Yo! Noid 2: Enter the Void

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Yo! Noid 2: Enter the Void
Developer(s) Dustin Bragg
Series Yo! Noid
Engine Unity
Platform(s)
Microsoft Windows
Release
  • Windows
    • WW: August 1, 2017
  • Remastered Build
    • WW: June 28, 2018
Genre(s) Platform
Mode(s) Single-player

Yo! Noid 2: Enter the Void is a freeware platformer fangame developed by Dustin Bragg and a team of indie developers for Waypoint's 2017 New Jam City game jam. [1] It was released on August 1, 2017, and received a remastered update titled Yo! Noid 2: Game of a Year Edition on June 28, 2018. [2] The game is a parody of, and unofficial sequel to, Yo! Noid , a 1990 platformer redesigned as an advergame for American audiences to promote Domino's Pizza.

Contents

Gameplay

The game is heavily based around fifth-generation console platformers, such as Super Mario 64 and Tomb Raider . [3] The game also utilizes movement options like wall running, wall jumping, and swinging and grappling with a Yo-yo item, and introduces gravity effects resembling Super Mario Galaxy 's planetoids, and puzzle platforming sections. If using a controller, the player can perform a pressure-sensitive dab move. [4]

Plot

The game's opening uses a live action FMV cutscene to show Domino's Pizza mascot, The Noid, getting his Yo-yo stolen. As The Noid goes on a quest to retrieve it, he finds himself in the Noid Void, a cosmic realm full of sentient pizza toppings and ingredients. The Noid learns that the Heavenly Spire, a leaning tower of pizza, has been stolen. With the denizens of the Noid Void living in a world without pizza, The Noid takes it upon himself to find the stolen pizzas and bring them back to the Noid Void.

Upon reconstructing the Heavenly Spire, The Noid climbs to the top to discover a dark room, with chains and television screens of a shadowed figure illuminating the space. The shadowed figure reveals himself to be 'Mike Hatsune', a blue-haired corporate official, who stole The Noid's Yo-yo and the pizzas that composed the Heavenly Spire. Mike tells The Noid that he is no longer a worthy mascot, and has been replaced with a new icon who can be a voice for people and pizza alike, calling the new mascot a "Vocal-Noid". Once the new mascot is released, Mike Hatsune threatens to erase the Noid Void for good. The Noid defeats Mike in combat, and Mike tells him that his fate is already set in motion, as the first domino has fallen, and his replacement is out for delivery. The room becomes overrun with visual glitches and cuts to black, as a digital voice says "Domino’s Pizza".

Development

Yo! Noid 2: Enter the Void was completed in one month, from June 30, 2017, to August 1, 2017. The name used on platform itch.io comes from Episode 58 of the Waypoint Radio Podcast, titled "Yo! Noid Was Ahead of Its Time", following one of the game jam's rules that the title had to come from a Waypoint Radio title. [5] [1]

The visual style of the Noid Void was inspired by the backgrounds of Will Vinton's Noid advertisements. [6]

The game's plot, including its antagonist Mike Hatsune, is based on vocaloid Hatsune Miku, and uses elements of the 2013 Domino's App feat. Hatsune Miku, a Japan-only food delivery app that gained notoriety in the west after its commercial, featuring president and CEO of Domino's Pizza Japan, Scott Oelkers, went viral. [7] The idea of a vocaloid replacing The Noid as a mascot comes from the discontinuation of Domino's Noid mascot in America. [8]

Reception and legacy

The game had overall positive reception, with critics noting its surreal, but lighthearted tone, but occasional brutal difficulty. [4]

The game was featured in Summer Games Done Quick 2018, as speedrunner AlucardX60 completed the game in 13:15. [9]

The game was featured on the WWAYTV3 news channel, as a review on the Gaming Trends segment, with critic David Lewis noting its surreal nature and work of love from fans. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domino's</span> American multinational pizza restaurant chain

Domino's is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain. Founded in 1960, the chain is owned by master franchisor Domino's Pizza, Inc. and led by CEO Russell Weiner. The corporation is Delaware-domiciled and headquartered at the Domino's Farms Office Park in Ann Arbor Township, near Ann Arbor, Michigan. As of 2018, Domino's had approximately 15,000 stores, with 5,649 in the United States, 1,500 in India, and 1,249 in the United Kingdom. Domino's has stores in over 83 countries and 5,701 cities worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Noid</span> Animated antagonist

