Let's Talk About: Noitu Love 2

Instead of the (for some reason) popular Let's Play, I decided to go with the title, "Let's Talk About" pretty clever, eh?

...Yeah okay.

ANYWAY. Noitu Love 2. Noitu Love 2: Devolution is the high-speed action game sequel to the very short-range and methodical Megaman-style game, Noitu Love and The Army of Grinning Darns, both created by Joakim Sandberg. While I can say that I never did finish the first Notiu Love, I tore through its sequel like a chippy tearing into a lobster and had a blast doing it. "But hold on a second!", you might think, "Noitu Love 2 was released in the spring of last year! Isn't this review a tad tardy?" Yes, that is true, the game's been out for a long time. However, the new price attached to it has NOT been out all that long.

Noitu Love 2 is $10 US now! (And here I paid $20, it was money well spent though.) That's as much as an XBLA arcade game!

But enough about the new price, let's talk about the actual game some more. From the get-go, the frenzied movement and attacking of the game's protagonist Xoda Rap reveal just how much Mr. Sandberg has improved in his game development and design abilities since the first game. An ingenious combo of the mouse and keyboard make for a control style that really feels at home on the PC. Left click to attack and home in on enemies, use the WASD to move and perform special movement techniques (slide, duck, "double jump") and use the right click to summon a sheild that is actually quite imparative to success in more than one occasion. It works incredibly well and it is almost mind-boggling that the control style is not nearly as widely used in PC side-scrollers.

Trying not to dwell too long on the graphics and music of the game, both parts (especially the pixel art graphics) are composed with such a charm that the game really does feel like a lost 16-bit era classic of Treasure Ltd. caliber that happens to have a control scheme none of the systems of the day could have.

Each of the levels in Noitu Love 2 has its own distinct feel and, in several cases, foes to fight. Because of the pseudo time-travel plotline within the game, you will find yourself using Xoda to battle darns across many varied landscapes, from Victorian England to the wild west to a post-apocolyptic future. Each landscape stands out as seperate from the others, yet obviously feeling of the same world, despite the obvious time difference. Some stages, like the aformentioned wild west stage, have completely different control schemes!

Combat is by far the crux of the game. Every single grinning darn or other mechanical monstrosity that Xoda swipes into oblivion is entertaining to fight, from the weakest orange darn to the towering Omega Darn (depicted in the first picture of this post), the game is full of action and enough boss fights to really drive home the "Treasure-like" feel of the game.

And after all is said and done with Xoda Rap, the game still is not quite over. There are also unlockable characters to be played as, and their playstyles vary radically from Ms. Rap's homing beat-em-up action. Of the two unlockable characters, Almond is the most interesting to play as. Playing as him causes the game to become a lightgun/mouse-controlled platformer, as you click the screen to shoot at foes, move the mouse to the bottom of the screen to reload ammo, and right click to maneuver Almond places he simply cannot jump through. Rilo Doppelori plays more like the usual mouse-based side-scrolling shooter, which in this game is also supplimented by her WASD-based double-tap attacks and charge laser. Her storyline runs sort-of parallel to Xoda's, with her actually fighting Xoda in the third stage, and also her having a completely different final boss.

In short, Noitu Love 2 is a game that was well worth the price of admission when it was $20, and now that the game is $10, it is even more worthwhile to play. It is a maddeningly fast-paced action romp that oozes with charm and the feel of a bygone era while still being as tight and polished as any game of this era is expected to be. In the hunger for 2D side-scrolling action games is abound, Noitu Love 2 will definately curb your appetite.

Notes: Noitu Love 2 can be purchased from Joakim Sandberg's website at http://www.konjak.org/ for $10.

Pictures of game from Mr. Joakim Sandberg's website and used without permission.