"A great game in a genre the DS sorely lacks in."

Developer Shin'en released Iridion 3D for the Game Boy Advance back in 2001, but it wasn't exactly the best game ever, despite being an amazing technical achievement on the portable. The sequel, Iridion II, completely improved on the game in every possible way, making for the best shoot em up on the system. Now, on the DS, Shin'en has put themselves in a similar situation. While Nanostray was decent, it wasn't exactly good, thanks to cumbersome touch controls and being a bit too easy, while on the other hand, it showed what the DS was capable of graphic wise. Once again, the sequel, Nanostray 2, improves on the game in a number of ways, making it a great shoot em up to have on the go.

There's a bit of a story here, there's a virus, the Nanostray virus, and out of all the people in the world, you're sent on your lonesome to stop it. Basic stuff here. Quick cutscenes between levels, complete with solid voice acting, drive what little there is of a story forward. You're likely not going to pay much if any at all attention to the story, but at least it's there so you're not killing stuff for the sake of killing stuff.

Nanostray 2 has all the basics of a shoot em up. You have your special weapons, including but not limited to, a laser, homing lasers, and bombs, you have waves of enemies coming after you, you have big bosses at the end of each level, and when you raise the difficulty level, more and more bullets to avoid. When going through the levels, you'll be armed with a basic attack, one special weapon, and two satellites which will help do some of your dirty work for you. Before you start each level, you'll be able to select your ship speed from one of three different speeds, which is sort of a compensation for the lack of analogue control. You'll also be able to choose which special you'll want to take along with you, as well as choose three different positions for your satellites around your ship, which you can cycle through in game.

There are 8 levels to blast your way through. You'll play an intro level, then select from 3 levels in any order, then another set of 3 levels in any order, then the final level. Depending on the level, you'll either be playing horizontally or vertically, as waves of enemies appear, and you shoot them down. Defeated enemies drop yellow coins that give you points. Defeating waves of enemies give you your satellites for the first two waves you destroy, and blue coins any time after that. The satellites appear at the side of your ship, and they'll shoot when you shoot, giving you either more firepower, or a better spread, depending on how you've positioned them. Using your special uses up a certain amount of energy, which it will tell you when selecting, from an energy bar. This energy bar can be replenished by collecting blue coins. In the middle of each stage, there's a mini boss, followed by a boss at the end. The bosses provide a good challenge, although it's hard to not see any inspiration from other shoot em ups in regards to boss or enemy design (one mini boss is practically a direct rip from a boss in Ikaruga, albeit simplified).

The game is no cakewalk either. There's some good level design here, which provides a legitimate challenge. While not on the same level as Contra 4 difficulty wise, it definitely approaches that. Like Contra, you don't get to save your game. You'll have 3 continues, and 5 lives per continue to beat all 8 levels. This sounds easy, but the game does prove to be a challenge, even on the easy difficulty. Veterans of games like Ikaruga might want to start off on the harder difficulties, where more bullets are thrown at you by the enemies and bosses.

The good controls help you get through the challenge. The lack of analogue control makes it impossible to change speed mid game, so you'll have to stick with one of the three speeds your given, the default usually being the best, although some people may prefer a faster speed to get out of tight situations quick. You'll use the D-Pad to navigate, the shoulder buttons to cycle through your satellite positions, and A and B to shoot and use your specials. If you want, you can switch over to the more precise stylus control. You'll drag your ship around with the stylus, tap to switch satellite positions, and use the D-Pad/Face buttons, and the shoulder buttons to shoot and use specials, depending if you're left or right handed. The problems with the touch control come with the person using it. If you're hands aren't steady, you might be better off with the D-Pad, especially in the harder difficulties. Also, your hand can get in the way of the action, which isn't ideal. If you can work your way around those, touch control is solid.

Every time you play a stage in the adventure mode, you'll unlock it in arcade mode to play and try to beat your high scores, like any good shoot em up should let you. There's incentive to do so as well, if you don't feel like beating your own scores over and over again, with Wi-Fi leaderboards. You can upload your score to the leaderboards to see how you stack up against other Nanostray 2 players.

There's also a challenge mode. This mode consists of 4 sets of challenges to complete. The challenges could ask you to survive a certain amount of time, get a certain score, kill a certain amount of enemies, and so on. Some of the challenges require you to fool around with the setting a bit before you start, so going in with the defaults won't always work. Every time you beat a set of challenges, you'll unlock a mini game in the simulator mode. The games are Nanobreak, a sort of breakout clone, Nanorush, which is kind of Star Fox like rail shooter, Nanotorque, an asteroids style game where you need to hit the same colour, and Nanogrid, where you'll need to draw lines around items moving around a stage to trap them. These are fun little distractions which add to the overall package.

Graphically, the game showcases some great looking 3D on the DS. The title screen alone manages to impress. The levels are all diverse and there's usually a good amount of stuff going on. The ship and enemy models all look great, although a bit generic. There are also some nice effects with the lasers and weapons. Sound design is equally impressive, with a solid soundtrack that fits the action with some catchy tunes in there, as well as an impressive array of sound effects and voice acting in between missions.

If you like shooters, and have a DS, buy Nanostray 2. It's not the most original or innovative shooter, but everything it does, it does well. The challenges and simulations add an extra little spice to the game, and online leaderboards will keep you coming back for more.

Overall - 8.5/10

Note: There is a multiplayer function in the game, which I have not managed to try out. Unless it's truly and absolutely horrible and breaks your game, chances are it won't affect the score given.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/14/08

Game Release: Nanostray 2 (US, 03/11/08)