No More Heroes returns with Travis Strikes Again

Turns out it's actually a collection of six games and indie games have been the main inspiration.

A couple of years back Suda Goichi (Suda51) told Gamereactor in Barcelona that No More Heroes 3 could still happen in in 20 years, but he was pulling our leg: it will happen much sooner. Back in January of this year he teased the return of his most beloved character, and last night it was officially unveiled under the title No More Heroes: Travis Strikes Again.

That title, already present on Travis' t-shirt in the teaser, leaves the NMH franchise in the background, perhaps due to licensing stuff (or cause it's more of a spin-off or reboot). This is an exclusive for the Nintendo Switch and will be out in 2018, in time for the tenth anniversary of the series' debut in the West on the Nintendo Wii.

Other than Touchdown there are several familiar faces in the development and publishing side of things, but also a noteworthy exclusion. In this sense, the most important return is Suda himself, as he comes back to the director role after five years taking care of more executive tasks. Besides, the Grasshopper Manufacture game is published by Marvelous Interactive (the company, at the same time, turning 20), which leaves GungHo out of the equation (on paper) after the Japanese giant had absorbed GhM to create Let it Die. Finally, Shirogumi is adding to the visual department.

With this scheme, somehow Suda managed to get back to the more independent, more 'punk' if you will, ways to develop this project. In fact, the only thing revealed so far about its content is that it actually comprises six different indie games, developed by six teams from the scene, each one, of course, with a final boss. But in order to get a better presentation and homogeneity, it all runs on the Unreal 4 Engine for Nintendo's console.

In the first trailer below, which still has no in-game footage but includes a good bunch of references (such as that mocking node to Stranger Things), you can see Travis playing Hotline Miami next to a Switch t-shirt, as an arrangement by Supercombo of the legendary Masafumi Takada's main theme plays in the background. Geek jokes, swearing and laser sword are back: