patience.

— Grasshopper Manufacture (@Grasshopper_EN) January 21, 2019

Development

Goichi Suda (commonly referred to as Suda51), the founder of Grasshopper Manufacture and director of both No More Heroes 1 and 2 on the Wii, serves as the director for Travis Strikes Again as well. Development of the game began in mid-2016. Robin Atkin Downes, the voice of series protagonist Travis Touchdown, also returned to reprise his role. Other than Downes, Steve Blum was cast to play the role of Badman, while Kimberly Brooks and Kathryn Fiore reprised their roles as Shinobu Jacobs and Bad Girl respectively.

Suda has stated explicitly that he does not look at Travis Strikes Again as a proper sequel to No More Heroes 2. Though it is set in the same continuity and follows from the events of that game, Travis Strikes Again is more of a new story that marks the beginning of a new chapter for Travis. According to Suda, it serves as a stepping stone on the road to No More Heroes 3, which he has stated he hopes to make, should Travis Strikes Again prove to be successful.

Travis Strikes Again was intended as a throwback to retro style games, with Suda wanting to emulate them through the games used within this game itself. Additionally, the game also collaborates with several indie titles of the industry, including the likes of Hollow Knight, Shovel Knight, The Messenger, Hotline Miami, Ruiner, Serious Sam, and many more. This collaboration takes the form of in-game t-shirts worn by Travis. Suda explains this as Travis being a fan of indie games himself, which is meant to reflect Suda’s love for indie titles too, who also views his studio Grasshopper Manufacture as a small indie team.

Travis can also wear an Unreal Engine 4 t-shirt in the game, which is not only the engine that Travis Strikes Again is built on, but within its story, the games within the games are built on as well. The same was done with agreement from Epic Games, the creators of the Unreal Engine.

Travis Strikes Again launched both, physically and digitally, with the game’s physical version being distributed by Nintendo. A season pass for the game was also announced, which would include two post-launch DLCs, which will bring new stages, characters, and scenarios. The first DLC will add Shinobu Jacobs as a playable character and bring a new scenario for Badman, while the second DLC will make Bad Girl playable, add a new stage for Death Drive title Killer Marathon, and add a new scenario for Travis.

At launch, all physical copies came bundled with the season pass and were sold for $40, but the players could purchase the game by itself through digital purchases, at a price of $30.

Story

Travis Strikes Again takes place seven years after the events of No More Heroes. Travis Touchdown has retired and is now middle aged, and lives in a trailer in a forest in self-imposed isolation, where he spends his time playing video games. Travis is tracked down by a former baseball player  who became a professional assassin- Badman, the father of Bad Girl, whom Travis killed during the events of No More Heroes 1. Badman tracks down Travis for vengeance and attacks him, but the two are transported into the Death Drive MK-II, a video game console that was being developed by Dr. Juvenile but was cancelled during development. After learning that playing through and beating each of the six games on the Death Drive MK-II grants the winner one wish, both Travis and Badman set out to find, play, and finish the six games.

Gameplay

Travis Strikes Again differs from both Nintendo Wii No More Heroes titles significantly. While its predecessors were third person hack and slash action adventure titles, Travis Strikes Again is a game that mashes up several genres, and mostly calls back to retro titles and is usually played from a top down isometric perspective, while still usually featuring hack and slash elements.

There are six games within Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes that Travis and Badman must play through, and they all represent different genres, camera perspectives, and gameplay styles. These six games are “Serious Moonlight”, an AAA style open world title, which is the biggest of the lot; “Golden Dragon GP”, a story-focused racing game; “Electric Thunder Tiger 2”, an isometric hack and slash title; “Killer Marathon”, an arena survival game; “Life is Destroy”, a puzzle horror game that will has action cutscenes; and “Coffee & Doughnuts”, a 2.5D side-scrolling game. Each game also comes with its own final boss fight that players must surmount in order to beat it.