The Noid is an advertising character for Domino's Pizza created in the 1980s and briefly revived several times. Clad in a red, skin-tight, rabbit-eared body suit with a black N inscribed in a white circle on his chest, the Noid is a physical manifestation of all the challenges in delivering a pizza within 30 minutes. Though persistent, his efforts are repeatedly thwarted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vocaloid</span> Singing voice synthesizer software

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<i>Yo! Noid</i> 1990 video game

Yo! Noid, known in Japan as Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru, is a platform video game developed by Now Production and published by Capcom for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was first released in Japan on March 16, 1990, and was localized in the United States to promote the Noid, the mascot of Domino's Pizza. The game is in Nintendo's PlayChoice-10 arcade series and was featured in the Japanese TV show GameCenter CX.

"Ievan polkka" is a Finnish song with lyrics printed in 1928 and written by Eino Kettunen to a traditional Finnish polka tune. The song is sung in an Eastern Savonian dialect spoken in North Karelia. It is sung from the point of view of a young man, about a woman called Ieva who sneaks out and dances the polka with him all night. The song is often mistaken for a traditional folk song, but the lyrics by Eino Kettunen are still under copyright. Later, a scat singing version of the song by the band Loituma was incorporated into the viral animation Loituma Girl. In 2007, the song was brought into worldwide popular culture through a cover sung by Hatsune Miku, with Otomania arranging the music and providing Miku's voice manipulation.

Saki Fujita is a Japanese voice actress from Tokyo. She sang the ending theme to the anime Tokimeki Memorial Only Love, "Kiseki no Kakera", (奇跡のかけら) along with Yuki Makishima and Yukako Yoshikawa as well as the opening songs for Working!! – Someone Else, Coolish Walk, Now!!!Gamble with Kana Asumi and Eri Kitamura. She is best known for voicing Akagi in Kantai Collection, Ayano Sugiura in YuruYuri and Yukari Kotozume/Cure Macaron in Kirakira PreCure a la Mode, as well as for sampling her voice for Crypton Future Media's Vocaloid, Hatsune Miku.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hatsune Miku</span> Singing voice synthesizer software

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaito (software)</span> Vocaloid software

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megurine Luka</span> Voice synthesizer software

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">MikuMikuDance</span> Freeware 3D animation program for Windows

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References

  1. 1 2 "New Jam City". itch.io. Archived from the original on February 12, 2022. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
  2. ↑ "Yo! Noid Was Ahead of its Time by DustinBragg, Levi Davis, Quade Zaban, Harrison Bright, breadotop, ompu co, Dozzyrok, Nick, myles, Baycunn". itch.io. Archived from the original on August 6, 2017. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
  3. ↑ "Yo! Noid 2: Enter the Void – Game Jam Build Download | Alpha Beta Gamer". www.alphabetagamer.com. August 7, 2017. Archived from the original on February 12, 2022. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
  4. 1 2 "Someone made a Yo! Noid sequel and it's shockingly good". Destructoid. August 4, 2017. Archived from the original on February 12, 2022. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
  5. ↑ "Waypoint Radio: Episode 58: Yo! Noid Was Ahead of Its Time". vicegamingnew.libsyn.com. Archived from the original on February 14, 2022. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
  6. ↑ Dominos Avoid The Noid 80's Commercial, archived from the original on February 12, 2022, retrieved February 12, 2022
  7. ↑ "A Truly Bizarre Domino's Pizza Commercial". Kotaku. March 7, 2013. Archived from the original on February 12, 2022. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
  8. ↑ "A void: The Noid". The World from PRX. Archived from the original on February 12, 2022. Retrieved February 12, 2022.
  9. ↑ Yo! Noid 2 by AlucardX60 in 13:15 - SGDQ2018, archived from the original on February 12, 2022, retrieved February 12, 2022
  10. ↑ Gaming Trends Yo Noid 2 Live Archive . Retrieved February 12, 2022.
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