Koruruto’s Spoon Devil ’tis a thing of wonder. Creator misi (lowercase intentional) of Q [keu] Handmade Games is no stranger to creating games with a sense of wonder. His last title, Ecolpit, was featured at Tokyo’s Sense of Wonder Night 2009 during the Tokyo Game Show. Don’t worry, the video is narrated bilingually.

His latest venture is illustrated in his blog as a battle between a horde of enemies and a witch, Koruruto, with her pet devil. The story goes like this: there was once a witch who kept a pet devil named Spoon Devil. The pet regrettably changed everything he came in contact with into something sweet. There also existed a queen who loved candy. She finally plotted to kill Koruruto and take the Spoon Devil for herself, and so she dispatched her troops to carry out her plans. The story takes place where now Koruruto and her pet must mow down the troops, taking out the monsters that lurk in the forests, hills, and tunnels as they travel to defeat the queen.

His blog then illustrates in photos and text (behind the photos) the events that transpire that make up the game. The text also describes the gameplay. The Spoon Devil is controlled by mouse. Koruruto is controlled by keyboard. She makes her way through the forest and tunnels. The last photo censors the appearance of the final boss. Big tease!

The innovation is not immediately apparent from the video below. Though the player controls both characters, both will auto-aim and shoot the enemy closest to them. Since Koruruto is the slower character, the Spoon Devil needs to vary between defensively killing enemies that get too close to Koruruto and offensively while gathering candy for score. While the game appears to be a bullet hell shooter, source Marcus Richert says it’s really a defensive tower game of sorts with Koruruto being the tower. The gamer must concentrate on evasion and placement of the two characters.

Creator misi blogged that he wants to move away from simplistic/geometric graphics and didn’t want to use a black background again (Ecolpit is black as night). He aims to release the full game as shareware.

The proof of the insanity is in the pudding, they say. Check out the gameplay:

Source: Q Handmade Games
Thanks to Marcus Richert for the tip!

Both games have sort of a covert SNK flavor to them, which comes across slightly in the design and greatly in the soundscape. The music and effects often have a King of Fighters feel, and with its mix of shooting, platforming, and humor Teppoman 2 will call to mind Metal Slug. Yet something about the game also also reminds me of P.O.W.: Prisoners of War — maybe the sounds, or how you recover weapons from enemies, or the limited ammo.

Anyway, Teppoman 2 brings a new perspective to the run-’n-gun by combining some advanced platformer elements and a slight stealth component.

The controls aren’t the most obvious thing in the world, and the game is largely in Japanese, so maybe we’d best go over those. To start with, you need to hit “shift” to progress every interstitial. So every time you get a blank screen and the words “LEVEL 1″ or what-have-you, hit the shift key.

Aside from the arrow keys, this is a two-switch game: jump (shift) and attack (ctrl). You open chests by hitting the down arrow. That thing right near the start — that’s a chest. Generally the game throws you a weapon at the start of every level. Otherwise, you can get one by sneaking up on an enemy and stabbing him.

Touching enemies doesn’t hurt you in itself, and enemies don’t notice you unless they’re looking at you. If you hide for a while, they will forget about you. Nothing to go crazy about, but it adds to the verisimilitude.

You also have some advanced techniques, pulled from a familiar vocabulary. Double-tap to run. Wall-jump the usual way. If you hit jump immediately after dashing, you do a curious glide move (which has some hidden uses). Each of the weapons has its unique uses; it’s not just a matter of finding the best thing around. And since each level is almost a slight puzzle, you will want to conserve your resources.

To progress, you need to collect keys and bananas; keys to finish individual levels, and bananas to move on past an area.

The game is punishing, though once you get a hang of its thinking things quickly open up. Also, every level you finish, you get another life. So that’s nice.

Almost more of a sketch, Nozumou brings to mind both Robotron and Asteroids. You’re a sumo, and you need to avoid larger sumo while bopping smaller sumo. As you bop opponents, you seem to slowly grow in scale. The board also contains four bowls of rice, or porridge or something; eat a bowl to quickly grow a bit. The over-the-top sounds and rocking MIDI soundtrack help to make the game more addictive than it feels like it should be.

You can find Teppoman 2 and Nozumou at the top of Ikiki’s archive here.