No More Heroes 3 review – anarchic alien-killer goes out with a bang

Nintendo Switch; Grasshopper Manufacture/Marvelous
Ugly, unpolished and ultraviolent - Suda51's kitsch curio fires on all cheaply made cylinders

When it debuted on the family-friendly Wii in 2007, No More Heroes' shocking blend of extreme violence, meta-humour and profanity felt as if it shouldn't be allowed on a Nintendo console. While families played Wii tennis, No More Heroes had you saving your game with your trousers around your ankles in virtual toilets and making masturbation jokes with the Wiimote. Fourteen years later, Japanese auteur-creator Suda51 brings that same edgelord energy to Nintendo Switch. Noisy, abrasive and low-budget, this pulpy threequel feels as anarchic and cobbled-together as a video game can. At times, it's is so rough around the edges that it borders on being difficult to play. Yet for its creators at Grasshopper Manufacture, whose logo proudly proclaims that punk's not dead", that's kind of the point.

Despite the series' age, there's a schlocky, tongue-in-cheek energy coursing through No More Heroes 3, clumsily swaying between gushing pop culture tributes and satire - like a comedian after too many drinks. With parodies of everything from YouTube let's plays to anime mini movies, Suda51 has seemingly thrown everything in his head into the game's presentation - for better and for worse.