Post by teddykongcountry on Oct 9, 2016 0:51:02 GMT
A vertical shooter on a handheld? Nice!
Although I've accrued at least a dozen scrolling spaceship shooter games between my consoles, I'm not all too proficient at any of them; that being said, I love playing them in increments because they really get the blood surging.
Nanostray is not one of those shooters that is going to have you on the edge of your seat but it's by no means dumbed down either. Difficulty is scaled for adventure mode based on the setting you choose and your ship can take damage from bullets but is out for the count when in direct contact with any surface. Because point bonuses and power shot refills emerge temporarily from destroyed vessels, it's tempting to move up on the screen to collect them but with a constant influx of surfacing enemies, your ship is always at risk of getting knocked out. Boss battles are a nice closure to each mission and are never going to frustrate you but they also don't scale approximately or happen to be particularly memorable.
Where Nanostray separates itself from the pack is in style and gameplay quirks. Stylistically, I would describe the game as smooth visually and in the audio department. Even for playing on a system that stretches the standard image ratio, the game looks really good. That impressiveness is in no small part due to the variance in environments and color vibrancy. The OST while by no means outstanding is highly consistent through the game and sure to make for a pleasant ride (I was going to post a track but nobody on Youtube seems to have uploaded a decent rendering of any of the songs).
In terms of gameplay quirks, there really are multiple ways to tailor the experience to your liking. Three of the four weapons fire forward thereby making them viable and each comes equipped with a separate nano-beam, missiles are a saving grace and will wipe out bullets on-screen and adventure mode and arcade mode work well in tandem and ensure repeat play. One of the pitfalls is that to switch weapons, you have to do so on the touch screen which can be difficult to perform without losing focus but that you can switch at all is great because I believe the sequel prevents it.
Altogether, I find Nanostray a delightful bite-sized shooter that is challenging but not difficult for the sake of being difficult (unless you want to talk about any of the challenges involving high scores in which case, forget it!). It's a competent spaceship shooter on the DS (of all systems) and there aren't many games like it for the system and beyond thus making it a welcome addition to my collection.
Although I've accrued at least a dozen scrolling spaceship shooter games between my consoles, I'm not all too proficient at any of them; that being said, I love playing them in increments because they really get the blood surging.
Nanostray is not one of those shooters that is going to have you on the edge of your seat but it's by no means dumbed down either. Difficulty is scaled for adventure mode based on the setting you choose and your ship can take damage from bullets but is out for the count when in direct contact with any surface. Because point bonuses and power shot refills emerge temporarily from destroyed vessels, it's tempting to move up on the screen to collect them but with a constant influx of surfacing enemies, your ship is always at risk of getting knocked out. Boss battles are a nice closure to each mission and are never going to frustrate you but they also don't scale approximately or happen to be particularly memorable.
Where Nanostray separates itself from the pack is in style and gameplay quirks. Stylistically, I would describe the game as smooth visually and in the audio department. Even for playing on a system that stretches the standard image ratio, the game looks really good. That impressiveness is in no small part due to the variance in environments and color vibrancy. The OST while by no means outstanding is highly consistent through the game and sure to make for a pleasant ride (I was going to post a track but nobody on Youtube seems to have uploaded a decent rendering of any of the songs).
In terms of gameplay quirks, there really are multiple ways to tailor the experience to your liking. Three of the four weapons fire forward thereby making them viable and each comes equipped with a separate nano-beam, missiles are a saving grace and will wipe out bullets on-screen and adventure mode and arcade mode work well in tandem and ensure repeat play. One of the pitfalls is that to switch weapons, you have to do so on the touch screen which can be difficult to perform without losing focus but that you can switch at all is great because I believe the sequel prevents it.
Altogether, I find Nanostray a delightful bite-sized shooter that is challenging but not difficult for the sake of being difficult (unless you want to talk about any of the challenges involving high scores in which case, forget it!). It's a competent spaceship shooter on the DS (of all systems) and there aren't many games like it for the system and beyond thus making it a welcome addition to my collection.
**** / *****
