Rising Star Games has just confirmed that No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle will be hitting the UK on May 28th for Wii, having originally been due for a unspecified April release.

“We’re really excited to announce the official European release date No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle,” said managing director of Rising Star Games Martin Defries in the recent PR release, “The original became a cult hit on the Wii when it released four years ago and the sequel is set to attract an army of new followers.”

Although it doesn’t have a confirmed western release date, the  PS3 / 360 version  the original No More Heroes is out in Japan on April 15th.

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No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle has been out in the US for a few weeks now, but us Europeans have to wait a while before being able to experience Travis Touchdown’s second coming.

Make that a long while, because No More Heroes 2 isn’t set to be released in Europe until the end of April 2010. This was confirmed in a press release from Rising Star Games, the game’s European publisher.

“The first No More Heroes game fast built a reputation as a benchmark in the Wii’s capabilities, and was brave and bold enough to stand out from the crowd as an antidote to the glut of party games on the market for the console,” said Martin Defries, managing director of Rising Star Games.

So far the sequel seems to live up to the original’s reputation, receiving 5/5 from GameSpy, 9/10 from GamesRadar and an A- from 1up.

Thursday 11th February 2010: Leading videogames publisher Rising Star Games, today confirms that No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, exclusively for the Nintendo Wii, is on track to be released throughout Europe at the end of April 2010.

Soaked in slick graphic novel-style visuals, No More Heroes 2 is clever, mature and further validates the series’ reputation as one of the most original and unique games on the Wii. The story follows Travis Touchdown who now finds himself the 51st ranked assassin – placed at the bottom of the UAA (United Assassins Association) table. He has to fight his way back to the top, while seeking revenge for the murder of his best friend.

Legendary developer Suda 51 is naming No More Heroes 2 the game he’s always wanted to make – playing on the original’s strengths – complete with smart storyline, refined combat (utilising two beam katanas) and characters, and red blood. Lots and lots of red blood.

“The first No More Heroes game fast built a reputation as a benchmark in the Wii’s capabilities, and was brave and bold enough to stand out from the crowd as an antidote to the glut of party games on the market for the console,” says Martin Defries, managing director, Rising Star Games. “It was one of the few games on the Wii that truly deserved the undivided attention of gamers across all formats and No More Heroes 2 promises to take this to the next level.”

Accolades for a new IP on the Wii were impressive too. NGamer scored the original No More Heroes 94%, Edge awarded it 9/10, GamesMaster and GamesTM scored it 90%, and Official Nintendo Magazine gave it 88%.

In the US, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle continues to live up to the series’ expectations.

• 1up: “Leaner, meaner, and pretty much what an action game sequel should be” A-
• GamesRadar: “It’s one of the most relentlessly entertaining games to surface so far this year, and it easily earns its place as one of the best on the Wii” 9/10
• GameSpy: “A brilliantly twisted love letter to the videogame medium, scrawled in blood and pixels” 5/5

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle launches throughout Europe on Nintendo Wii at the end of April.

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More lulz from the ESRB was leaked onto the internet today, this time for No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. The ESRB write-up gives us a brief glimpse into the mind of Sude 51. And NMH2 seems to have upped the ante on No More Heroes to a substantial degree. Expect to see penises, decapitations, blood and other weird things, not to mention hilarious dialogue:

“The game contains sexual overtones and partial nudity. Players can watch portions of an anime show called Bizarre Jelly; the opening credits depict a female character whose clothes suddenly disappear, revealing her bare buttocks (one-to-two seconds). Game dialogue contains sexual references, including the phrases “dirty nympho,” “the one that’s throbbing,” and “I feel like that pervy teacher in a porn.””

So expect to have loads of fun with No More Heroes 2.

The entire ESRB rating can be read after the cut.

Players assume the role of Travis, an anime-watching assassin who fights his way through the ranks to become the number-one assassin. Being an assassin means using a retractable katana blade (i.e., a laser sword); it means slicing, chopping, and dismembering human enemies to death in this highly-stylized (somewhat “cartoony”), cell-shaded action game. The depictions of violence in the game are intense, yet somewhat exaggerated: men in black suits are sliced in-half as blood and money flow from their bodies; an assassin with a boombox does not recover after his lower torso has been chopped off—after blood shoots from his empty waist like a geyser; and two women (clad in bikinis) get suspended in mid-air, get caught between the flashing lights, lasers, and frenetic sword swipes of an assassins’ duel—the women’s heads slide across the floor once the men stop fighting. Cutscenes depict more dismemberment: assassins slicing each other into several pieces in slow-motion, enemies pulling their own heads off, characters displaying trophy-heads on silver platters. These over-the-top depictions of violence account for the Mature rating; they also account for the Intense Violence and Blood and Gore descriptors. The language is strong, too, as characters sometimes use the phrases “f**king a*shole,” “f**khead,” and “You gotta be sh**tin’ me!”

The game contains sexual overtones and partial nudity. Players can watch portions of an anime show called Bizarre Jelly; the opening credits depict a female character whose clothes suddenly disappear, revealing her bare buttocks (one-to-two seconds). Game dialogue contains sexual references, including the phrases “dirty nympho,” “the one that’s throbbing,” and “I feel like that pervy teacher in a porn.” Female assassins are depicted in low-cut tops, thongs, short schoolgirl uniforms, and fishnet bondage-style outfits; breasts and buttocks jiggle, and the camera often lingers (there is no equivalent physics applied to male body parts). A couple of cutscenes contain strong sexual innuendo: when characters enter a store, a surprised clerk struggles with his belt buckle and zips up his pants (e.g., “I was just. Uh, doing inventory.”); a woman moves a katana blade in front of a man’s groin, kneels down, and kisses it (the blade), causing the retractable laser to extend. The battery meter for Travis’s sword is always represented by a cartoon-like penis icon in the upper-right corner of the screen: as battery power runs out, the icon starts to shrink—a sad face appears.

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