To gain access to these games, Travis and Badman are required to track down and retrieve physical copies of all six of them. This is done through a text adventure style retro visual novel within the game, called Travis Strikes Back. Travis Strikes Back is a dialogue heavy experience, and players often have to return to it to find the copies of the Death Mark II games, called Death Balls, in order to progress. Beyond such activities, players can also take some time off in Travis’ trailer, where they can interact with his cat Jeanne, read articles and blog entries about Death Mark II games, eat ramen, swap Travis’ outfit, or purchase new shirts for Travis, which are all collaborations with hit indie titles.

Combat in Travis Strikes Again is mostly hack and slash, and makes some use of the Joycons’ motion controls, but comes with a few notable differences from previous No More Heroes titles. The biggest of these differences are skill chips, of which there are 24 in the game in total. Skill chips are all named after Gundam models, and each come with their own special attacks and abilities, such as being able to call in an orbital airstrike on a bunch of enemies. At any given time, players can equip four skill chips, one each on a face button on the Switch. Travis Strikes Again can also be played co-operatively with one extra player, with one player taking control of Travis, and the other taking control of Badman. In co-op, players can combine to execute special attack moves that are unavailable in solo play.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

Travis Touchdown has been dormant for a few years, after a glorious time on the Wii some years back, but it’s time now for the eccentric antihero to make his return. Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, the sequel (but not really a sequel) to Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture’s popular hack and slash series, is out today on Nintendo Switch, and to celebrate that, a new launch trailer for the game has been released.

The trailer focuses on the aspect that seems to be the game’s biggest strength- its sheer variety. With a variety of in-game games to play through that span across several of genres, as well as an entire, separate retro-styled text adventure, with other ancillary mechanics and features to boost, there’s a lot to get into in Travis Strikes Again, and the trailer below gives you a good look at a lot of it. Take a look below.

In our review of Travis Strikes Again, we called it “a surprisingly full featured and fleshed out game” that fans of the series are sure to enjoy. You can read the full review through here.

In anticipation of its upcoming release, we’re going to take a look at fifteen vital pieces of information that we feel you should know about the game, which is looking quite different from what one might expect from a No More Heroes title. 

Now that the customary intro is out of the way, let’s get right into it.

THE SETUP

Travis Strikes Again takes place seven years after the events of No More Heroes 2, with a middle aged Travis now living in self-imposed isolation in his trailer. Meanwhile, he’s being hunted by an assassin named Badman, who wants to kill Travis for having killed his daughter, Bad Girl. Events transpire, and the two find themselves somehow transported into Death Drive MK-II, a video game console that was cancelled during development- Travis and Badman now race to play through and finish all seven games in the console, and whoever does it first will be granted one wish.

Yeah, that sounds like Suda 51 alright.

GENRE MASHUPS

What’s interesting about these separate games is that they’re going to allow Travis Strikes Again to switch things up almost constantly, genre-wise, with each game implementing ideas from different genres or styles. While the game overall is, of course, still a hack-n-slash title, the separate games within the game will have elements from racing games, RPGs, horror titles, adventure games, and much more.

THE GAMES

So what exactly are these seven games that Travis and Badman need to play through? While one of them has been kept a complete secret so far, we do know a few things about the other six. There’s “Serious Moonlight”, an AAA style open world title which is going to be the biggest of the lot; “Golden Dragon GP”, a story-focused racing game; “Electric Thunder Tiger 2”, an isometric hack and slash title; “Killer Marathon”, an arena survival game; “Life is Destroy”, a puzzle horror game that will have live action cutscenes; and “Coffee & Doughnuts”, a 2.5D side-scrolling game.

BOSSES

Of course, each of these games is also going to have its own unique boss to contend with. In their efforts to beat each of the games on the Death Drive MK-II, Travis and Badman are also going to have to beat each boss- presumably, given the wildly varying nature of these games from each other and the different styles they’re all going for, the bosses will also have a nice bit of variety to them.

