Noitu Love 2: Devolution

Download Size: 13 MB

Time Played: 70 min.

Average Stage Grade: C

What I'd Pay: $5

Steam Price (4/23/12): $5

Well, that was a pleasant retro kick. Noitu Love 2 reminded me of playing Gunstar Heroes or Metal Slug, except the hero's a ninja instead of a gunslinger. You've got colorful sprites, tons of enemies exploding majestically, and some of the strangest bosses I've seen in a while. Although it was short, I had fun the whole way, and it has a combo & rating system for people who want to master it.

You play Xoda Rap, a Peacekeeper ninja that can destroy robots with your bare hands. There's plenty of robots to destroy, since they've invaded the city and begun reverting parts of it into copies of the past. The story's strange and takes a sharp turn at the end, but it's just an excuse to kill Castlevania bots, wild west bots, and speakeasy bots that attack you with giant gold watches.

You move with the keyboard & aim with the mouse. The interesting quirk is that if you click an enemy, you dash over to it and begin wailing on it. During the stage itself, you use this to chain combos in a furious advancing rampage. During the bosses, you can use it to quickly get in, beat up their weak point, and dash out before the big attack (with a skull & crossbones warning) is unleashed.

And oh, the bosses are gloriously strange. The tank-ship is the most mundane of the lot. I won't reveal too much about them, since being surprised by them is half the fun, but they nearly reach the heights attained by Gunstar Heroes' 7-form transformer and the boardgame boss. Not bad at all for a $5 game.

Once you beat the game, you also unlock an extra character that acts as a Gunslinger, but it had the same stages minus the plotline. I quit it after the 1st stage, but diehard fans will be happy to squeeze an extra hour or two out of it.

Overall, I had fun with this game the entire time, and it reminded me of some old classic side-scrollers in a good way. It may be short, but it's got quite a punch.