Nanostray 2

May 9, 2008

In Nanostray 2, Shin'en has addressed the most critical of the flaws that pulled down the original Nanostray, added a few new twists and turns, and produced a solid game that'll please anyone who digs this type of classic arcade shooter.

Certainly the most important upgrade -- and definitely proof that Shin'en reads the reviews and listens to users -- is in the game's control. Rather than restricting players to the touch screen, Nanostray 2 offers a trio of control setups, one that does away with touch altogether and two more that are touch/button/d-pad hybrids. Our favorites are the hybrids, one of which is thoughtfully geared for lefties.

Seems that Shin'en may have been right all along about this touch-screen thing. Although you do have to work to keep your fingers from partially obscuring the screen, the truth is that your ship responds much faster and is much more exacting when being led about with a stylus. And rather than selecting weapons with the touch screen -- a clumsy process in the original game -- Nanostray 2 allows you to arm your ship in advance before each level. You can also adjust, on the fly, the positioning and the firing orientation of each of your surrounding attack drones, a nifty idea because enemy logic and patterns vary so wildly from one minute to the next.

Nanostray 2 is very much a top-down affair, but unlike the original, there are no weird orientations or angles or invisible boundaries to screw things up. Moreover, the game breaks free of the strictly vertical formatting of the original. Now, the action shifts from vertical to horizontal and back again, often several times in one level, a concept that serves to keep things fresh.

Shooter veterans, however, should know the drill. Like most games of its ilk, Nanostray 2 is all about pattern recognition, memorization, repetition, and perfection. The enemies are relentless at times, working in conjunction with some seriously tight obstacles and passages to keep you transfixed to the screen, shuffling your ship hither and thither almost inhumanly fast. The trick is to learn what's coming up next so you have that extra millisecond to deal with it. Though twitch skill is a huge prerequisite throughout the game, the only way to get through it is by playing and experiencing situations over and over.

Likewise, the foreground/background perception problems of the original Nanostray have not abated. To be fair, the developer has once again faced the arduous task of portraying 3D environments in a 2D game within the 2D DS platform. And for the most part, Shin'en has done a credible job. Enemy ships, for example, look comparatively small and distant and are incapable of shooting or being shot until they're risen to your plane. But just try flying over your first city, where towering buildings rise into the sky but may or may not be tall enough to cause a collision, without misjudging the height of several of them. Again, you'll need to replay such levels several times and rely on your memory to get through unscathed.

Though not a long game by today's standards, Nanostray 2 is crammed full of enough stuff and enough entertainment value to easily justify the price. Apart from the game's central Adventure, quick bursts of Nanostray havoc can be had in Arcade mode, where you'll jump immediately to any of the levels you've already cleared in the Adventure, and in Challenge mode, where you're presented with a wide variety of certifiably insane one-off, goal-oriented missions (such as collecting a set number of tokens or merely surviving ten seconds) that don't appear elsewhere. Pass enough Challenges, and you'll unlock one of four "Simulators." Each Simulator, in turn, is a standalone mini-game based loosely on a popular arcade-style game.

Wireless, multiplayer Nanostray takes the form of a single-card "Duel" mode, a multi-card Duel mode, and a multi-card cooperative Adventure mode. Is the Nanostray format an ideal arena for multiplayer gaming? Not really, for the simple reason that the screen's confines usually seem too tight for one ship, never mind two. The DS Wi-Fi capabilities come into play only when you want to upload your high scores to the game's online leaderboard and then recoil, horrified, as you realize just how bad you really are.

Considering you'll revisit most levels multiple times and that you'll encounter the same obstacles and the same enemies at the exact same spots every time you do it, it's a very good thing that Nanostray 2 is fun. Damn fun, and very addictive. The weapons, the scenery, and the challenges are imaginative, the close-quarter combat is exceedingly difficult at times but never unfair, and the sights are pure eye candy. Even the audio, which includes 30-plus tunes, a ton of sound effects, and credible voiceover work, is impressive. If you enjoy this type of game, you won't find a much better example of it in the portable world.