Travis Strikes Again might feel small in scope and ambition, but that's intentional. After Let it Die, Suda asked GungHo, the Japanese developer that acquired Grasshopper in 2013, whether he could return to his roots and work on a project with a smaller team. The director had been inspired after meeting a range of independent developers including Jonatan Söderström and Dennis Wedin, the creative force behind Hotline Miami. Gungho agreed and Suda rebooted Grasshopper with just five people. "There were some outside staff," Suda told Engadget through an English interpreter, "but the core team [at first] was only five people."

Originally, Travis Strikes Again wasn't going to be set in the No More Heroes universe. But when the Nintendo Switch was unveiled in late 2016, Suda realized the hardware would be perfect for Grasshopper's hibernating hero. He then tweaked the storyline to center around Travis and, hopefully, build excitement for a potential numbered sequel.

I can't recall a single dick joke, or suggestive cinematic, during my half-hour playthrough.

Travis Strikes Again retains the wit and humor of the No More Heroes franchise. It's clearly self-aware, with endless jokes that poke fun at gamer culture and conventions. In the opening world, for instance, Travis encounters a manifestation of the sentient console -- two figures, Death and Drive, connected by an assortment of cables. They start explaining the rules of world until Travis cuts them off and says: "You talk too damn much. This is what sucks about games these days. It takes too long to finally start playing."

Notably, Suda seems to have dialed down the titillation, too. I can't recall a single dick joke, or suggestive cinematic, during my half-hour playthrough. If the entire game is like this, I'll be glad. The dialogue leans on expletives instead which feel, somewhat ironically, more mature for Travis.

From the jump, it's obvious that Travis is familiar with the games he's playing through. Partway through my demo, the lightsaber -- sorry, beam katana -- wielding assassin encountered a boss called Electro Triple Star. Instead of cowering in fear, Travis exclaimed: "Triple Star! I know you! I played that [game] for days in the arcade. The industrial monster designs were badass!" Suda says Travis is the type of person that would love to be called a "hardcore gamer." He'll always pick the hardest difficulty, even if he struggles and eventually drops down to an easier setting.

The game, then, is an exploration of video game tropes and cliches. Suda's interpreter explained: "All of the commentary in the game, and the way things are depicted... Suda always wants it to be from Travis' point of view. It's Travis looking out toward the state of games now, and the video game industry. So whether some things appear as light jokes, or whether they seem to have a deeper meaning to them, that's all from Travis."

At one stage, Suda was considering a bunch of levels inspired by specific indie games. He dropped the idea, however, because communicating with every indie developer and getting clearance for his wacky ideas would have taken too much time. Aside from Hotline Miami -- a byproduct of his close friendship with Wedin -- all of the collaborations are restricted to t-shirt designs. Suda says the game will also have a bunch of cameos from older Grasshopper titles, both inside and outside the No More Heroes universe, to celebrate the studio's 20th anniversary next year.

The levels will sometimes feel repetitive, or have a section that feels unbalanced.

Most of the worlds are loosely inspired by arcade classics instead. Suda wanted to recapture the mystery and intrigue of games such as Galaga that captivated him as a child. That means the levels will sometimes feel repetitive, or have a section that feels unbalanced. Some will also have surprises that break genre tropes and conventions. "He wants there to be some element of natural surprise," Suda's interpreter said. "Positive surprise, to a lot of the games. Where people think it's going to be one thing, and it turns out to be something else entirely."