No More Heroes (video game)

No More Heroes is a 2007 action-adventure game developed by Grasshopper Manufacture for the Wii. The game was directed, designed, and written by Goichi Suda, also known by his nickname Suda51, and is the first installment in the No More Heroes series. The game follows Travis Touchdown, an otaku who wins a beam katana in an auction, from which he inadvertently becomes involved in the United Assassins Association and forced to kill assassins higher in rank to prevent them from targeting him.

Gameplay takes place across linear stages with Travis killing enemies and fighting the ranked assassins using a mix of hack and slash combat with his beam katana and an assortment of pro wrestling moves, as well as the open hub town of Santa Destroy where he can take on part-time jobs, assassination contracts and other activities to earn money to upgrade equipment, purchase items or pay the necessary fee to participate in more fights under the UAA.

No More Heroes was released by Marvelous Entertainment in Japan in 2007, Ubisoft in North America and Rising Star Games in PAL territories in 2008. The game was met with generally positive reviews from critics, with its gameplay, writing and soundtrack receiving high praise, though its perceived repetitiveness was criticized. The game had a muted Japanese launch and ultimately sold 40,000 units in the region by February 2008. The title was comparatively successful in North America and Europe, and sold a further 208,000 copies in the former. No More Heroes was quickly regarded as a cult classic, remarked upon for its offbeat narrative and distinct style, as well as for its unconventional standing as one of the few mature games among the Wii's casual-oriented library.

An enhanced port of the game, titled No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise, was released in 2010 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with additional content in Japan. Unlike the original, the international version of the game was published by Konami, and only the PlayStation 3 version of the game was localized in English. A port of the original Wii version developed by Engine Software was later released for the Nintendo Switch in 2020, and for Amazon Luna and Windows via Steam in 2021. The game was followed by three sequels: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (2010), Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes (2019), and No More Heroes III (2021).