Sylvia nearly did him in

Edge recently interviewed Goichi "Suda51" Suda about the making of No More Heroes, which was coincidentally timed quite nicely with my own article about the game a few days ago. The interview covered Suda51's inspirations for creating No More Heroes, the time constraints which resulted in a less-than-stellar hub world and a ditched boss fight, and the game's surprising popularity outside of Japan.

But perhaps the most intriguing part of the interview was the revelation that they originally planned to end the first game with Travis's death. Sylvia would have shot him after his final ranked match, but in the end, they decided her deadly charm was enough to keep him under control.

I wonder what would have become of the franchise had they followed through with their original idea? Maybe we would have never gotten the sequel. Of course, they could have still made a sequel starring a different character such as Henry Cooldown or Shinobu, both of whom were playable for brief portions of Desperate Struggle, but who knows how popular that idea would have been. I, for one, would love to play a No More Heroes game centered around Shinobu; she was awesome. No More Heroes 3, anyone?

The Making Of... No More Heroes [GamesRadar via GoNintendo]