Nanostray

The shoot 'em up is one of those 'traditional' genres of games that was popular back in the era when the arcade reigned supreme. Nowadays, their market is far more of a niche than before, but they still retain a lot of popularity with lots of people, many of whom enjoy a good challenge. The shoot 'em up genre as a whole doesn't let them down in this respect, and neither does Nanostray.

The game thrusts you straight into the action with no story gracing the book, case or cartridge; according to the website you are taking control of a man with amnesia (which he incurred during a blast to the side of his ship), but if you're expecting this story to be examined anywhere in the game you can forget it (the bad pun police are on the way...). Instead, you're simply set off on your eternally vertical journey through space and told to blast away to your heart's content, destroying flying saucers that are presumably your enemies, as well as various robotic beasts, such as flying multi-segmented snake/dragon combos

 

Pre-rendered backgrounds greet you as you switch on, helping to create a visual display that is certainly no letdown. By utilising this type of background it has been possible to make the DS display graphics that could be mistaken for Dreamcast quality on first glance

 

It must be made clear that the gameplay is exceptional, but it is undeniably flawed. It is an unquestionably exhilarating experience, with the bass-heavy music pounding at your eardrums while wave after wave of enemy pour out at you, but what is questionable is how much better the game would've been if it took advantage of the DS' unique hardware traits. Being a vertical shooter it might have been a given that it would be the first game of this type to take advantage of an extra large play area because of the vertically-stacked two screens, but sadly this is not the case. Instead, all the action is cramped up on to the top screen; in a bizarre twist, the game is possibly improved due to its uneconomical use of the dual screens, as everything is much more frantic as you scramble for life on the top screen.

The poor touch screen is relegated to be a kind of 'control panel' containing a radar, energy bars and weapon selections - presumably this is to make gamers feel more involved in their role as the pilot. We never used the radar because if a second was spared to look at it our faces were torn off by vicious space creatures

 

While the main mode is quite short and may be completed relatively quickly (though the levels are all pretty difficult until they've been practiced a fair few times), Nanostray is immensely replayable. You can go back to try and best your scores and improve your techniques, but there are also Challenge and Arcade modes to stretch out the life of the game. Challenge mode proposes that the player complete specific missions while still trying to survive, while Arcade mode is a purely score based affair. Upon completion of an Arcade mode level, a code is generated which can be entered into the official website to rank you in online worldwide league tables, though sadly, as the game was finished well before the WiFi connection was sorted out, these must be entered manually on a PC. The two player mode is also quite fun, if a little limited; it might have been better to have a co-op mode that spanned the entire game, rather than being limited by points or time. Next time, eh?