Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture are back, and in typical Suda form, are back with a game that is as typically fun and flashy as it is almost incomprehensible – just how I like it.
I first played Romeo is a Dead Man for a mere 15 minutes at Gamescom last August, and was immediately taken by it. Now, after a 2-hour hands-on preview, I'm all in.
Romeo is a Dead Man tells the story of the once near-death Romeo Stargazer, resurrected as a Dead Man by his Doc Brown-esque mad scientist grandfather to join the FBI's Space-Time Police to hunt down interdimensional time criminals, including but not limited to various iterations of his girlfriend Juliet.
You may be familiar with the concept of 'show, don't tell' when it comes to storytelling. Romeo, at least in its opening segments, rather opts for the method of 'show, and then tell', in an bid to make you understand what the hell is going on.
After a cutscene explaining how Romeo becomes a (or perhaps the) Dead Man, you're dropped headlong into the first level, with your grandfather, Dr Benjamin, reanimated as a patch on the back of your jacket, vaguely spouting exposition about what you're up to and why.
Once could certainly criticise the exposition-heavy opening as poor storytelling, but as with any Suda title, it's all pulled off with such overbearing style that all talk of substance feels moot.
In our Gamescom interview with Suda, in which he otherwise espoused his love for katsu curry, he confirmed that the main inspiration for the game was Rick and Morty, something which is immediately evident be it in the over-the-top humour or the time-bending interdimensional setting.
As someone that grew a bit tired of Rick and Morty after a couple of seasons, I was pleased to find that, while the humour may bear similarities to the show's brash and out-there comedy, Romeo has a real earnestness not found in the show's often dry and nihilistic world.
In terms of the core gameplay, if you've played any of the No More Heroes games, then you already have a strong grasp of Romeo is a Dead Man.
You'll progress through rather linear levels, hacking and slashing your way through hordes of enemies, occasionally whipping out a gun to blast away at a weak spot.
View Green Video on the source websiteThe combat centres heavily around Bloody Summer, a special attack which slices through any and all enemies directly ahead of you, immediately killing all but the strongest monsters.
It certainly doesn't offer the complexity of many other hack and slash titles (not in the first two hours, at least), so if you're looking for a game with plenty of skill expression, Romeo may not be what you're after.
That being said, it's good fun, and being able to swap seamlessly between melee and ranged combat, and further between four flashy iterations of both weapon types adds enough variety to keep you blasting your way through the levels.
The two bosses I fought are, thankfully, a bit more involved than your bog-standard enemy. Weak spots encourage you to make use of your ranged weapon where you can, while they repeatedly throw out an arsenal of single-target and area-of-effect attacks, forcing you to dodge regularly, instead of just spamming your attacks at their legs.
A nice touch is the hub world, the home ship of the Space-Time Police. Here, you can unlock new weapons, equip pins and badges for buffs, and take part in minigames to upgrade your stats or, naturally, cook katsu curry which can later be consumed for buffs.
Story and gameplay aside, perhaps my favourite aspect of Romeo is its presentation.
I said it in my interview with Suda, and I'll say it again; Romeo is a Dead Man is a delightful mishmash of different art styles, and it works so wonderfully.
From the more grounded visuals of the core gameplay, we careen away to a pixel art hub world, comic book exposition, rotoscoped cutscenes, and even practical effects such as blooming flowers or a miniature town.
When you die, you're shown a horrible little clip of a real-life model of a human head being melted by a flamethrower. If you're lucky enough to get a revive, you'll be shown the same horrible little clip in reverse as you come back to life. Now that's kino.
In a world where more and more games are trending towards a rather samey, realistic Unreal Engine 5 look, Romeo is a panacea, offering up a little bit of everything to tickle the senses in every which way.
I don't want to call Romeo 'style over substance', because there certainly is plenty of substance there, it's just dwarfed by the overwhelming scale of this game's style.
Like any Grasshopper game, Romeo is a Dead Man is certainly not going to be for everyone.
But for those of us freaks (you know who you are) who will pick up whatever Suda51 is putting down, Romeo is a Dead Man is sure to be a hit.
If you liked No More Heroes, I'm almost certain you're going to like Romeo is a Dead Man, and I can't wait to get my hands on the final build to see what unhinged action Suda and the team have cooked up for the rest of this game.
Romeo is a Dead Man releases on 11th February 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
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