Last week, after almost a decade since the release of No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, Grasshopper Manufacture and Marvelous Entertainment finally launched No More Heroes 3, the long-awaited return of Travis Touchdown. Renowned auteur video game director Goichi "Suda51" Suda has been making the rounds conducting interviews to market the game. During these interviews, Suda revealed various updates on the future of Grasshopper Manufacture, which is about to enter a new era following the release of No More Heroes 3. In this new era, Suda has claimed that he wants the developer to make a game based on one of Marvel's characters.
No More Heroes 3 was originally announced during Nintendo's E3 2019 Direct presentation following its tease at the end of Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, released in January of the same year for Nintendo Switch. Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes followed protagonist Travis Touchdown as he solved a mystery surrounding a canceled video game console known as the Death Drive Mk. 2. Suda51 confirmed last week that No More Heroes 3 will be the last in the series, as the rights to the franchise reverted to publisher Marvelous Entertainment after the game's release.
After announcing that the No More Heroes series would conclude with No More Heroes 3, Suda51 was asked multiple questions during an IGN Japan interview regarding where Grasshopper Manufacture will go as it moves on from the series. Suda confirmed that the studio currently has three new IP in development, even while he continue to work on smaller projects such as Hotel Barcelona, a collaboration between Suda51, Swery (creator of Deadly Premonition,) and Keiichiro Toyama (creator of Silent Hill/ Gravity Rush.) Suda also revealed that he "would love" to make a game based on a Marvel Comics IP, namely a game based on Deadpool or Shatterstar. He claims these characters would be natural for Grasshopper Manufacture to tackle, and also mentions the X-Men character Quicksilver as a possible character the studio would like to make a game based on.
Marvel Comics' parent company Disney has seemingly prioritized finding the right developers for its IP since the release of Marvel's Spider-Man in 2018, forming a subsidiary known as Marvel Games, which has brought titles such as Marvel's Avengers and the upcoming Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy and Marvel's Midnight Suns. The company has done the same with its Star Wars IP with the revival of LucasFilm Games, which is responsible for games such as Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the upcoming Indiana Jones game from Machine Games. Despite this, the only games to come from Japanese developers are Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, which were developed by Capcom and Team Ninja, respectively. The company has not yet taken much of an interest in Japanese developers, despite that Suda joins the likes of Platinum Games in developers who have shown interest in making games based on Marvel properties.
Should Disney turn its attention to Japanese developers in the near future, here's hoping Grasshopper Manufacture's on the top of the list of studios the company makes a call to, as a Suda51 Deadpool game sounds like a match made in heaven given the studio's past titles such as Lollipop Chainsaw and No More Heroes.
No More Heroes 3 is available now, exclusively on Nintendo Switch.