How do you judge a game made by someone who makes games that aren’t really that good?  And what if they make their games kinda rough on purpose?

Welcome to the riddle that is Suda51, circa 2019.

You know the resume by now.  “Yeah, he goes for a Tarantino thing, but punk rock.”  That tells you the how of Suda’s work (the copious blood and criminal low-lifes, as well as the stark cel-shaded visuals and sometimes-rough gameplay choices), but not the why.

Why put an action game on-rails in Killer7?  Why make a sandbox with no toys in it for the original No More Heroes?  Because Suda takes this punk thing seriously.  To hell with your ideas on adventure games, he was out to set a mood in Killer7 with that fixed movement.  And he was having a laugh on the industry at large with NMH’s barren Santa Destroy, a commentary on the emptiness of GTA-style open worlds.  If you’re not in on the joke, his games suck.  If you grok Suda’s brand of raised-eyebrow design choices, they’re brilliant.

The same, of course, holds true in Travis Strikes Again.

Suda spends a good half-hour-plus on a zoomed-out camera perspective.  You either understand that it’s a homage to Pac-Man, or you think he’s crazy.  You either chuckle at the fourth-wall breaking meta-commentary in a section of text dialog that drags on past the point of comfort, or you actually do think that sort of thing ought to lower a game’s Metascore.  Both views are right.  Your willingness to play along with Suda’s auteur shtick will decide which side of the fence you end up on.

Count me on the side that digs this sort of thing.  If you’re not, that’s cool.  Read no further; Suda still doesn’t make games for you.

If you’re still reading, that means you are at least interested in seeing if Suda can win you over this time out.  Before going further, one thing to get out of the way: I’ve read people saying TSA is too easy.  Those people didn’t play past the tutorial.  Then there are the folks who say this game is too difficult for its “limited” moveset…which means they aren’t creative and can’t play a game without Z targeting.  This isn’t a matter of subjectivity; both of those criticisms are objectively wrong.  This game bares its teeth after the tutorial (I put the difficulty mode down to sweet for a breather at various points).  And a “limited moveset” cannot exist in a game with light and heavy attacks, heavy combos, jump attacks for AOE, four specials, one ultra-special, dodging as an integral skill, and damn near magic management.

That isn’t to say the game isn’t repetitive.  Oh, it’s repetitive as hell.  Suda dresses things up for the sake of variety, but TSA is a brawler to its bones.  But think about it: all gameplay is repetitive.  You’re merely pressing a few buttons and pretending you’re somewhere else, which is the cloak of “immersion.”  This game?  Nah.  It makes you acutely aware of the act of pressing buttons; there is little room to suspend your disbelief.  The combat is about being fun and making you grin, not allowing you to subconsciously project yourself onscreen.

The first half of Travis Strikes Again is the most polished stuff Suda has ever done.  The back half introduces some enemy counters that hurt the balancing, (getting stuck in place as an enemy fires an automatic gun at you sucks, not being able to deflect with your beam katana sucks, eating an attack that cancels your special sucks, etc), but this game is still far more strategic than the other No More Heroes games.  You have to carefully choose your specials, and when to hit your jump-AOE – button mashing won’t save you.  And despite those frustrating encounters in the second half, I think the overall difficulty is fair.

The soundtrack is baller, the humor is gleefully absurd, the visuals are stylish as fuck.  You’re always aware that you’re playing a game within a game (sometimes within another game), but that’s the point.  You’re playing experimental software, just as Travis is within the game world.  One moment you’re in a neon wire-frame racer, the next you’re in an early Resident Evil mansion. The camera subtly shifts and takes you on a tour of the glories of classic genres.  Suda jumps from a side-scrolling platformer to an isometric view ripped from a MOBA*, then to a conventional over-the-head /3D-adventure view.  This is one of the more inventive games I’ve played in awhile, and I can’t wait to see what Suda has in store for No More Heroes 3.

…which will be a thing.  TSA took place in a trailer because it’s pretty much a 10-hour trailer for NMH3.

Until then, Travis Strikes Again stands as Suda’s high-water mark for overall quality.  Is that a good thing for a designer who traffics in rough ideas?  Kinda.  I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss the sort of grand statement that existed in the original NMH’s satire of open-world games.  But in its place is a leaner, meaner, funnier, game.

[*A brief note on the camera – if the whole game had the penultimate level’s camera, no one would have complained.  The sheep-level reviewers who spent years calling Metroid: Other M a “2.5D game” – because they don’t understand basic camera systems – are now moaning about zoomed out cameras here.  Apparently the Pac-Man homage escaped them.  It’s truly amazing how simply moving the camera perspective confounds some people.]