Developer Grasshopper Manufacture is porting over its well-received Wii game No More Heroes with a HD version destined for PS3 and Xbox 360.  The over-the-top, twisted-plot action game from Japan game creator Goichi Suda (a.k.a. Suda51) has a lot of unique elements going for it.  For one, it s essentially a reverse homage that channels U.S. cinema’s channeling of Asian cinema.  It also involves a half-Japanese, half-Irish lead character named Travis Touchdown who manages to ooze celebrity-cool while being a down-and-out, unemployed videogame fanatic.  And never mind that the game is essentially a series of sword fights involving ever-bigger swords.  The trailer for the HD-version, titled No More Heroes: Paradise, captures all of that.

Despite the unique IP, or perhaps because of it, the title may not make it to PS3 and Xbox 360 gamers here in the West.  Ubisoft had published the Wii title in Western territories, getting good critical reception but seeing only moderate commercial success.  After the game s slow start, Grasshopper Manufacture became one of the first companies to publicly question the viability of third-party software on Wii, a statement it later retracted as Nintendo stepped in to provide some support for the title and sales picked up.  Ubisoft is currently saying they don t intend to publish No More Heroes: Paradise.   Should the game s developer seek alternatives, they could look to Capcom’s approach with Resident Evil: Alternative Edition.   Capcom put that title s release in the West up to gamers, asking them to vote on if they wanted it and whether they’d accept it as a downloadable game.

Watch the No More Heroes: Paradise trailer at GameTrailers {link no longer active}.