i'd always heard of NMH2 as the worse sequel to 1 that shouldn't have been made, that suda wasn't even involved and it shouldnt be canon and that it's so bad and like, sure a few of those are true but i wouldn't say they're at all negatives, i prefer this game over the original in almost every aspect and i think it's one of grasshoppers overall best titles and one that actually helps fix some of my bigger issues with the studio, plus i think it has a lot to say in its own right, being an interesting commentary on both the original game and with its critisism of the idea of sequels in general, being a sequel that feels like it actively hates that it exists at all

usually i wouldn't go straight into talking about the music but here it feels warrented, this is the best grasshopper OST and that's saying something considering how good the music to the first two silver case games are and even the original NMH and games like shadows of the damned, it's full of some of the best songs in the medium and philistine, the pal version anyway, might just be my favourite song in any game, the boss themes are almost all amazing and kill or be killed is a level theme at the top of top tier, there's so much here that builds on the motifs of the first games OST (there's also a specific remix of the original games theme here with the outer rim mix and it's amazing) and outshines almost everything in it. if you want the OST highlights to check out: philistine is the best song on the OST and a song i've used before in a previous article about grasshopper, kill or be killed is super catchy and jazzy and by far the best level theme in the game, sling shot is a perfect opening boss theme, nathan is our boss is a pretty perfect fit for his fight and also one of the somewhat rare rap songs i enjoy (just not my genre, daoko and the hypmic bands are cool though), the upside is an all timer shop theme, dose of innosence is the other best boss theme and it's a shame it's for an optional fight, it might be my third favourite track on the whole OST, it sounds right out of FF15 to me it's so perfect and burning daylight, the level theme leading up to it, is also fantastic. sleepy house over yonder, this games remix of we are finally cowboys, debt free, no more no, it's really not a stretch to call this one of the best put together soundtracks in the medium, it's that good and well worth listening to outside of the game itself, it's the standout here.

the gameplay is more of the same as the original, mostly basic hack and slash hallways in fun locations using either buttons or waggle depending on what version you're playing but they added some extra beam katana's with a large heavy one that deals a lot of damage but is very slow, a green one that's super fast but with less damage and a duel wield set that i tended to main, it had the most fun moveset and it just made the combat a ton of fun for me, you can have 2 big combo strings per weapon but you can also put in punches and kicks which lead into instakill wrestling moves which ads a good bit of variety to the combat which is good beause the game can be a little repetative with how samey the weapons can feel, it does shine in the games boss battles though which are the clear focus here, there's a ton of them and they're mostly really fun and cool (except a few that are intentionally bad but those are cool in their own way) and i'll talk about them all seperately because there's a ton of highlights here, but they add a lot to the game. the other big change apart from the new weapons is the changes to the overworld..... in that it's gone, entirely, here you just do your sidequests ,which are all based on classic games rather than being in engine minigames and they're all really fun, especially the pipemania one and revenge missions which are just extra fights and these get you money for your weapons and stat upgrades at the gym, which also uses a fun retro minigame, though this one was very difficult for me, especially the rhythmy one, i do have to admit that while i love the retro minigames i wish the overworld was still here, sure it felt annoying to traverse but i think that was the point? but considering the rest of it i feel like its removal was also a bit of intentional commentary, maybe on sequels removing mechanics or something, i don't know. it's on the longish side too, at least for a game like this, you have all the sidequests if you want to do them but the main line which takes you through all the bosses as travis, plus the really cool shinobu missions and a boss fight playing as henry which was a highlight, both have their own movesets too and i think they were a great addition, will bring you about 7-10 hours at least on normal.

the bosses and their levels are mostly really cool, shopping malls, bars, haunted houses that are a whole horror themed level, banks and supermarkets, you get to see tons of cool places and while most are just straightforeward hallways you do get a ton of variety and the game looks and sounds so good that they all end up being interesting to walk around, you'll rarely get board of a level here unless the game intends for you to like with the apartment blocks. the bosses are also great, mostly really fun to fight (except for the biker and the end boss though the latter is very much part of the point) and a lot of them are very immediatly iconic, i think margaret and alice are two of the coolest designs grasshopper ever made and some others like nathan, cloe and ryuji also just look cool, also skelter is hot, like, god i wish he had more screentime, i know its part of the joke but *come on*. sure there's some lesser fights here like charlie and his actually really cool mech fight or the amazingly named MILLION GUNMAN, but they're mostly all at least fun to fight if not all that interesting otherwise. margaret, vladomir, mimmy and cloe i think were my favorites to actually fight, fun movesets and not super difficult to beat, mimmy even gives you a playable henry for the fight which is really cool, though i do have to admit the bosses here aren't as instantly iconic as many of the ones from the original, bar personal favourites like margaret, alice and skelter, but honestly as a set of designs i might prefer this games, there's a lot less ickyness with the games female cast here, sure it still has its issues like with how it treats sylvia and alice's design is still really horny, plus it's super crass as you'd expect but with grasshopper you really have to take any wins you can here. it plays around with the boss structure too, the shinobu and henry levels and the fact it skips over a bunch of fights by just, spoilers i guess, having henry kill a ton of them offscreen as a joke, it has a lot of disregard for its own structure as a sequel, in general the game kind of hates that its a sequel.

it's a sequel that basically doesn't want to exist, it hates itself and by proxy you for even wanting it, it hates travis as a character, the structure and it wants to annoy you, it'll tease and then deny you catharsis, especially in that ending that intentionally ends with an anti-climax and the final levels have so many enemy waves that it becomes intentionally boring to play some of these levels, it's all commentary, on the tedium of sequels and the tedium of killing, commentary on the original game too, farther critising travis for his actions and actually giving him consequences (though not enough of either) and the hero fantasy (batt is basically a mockery of the whole thing) and bringing back some of its characters more or less as jokes, it wasn't even made by the same director, suda not doing much and the focus being on Nobutaka Ichiki who worked on things like their samurai champloo game and fatal frame before this, and after it was involved in things like shadows of the damned, killer is dead and the 25th ward remake, you could maybe even see this as commentary on being made to follow up a game that the director himself maybe didn't want to make, forced to follow in the shoes of someone else in a project he didn't make, idk, you could see it that way. it's still an interesting story on its own, a revenge tale about how revenge has no climax and that people just get hurt in the process, people who in this game maybe don't even deserve it, versus the psycopath troupe of the first game and you see how his actions in the first game effected the world as a whole, it's all really neat and i think in many ways i might prefer it to the first game, in general i think i like this one more.

for ports your main options are the wii and the switch, neither one is massively better but i went with switch this time around, though forewarning it is the more exensive version since you will either have to track down the limited run games version or an import version that comes bundled with the first game, it looks a little better but it's not worth the more expensive price unless you really want it portable. for a long time this was the last game in the series and in a way i think it hit harder that way, but we would get the spinoff travis strikes again in 2018, a top down hack and slash, and we'd also get a full on sequel with NMH3 in 2021 and both of these were super well recieved, so that's nice and grasshopper in general are doing pretty healthy, not every game has been a hit, i have my own issues with games like 25th ward, let it die and black knight sword but it's hard to deny they had some real quality hits in there like lollipop chainsaw and shadows of the damned and i would say this is one of their hits, it's a great game and it's got one of the best OST's in the medium, it's middle of the road with its length but it won't take you a ton of time and grinding is super minimal here and beyond a few spikes like batt jr and the bike boss it's on the easier end, i fully reccomend it if you liked the original, though it is required playing to play this one and if it didn't endear to you then this one likely won't either, but it did to me.