E3: Nanostray Hands-On

Article by Brian Langlois

Any fan of old fashioned top-down arcade shooters shold appreciate Majesco’s Nanostray. In fact, as straight shooters go, Nanostray is one of the best and will make a great on the go game experience for Nintendo DS.

The first thing to strike me about Nanostray is that the graphics look very sharp. The backgrounds have a 3D look and the explosive effects really shine. Everything looks sharp and clear and the colors are vibrant. But most importantly the game is just really fun.

Nanostray‘s gameplay is tight and fast, and very challenging. There are multiple weapons that you can use right off the bat including a straight cannon, spreading shots, and a homing lightning laser that decimates targets. By using the DS touch screen to select weapons, the game offers a level of control above most arcade shooters. The touch screen contains icons for each weapon style, a radar and all vital information, keeping the top screen clear for action.

One cool feature of Nanostray is that a player can attract the myriad powerups that get strewn across the screen by holding the R Button to attract them to the ship. This means no more risky manuevers to grab that much needed power-up.

Nanostray looks to be a real gem in the plethora of DS titles here at the show. I hope to get my hands on it again and really give it a workout. I am greatly looking forward to picking this one up.mellem