NOT A DIRECT SEQUEL

As the name (and its very nature) implies, Travis Strikes Again is not a direct sequel to No More Heroes 2. While it is chronologically placed after the 2010 title, it’s also been designed as a game you can jump into without having played any of the previous two, and is not designed as a full fledged continuation of the series, more as a side experiment. Suda51 has, however, also stated that he looks at Travis Strikes Again as “a stepping stone” to a potential No More Heroes 3, so keep hope alive.

RETURNING CHARACTERS

That said, for fans of the previous two No More Heroes games, there’s definitely going to be some familiar faces to look out for. There is, of course, series protagonist Travis Touchdown, who is once again being voiced by Robin Atkin Downes. Meanwhile, Bad Girl, who we’ve already mentioned, will also appear in the game, while Shinobu Jacobs makes a return as well.

TOP-DOWN PERSPECTIVE

No More Heroes 1 and 2 were both third person action titles, but Travis Strikes Again is going to be completely different- in more ways than one. The most instantly apparent of those is its perspective, which has now switched to a top-down one. While the perspective might of course change depending on whatever game-within-the-game you’re playing, Travis Strikes Again is largely going to be played from a top-down perspective.

COLLABORATION WITH INDIES

Doubling down on the meta nature of Travis Strikes Again and the eccentricities that one would expect from Suda51’s works, the game will also pay homage to several indie titles. That will mostly happen in the form of Travis wearing t-shirts of several indie titles in the game itself. Travis, who is apparently a big fan of indie games, will wear t-shirts of various indie games.

UNREAL ENGINE 4

The game’s meta nature goes beyond that, however. Travis Strikes Again has been built using Epic’s Unreal Engine 4, and you’ll also see Travis sporting t-shirts of the engine in the game as well. Why is that the case? Because the games on the Death Drive MK-II that Travis and Badman will be going through are also all UE4 titles.

TRAVIS’ TRAILER

While the games on the Death Drive Mk-II are obviously the main attraction in Travis Strikes Again, that’s not where you’ll be spending all your time. At any time, players can return to Travis’ trailer, which serves as the hub where you can load up the console to play the games on it, or engage in several ancillary activities, or even purchase and equip new outfits for Travis.

TRAVIS STRIKES BACK MODE

Something else you can access from Travis’ trailer is “Travis Strikes Back”, which is, essentially, another game within the game (though not part of the Death Drive Mk-II’s lineup). Travis Strikes Back, which is an old school visual novel style adventure title, is not going to be a side activity though- this is where you’ll have to keep returning to find physical copies of the Death Drive Mk-II’s games, which you will, obviously, only be able to played once you’ve acquired their copies.

SKILLS CHIPS

A feature that is new to Travis Strikes Again is Skill Chips- there are going to be 24 Skill Chips in the game in total that players have to collect. These chips, which are all named after Gundam models, will each come with their own special attacks and abilities, such as being able to call in an orbital airstrike on a bunch of enemies. At any given time, players can equip four Skill Chips.

LEGNTH 

Given all the varied content that is going to be on offer in Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, one question many people have is- how long is it going to be? Developers Grasshopper Manufacture have stated that the game is going to be pretty much as long as the first two No More Heroes titles were, which would put it in the 10-15 hour range. Given its lower retail price of $30 (or $40, if you purchase the edition that includes the Season Pass as well), that seems like a pretty good deal.

TWO PLAYER CO-OP

Travis Strikes Again will also allow you to play through the game with a friend by supporting two player co-op. While playing co-op – which will, of course, support single Joycon support – one player will play as Travis, while the other will take control of Badman. There will also be attack moves in the game that will be exclusive to co-op play, which serves as added incentive to play with a friend.

SEASON PASS

As mentioned previously, Travis Strikes Again will also receive DLC after its launch, and as such, will come with a season pass, which will bring new stages, characters, and scenarios. The first DLC will add Shinobu Jacobs as a playable character and bring a new scenario for Badman, while the second DLC will make Bad Girl playable, add a new stage for Death Drive title Killer Marathon, and add a new scenario for Travis. While all physical copies of the game – which will cost $40 – will come with the Season Pass, those purchasing the game digitally can either spend that same amount to get the Season Pass, or spend $30 to buy only the base game.