It’s fairly common these days to see games developed, programmed, and animated by a single individual. But back in 2007, when video games first began entering the greater public consciousness as a respectable art form, solo-produced games had less notoriety. It would behoove gamers to look back at that nascent era and appreciate some of the well-polished titles that they might have missed back in the day. Swedish developer Joakim “Konjak” Sandberg’s breakneck sidescrolling shoot-em-up, Noitu Love 2: Devolution, has returned from the year 2007 to remind us of this history with its recently-announced 3DS and Wii U ports, which are coming early next year.
Noitu was slated for a WiiWare release back in 2008, but relationships between Konjak and his publisher fell through.
MP2 Games will now be handling the 3DS and Wii U ports. They will also be implementing touch controls that will emulate mouse movement from the original PC version of the game.
Noitu’s premise is simple: an army of evil robots from the past is attacking the city, and it’s up to agent Xoda Rap to beat them all into submission and uncover how they’re traveling through time. Players can use mouse or keyboard to zip around the screen, and can attack their enemies by rapidly clicking on them. Hitting multiple enemies in a row increases the player’s Combo meter, which can earn the player a better score at the end of a level. Levels themselves are meant to be completed as quickly as possible. This gives the game the feeling of being an intense boss rush, not unlike several games by Japanese cult legend Treasure, such as Alien Soldier, Gunstar Heroes, and Mischief Makers.
In fact, Noitu’s similarities to old Treasure games have often earned it the title of being a Treasure homage. Purportedly, Konjak has stated that he hadn’t even played a Treasure game at the time he was creating Noitu Love 2.
Konjak also released a trailer for the Nintendo E-Shop’s version of the game, which can be seen below:
You can currently buy Noitu Love 2: Devolution on Steam by visiting the link here. Those interested in visiting his website can do so by clicking this link. Here, you can find information on his upcoming game Iconoclasts, which was recently approved on Steam Greenlight.