Nintendo is all about helper robots, virtual puppies and adorable plumbers, right? Not when punk-inspired developer Suda 51 is behind a game. After adding a little ultra-violence to the kiddie-oriented GameCube with the visceral split-personality assassination sim Killer7, Suda’s latest No More Heroes for Ubisoft brings bloodshed to the Wii.

Known for wearing a lucha libra mask in public, Suda 51—his real name is Goichi Suda and in Japanese “go” means 5 and “ichi” is 1—started in gaming with 1994’s Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special, a Japanese-only game infamous for having its lead character commit suicide at the game’s end. It may not surprise you to find out that Suda was an undertaker before he got a job with gaming house Human.

Before Human shut its doors, Suda worked on the 1997 adventure game Moonlight Syndrome about a series of schoolgirl killings. It would be the first of his “Kill the Past” cult franchise, a series of loosely connected games (with recurring themes, locations and characters) that he developed with his own company Grasshopper Manufacture. These include 1999’s The Silver Case, a murder mystery you investigate as both a police officer and a crime reporter; 2001’s Flower, Sun & Rain, a Groundhog Day-inspired thriller about a detective trying to prevent a terrorist bombing at an airport; and 2005’s Michigan, a survival-horror title in which you play a news cameraman and earn “immoral” points for filming characters deaths rather than saving them (you can also earn “erotic” points for up-skirt footage).

Since Killer 7 was the first Grasshopper game to reach American shores, Silver and FS&R will be seeing Nintendo DS re-releases later this year but there’s no need to wait to get a chance to enjoy Suda’s DIY aesthetic. His company motto “Punk’s Not Dead” comes through in No More Heroes which is as far from a mass market commercial game as The Stranglers (whose song provides NMH’s title) are from the Spice Girls.  

You play as Travis Touchdown, an American animé geek (“otaku”) inspired by Jackass’ Johnny Knoxville who buys a beam katana (ie. a non-copyrighted light-saber) and starts working his way up the ladder to become the number one assassin in Santa Destroy, California. It’s gory as all get-out, (though the cell-shaded spurting artery animation is stylized) in its satirizing of post-Grand Theft Auto action game excesses. It also mercilessly mocks silly side-missions by making you collect coconuts, mow lawns and rescue kitties before each boss battle.

Anticipation should soar for his next project—Project S, a collaboration with Metal Gear Solid maestro Hideo Kojima reviving Konami’s cyberpunk Snatcher franchise—now that Suda has proven his dark, absurdist design style can also accessible.