As in the original violent combat adventure game, the structure of No More Heroes 2 leads protagonist Travis Touchdown to battle a series of exorbitantly stylized boss characters in hand-to-hand combat, using his trusty "light beam katanas" and a complement of agile and effective grappling moves he learned as a lifelong fan of big-time wrestling. The combat uses motion-based controls, with players wielding Tavis' light saber-like weapons by swinging the Wii Remote. The adventure again plays out in Santa Destroy, a caricatured Southern California city that can be freely roamed and explored, full of bonuses and side-quests for players who seek them out. The sequel game's story picks up about three years after the original. Travis has dropped out of the deadly competitive United Assassins Association, and thus dropped down to a negligible 51st ranking. The enigmatic agent Sylvia Christel returns to entice Travis back into action, pushing him to slay his 50 higher-ranked opponents and reclaim his position as the top assassin in town. No More Heroes was conceived and planned by eccentric Japanese game designer Goichi "Suda51" Suda, who also created the original No More Heroes, as well as the GameCube's conspicuously unorthodox Killer7.