ANYTHING COES

Grasshopper's latest production is anarchic, bizarre, and perhaps its most coherent vision in years

- JON BAILES.

Even if you were skilful enough to avoid being killed in Romeo Is A Dead Man, it would be worth dying at least a few times.

Rather than the words ‘Game Over’ or ‘You Died’ being plastered across the screen, the action cuts to a model of Romeo's head, which rapidly dissolves into a red mess, accompanied by a horrifying scream. That's followed by a short animation in which Romeo's mother spins a large wheel like a game show host; you must stop it to receive some form of boost when you revive. Then the melting face sequence plays in reverse, Romeo's skin reforming. And it’s back to the action.

It's a brusque interruption even when you know it’s coming — equal parts silly and horrible, and just not really the done thing. But then, that’s what we've come to expect from Grasshopper Manufacture. Leafing through the Tokyo studio's portfolio, we wouldn't say it’s full of classics — the original No More Heroes might qualify, perhaps Killer7. But if its work attracts middling reviews, that's not because the experiences are ordinary, or like anything else. They possess a unique style, which is why, seconds into June's announcement trailer for Romeo Is A Dead Man, we could guess it was a Grasshopper game.

This identity is also one of the reasons that the main figures at Grasshopper, not only studio head Goichi Suda, have stuck around for many years. Ren Yamazaki, director of Romeo Is A Dead Man, who’s contributed to many of the developer’s titles, clearly feels that way. “One thing that makes [Grasshopper] special to me is that it’s a lot different from most other game studios,” he tells us. “We do things our own way. We’re able to try things you wouldn’t be able to do at other studios.”