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While this is true, this game shouldn't have been $50 to begin with. I'm never going to NOT recommend this title, but there's no way that I can feasibly tell someone that it's worth the full price with all of it's flaws(hardware induced or not).Originally Posted by SpoDaddy
Hell, let's break down a pros/cons list real quick so at the very least; the rest of the forum goers can get the info they need in a timely manner without having to read countless posts wherein people either bash it or herald it with no real reasons given:
PROS:
Well developed (and fun) characters. The look, mannerisms, and dialog between them is just pure camp. From the mysterious Sylvia(for her manic phonecalls), the tragic Holly Summers, Thunder Ryu and his constant requests for you to get naked( gonna get your ass clean ) or Jeane, the cat...every person will have their favorite character in this well developed world.
Awesome boss fights. Hands down some of the most fun I've had fighting(and murdering) random people in a long time. Each one has it's own fully developed character, be it a drunken blonde supermodel using a flaming baseball bat or a maligned superhero that likes to fire lazers out of his crotch guard - the personality is apparent in each one of these characters, and actually makes you wish you could play games AS them in their OWN little world
Intuitive combat system. Never once will you have to think about what to do. This makes the game pick-up-and-playable by anyone, but the amount of depth in the evade/guard/countering system keeps seasoned vets like myself intrigued(how do I kill guards faster, what technique works well on a boss, etc)
Large amount of collectibles for the complete-ist. Shirts, special moves, unlockable beam katanas, tons of buried treasure, trading cards(which on higher difficulties unlock development art), and more can keep someone busy for a good while if this is their thing
Most of the "side jobs" are varied enough to make them fun. Rescuing runaway kittens, defusing land mines, lawn mowing, bike jumping, etc. All quick and intuitive, while leading to something else for the player to do upon completion.
Smarmy humor, lots of pop culture references and random hilarity. F-bombs o plenty, porn references, pillow humping, dump taking, duke nukem forever, star wars, potshots at devil may cry and metal gear abound.
Upgradeable items and purchasable clothes/techniques add a small level of personalization. Make you're punk rock otaku look different with a huge list of t-shirts, glasses, jeans, jackets, and belts. Every selection is used in all realtime cutscenes - which helps personalize the character for the player.
Sandbox layout is straightforward and for a game on the wii, this is a good thing. Lots of people hate having to continually use their map to find out where to go, dodge massive traffic, back track, or deal with cops and other trappings found in the stock sandbox situation. Go out, get to where you need to go, handle your buisness. Simple, effective and efficient.
Replay-ability (via unlocking higher level difficulties) is a plus. Upping the difficulty results in new patterns for bosses, more cards to find, and an overall boost in challenge
CONS:
Horrible framerate (both when driving or when in combat with more than 3 people). This game consistently drops well below 30, and it shows that Suda should have either dumbed down something or just put it on a different system. It's really noticeable and anyone that plays it will wonder why a game that at it's core is a beat-em-up, has such issues with the framerate.
The aesthetic could turn people off. Stark black shadows, very 'weird' characters, and an overall originality could leave people outside of their comfort zone. I loved it personally, but I can easily see how this could deter some people from playing it.
Sandbox layout is void of life or anything to do outside of collecting Lolikov Balls or digging for treasure. While you have this huge expansive world, there's nothing in it other than stores and mission points.
Side Jobs often result in simplistic "fetch n quest" mini games(coconuts, kittens, scorpions, land mines, etc) that are essentially the same thing with a different objective. Pick up cat, pick up scorpion, pick up landmine, pick up coconut, pick up trash, etc. There's only a few original ideas in the entire lot of these minigames, and most will be happy that they are short and aren't required to be played over and over.
Assassination side jobs are all "kill people/get paid" with stipulations that usually don't change the gameplay at all. Go there, kill some baddies, earn money. Repeat. Repetition at it's finest example, and it's forced upon the player as they need to earn money to pay the entrance fee for each assassination fight. The tedium when building money is readily apparent when traveling from K-Entertainment to Assassination Side Job, then back, and out again, and back...
Pop-up as you explore Santa Destroy is horrible. Even when on foot, lolikov balls, pedestrians, flora(including TREES) and fences just come out of nowhere. The pop up is so bad that in some cases it forces the player to go out on foot when searching for hidden items as if you were to drive past them (and I did this to check on purpose), the item either doesn't appear AT ALL or appears less than 1ft before you are standing on it.
The frequency of loading coupled with the amount of time it takes to load can get frustrating (drive to area, 4 second load as you enter, do your dialog/menu selection, 4-15 second load as you leave). Nothing in this game is 'seamless', and in turn you sit through a punk rock riff and a load screen everytime you enter/exit ANYTHING in Santa Destroy.
Monotony kicks in when fighting hundreds of enemies before facing a boss. AI for the regular drones is fairly bad, as there have been many instances where I'm staring down 5-10 people and nobody wants to even take a swing at me. Some characters only use their 'unblockable' attack, which makes defeating them super simplistic, and even more just lay there and don't do ANYTHING until you're 3 feet away from. Now add to this that in some stages, the boss only takes 3-5 minutes to kill, while the actual murdering of drones that leads UP TO the boss takes 10.
MWF's Personal Beef:
No ability to go back and 're fight' bosses at your choice. Wanna take on Bad Girl or Letz Shake again after finishing the game? Fuck off. You have to play through the game again, from scratch. This is a major issue, as the bosses(and their respective stages) are what make the game interesting. Being able to go back and perhaps do timed runs on them would've added to the depth of this title ten-fold(ala Shadow of the Colossus). Giving each boss their own little playable mini game would've helped as well, as each one is fleshed out with a full fledged moveset...but that's neither here nor there. The point is that Suda missed a huge opportunity to expand the length of his game by not letting the player go back and re-fight the bosses at their leisure.
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