Noitu Love 2: Devolution is fun.  Pure and simple.  The story is nonsensical, the action is non-stop, the graphics are 2D with stylish, larger than life sprites, and the music and sound can be compared with taking a power-drill with a 3/8" drill bit to your own skull.  It's akin to those classic Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and Sega Genesis action games that made absolutely no sense but were laden with so much addictive engagement that they kept us coming back again and again.  They were fast, fun, frantic, and frustrating at times, but beating games like this just made you feel good.  NL2 is definitely one of those games and it exudes a certain nostalgia that reminds me so much of other great action games such as Contra, the Megaman series, and the Metal Slug quintology.

Running, jumping, fighting, and using super powers are part of the repertoire in any action game and NL2 has these in spades.  There are very few moments when you aren't attacking and destroying something.  Some of the early enemies can become a little repetative but there are several huge boss battles throughout every level to break up the monotony and this is where NL2 truly sparkles.  All of the bosses in NL2 are inventive works of art and seeing each of them for the first time is truly an awe inspiring spectacle.  The last time I enjoyed an action game like this was when Arcade games only cost a quarter to play.  That's a pretty impressive feat for a 2D action game, especially an independently developed 2D action game.

NL2 has a very unique look to it.  The graphics a little pixilated and seem dated compared to the newest titles on the market but they are also so stylish and charming that it's easy to fall in love with them.  The main character(s) and enemies all look great but the truly amazing looking moments in the game are when the player encounters a boss, any boss, because they all look fantastic.  The sound fx on the other hand are very simple and reminiscent of all those old console games to the point where I'm glad there have been great advances in game sound.  The same can also be said about the music.  The sound and music aren't bad by any means, but like its classic brethren before it, the sound and music in NL2 can become annoying and start to grate on ones nerves.  This is especially noticeable when you have to play a level over a few times.  At the very least, Noitu Love 2 stays true to the style and awesomeness that could be felt when playing all of the most popular action games back in the day.

The controls are not very difficult to wrap your head around and if you've played a First Person Shooter on the PC in the past decade you'll be right at home with the default control scheme.  Running and jumping is done with either the arrow keys or the WASD keys, while attacking and special moves are done with the mouse.  One of the more unique elements in Noitu Love 2 is that the mouse not only provides a method for attack it acts as an aiming reticule or crosshair which the player can hover over enemies or special areas in the environment to further manipulate characters and objects.  It's an uncommon feature in such a straight-up action game but it works very well.  It would have been nice to have some sort of optional game-pad functionality as well but to try and implement a way to both control the main character and utilize the aiming reticule with any intuitive results would have been understandably difficult.  Newcomers might find the control scheme a little awkward and funny at first although it won't take long to tell if this is your type of game or not because you most gamers either enjoy fast paced, hair-raising action games, or they don't.

When all is said and done, Noitu Love 2 provides the adrenaline rush needed to create a great action game experience.  Beating the game isn't the only reason to finish it, players receive ranks and scores depending on how fast and how well they performed within each level and there are numerous extras to unlock and secrets to discover such as extra characters, extra boss battles, and more.  There have been very few great, fast paced, 2D action packed games released on the PC for almost half a decade now and NL2 brings back to life a genre that was once loved and had thrived in many of our living rooms a decade or so ago.