{"id":15513,"date":"2016-10-17T00:01:09","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T00:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=15513"},"modified":"2016-09-21T20:55:42","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T20:55:42","slug":"noitu-love-devolution-wii-u-3ds-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/17\/noitu-love-devolution-wii-u-3ds-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"Noitu Love Devolution (Wii U, 3DS, PC)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NOITU_BOX\"<\/a>One of the things I like about reviewing games is learning about certain series that I would\u2019ve never had heard of before.\u00a0 This is a good example.\u00a0 Noitu Love was a computer game released in the mid-2000\u2019s, and Devolution is the sequel.\u00a0 It was actually released a good while back on PC, too, but now you can play it with touch screen controls on the Wii U and 3DS (Wii U version reviewed here).\u00a0 It\u2019s a 2-D action game that has a lot in common with 16 and 32-bit Treasure titles.<\/span><\/p>\n

The game series is set in the future, and in the first game, a madman takes over with his army of smiling robots called Grinning Darns.\u00a0 A green-clad fighter in a peacekeeping organization defeated him, and nobody heard from the madman since.\u00a0 Hundreds of years later in the second game, the Grinning Darns have come back, and time periods from the Wild West, Feudal Japan, and more have been appearing in the city.\u00a0 You play as Xoda Rap, a member of the same peacekeeping organization from the first game, and it\u2019s up to you to save the day!<\/span><\/p>\n

As Xoda Rap, you move left and right, duck, and jump with the D-pad.\u00a0 But the rest of your actions use the touch screen.\u00a0 Tap on an enemy and you\u2019ll dash toward it.\u00a0 Keep tapping to attack. You can swipe on the screen up, down, left, or right to perform special attacks like dashing and spinning.\u00a0 Tap on certain hooks to hang onto them, and rub the screen to make a handy shield.\u00a0 You can do other things, too, by holding on the touch screen, like charge shots and throwing enemies.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The game really reminds me of classic Treasure titles like Gunstar Heroes and Silhouette Mirage, but it\u2019s most like another title on the GBA called Astro Boy: Omega Factor (which is actually my favorite Treasure game).\u00a0 And like those Treasure titles, you\u2019ll fight spectacular giant bosses here.\u00a0 Like in one battle, you must step on certain piano keys to make hammers drop on a boss.\u00a0 In another, you must fight a robot dragon while running on a water wheel rolling down a river.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll also be chased by a steam locomotive that can transform into a jogging bipedal mech!<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, this title also has a lot of Treasure game shortcomings as well.\u00a0 One problem I have with Treasure games is that most of them are way too short, and only feel like half a game.\u00a0 At only seven quick stages, this game feels the same way.\u00a0 Also, many Treasure games are way too hard, and while I was able to make it through this new game, I couldn\u2019t beat the last boss.\u00a0 Don\u2019t you hate that when you make it all the way though a game and can\u2019t beat it because the last boss is too hard?<\/span><\/p>\n

And while the controls worked better than I thought they would, there were times that they didn\u2019t.\u00a0 I could never get the hang of throwing enemies, and sometimes I\u2019d tap-tap-tap to attack and my character would dash instead.\u00a0 I think that\u2019s one of the reasons why I couldn\u2019t beat the last boss.\u00a0 I like to play action games on a big screen, so that\u2019s why I played this on the Wii U.\u00a0 But I think it might be better to play it on the 3DS, since you\u2019re directly tapping on the screen where all the action is.\u00a0 I guess you could do that on the Wii U as well, and I certainly did, but it felt more jarring that way.\u00a0 Also, you don\u2019t have to play the first game to enjoy the sequel, but things in the second game make a whole lot more sense if you know about the first one (I actually watched a video of someone playing the first game before writing this review).<\/span><\/p>\n

But other than that, I still had fun learning about this game and playing through most of it.\u00a0 If you enjoy classic Treasure games and can look past the shortcomings, you should definitely check this one out as well.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"NOITU_SCREEN\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Noitu Love Devolution is rated E-10 with an ESRB descriptor of Fantasy Violence.\u00a0 While you do punch, kick, and zap enemies, you mostly battle just cartoony robots.\u00a0 Reading skill is helpful for the text, and younger gamers may find this game too difficult and may need help.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the things I like about reviewing games is learning about certain series that I would\u2019ve never had heard of before.\u00a0 This is a good example.\u00a0 Noitu Love was a computer game released in the mid-2000\u2019s, and Devolution is the sequel.\u00a0 It was actually released a good while back on PC, too, but now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15513"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15515,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15513\/revisions\/15515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}