61 Frames Per Second

In the past twelve months, much praise has been heaped upon Jon Blow for his time-bending platformer, Braid. Braid defies convention! Braid is an artistic tour de force that’s changed the gaming landscape forever! Jon Blow is mii mee mii mee mii mew! Hell with Jon Blow, I say! The man can’t even make a game by himself. He needs an artist and a musician to help him! Pfft. He’s no Joakim Sandberg, no siree. You want genre redfining platformers, Mr. Sandberg, also known as Konjak, is your man. He also happens to be the man.

I kid about Jon Blow, but I’m all too serious about Konjak. His game Noitu Love 2 was without question the most beautiful and adventurous 2D platformer to come out in 2008, and I say that as a man obsessed with Bionic Commando and Mega Man 9. Thing is, Konjak is responsible for literally every facet of the game, from its propulsive techno soundtrack, to the art, to the batshit insane action.

What’s he up to these days? Oh, just making a sidescrolling homage to Zelda called Legend of Princess. It is, as you might expect, awesome. LoP is only one stage long, but it’s a long stage and its production values are right up there with Konjak’s previous work. The most impressive thing about it is how the game recalls the Legend of Zelda games without directly mimicking them, right down to the melodies in the soundtrack. It’s particularly noticeable in one of the game’s boss fights. There’s a ghostly figure with a curved sword in the background (like the ghost knight from Wind Waker) and you have to trick him into lighting two torches to make him visible (recalling Link to the Past.) The figure’s revealed to be a pig-snouted monster, Ganon-style, who you can only attack after deflecting fireballs at him, much like you do in the classic Aganhim fight in LTTP. But it never feels overt, just knowing. It’s really something.

Play wise, Legend of Princess is a hoot, incredibly fast paced and challenging. You choose two items from the classic Zelda arsenal, each one rated by how difficult it is to use in the game. One item (boomerang, bow-and-arrow, bombchu) is for attacking and the second (Roc’s feather, cuckoo, hookshot) is to aid platforming. You’d be surprised how different the game is depending on which you use.

You can download Legend of Princess at Konjak’s site right here. If you’ve never heard of Konjak or Noitu Love 2, check out this classic 1UP Show interview with the man and bask in the glory.