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[neptunes]

April 8, 2005 - German development studio Shin'en must live for the "wow factor." The team's been pushing Game Boy hardware since way back in the Game Boy Color days, but it was the Game Boy Advance where the gaming public really started to take notice of what this group of programmers, artists, and musicians could produce on the lesser portable hardware. The company jumped on the GBA early not only with an impressive set of audio tools that are still in use today, but also with one of the earliest games for the system during its launch window: Iridion.

Iridion was a real treat on the visual front because the team was pulling off graphical tricks and cheats to produce 3D effects on the hardware, and at the same time Shin'en also managed a pretty stunning audio soundtrack while all these visual effects were going on. The gameplay clearly took a backseat to the technical side of Iridion, which unfortunately made the game far more fascinating to watch than fun to play. Shin'en definitely redeemed itself with the sequel two years later; Iridion II brought back true old-school shooter action on the Game Boy Advance, all the while pushing some of the coolest visuals, audio effects, and soundtracks on the portable system.

The Nintendo DS is the team's latest frontier, and Shin'en's following up its Iridion series with an unofficial sequel: Nanostray, another futuristic blastfest that not only aims to tickle the old-school shooter fan in all of us, but also hopes to raise the bar of what people will expect out of the visual capabilities of the Nintendo DS hardware. Majesco recently sent us an early build of the game that's set for release later this Summer. This version only has three levels unlocked, but these three levels are plenty to show that "wow factor" the team's going for.

The design's very similar to existing vertical shooters, including the team's own Iridion II game. Nanostray is a strict 2D shooter where players weave left, right, forward and backwards on a fixed altitude, blasting enemies that zoom in from every conceivable direction. The focus here is pure adrenaline action, amplified by the programming's ability to display tons and tons of 2D and 3D objects on-screen, whether those objects are the enemies, the enemy's incoming projectiles, or your ship's over-the-top energy weapon blasts.

Read more @ http://ds.ign.com/articles/602/602770p1.html

 

[neptunes]

 

[Socreges]

Even in this early version, the game's strutting its stuff extremely well. The action is intense, impressive, and challenging as heck. It's not a cakewalk getting through the levels, that's for sure.

Hm, maybe I'll keep an eye on this one. What was Iridion's gameplay (quality) like?

 

[olimario]

Looks amazing.
Check out this video.

http://media.ds.ign.com/media/697/6...icle/602/602770/nanostray_040705_04_wmvds.wmv

and this one

http://media.ds.ign.com/media/697/6...icle/602/602770/nanostray_040705_01_wmvds.wmv

 

[aoi tsuki]

Looks hot, but sadly, this is one i'll wait to reach $15-$20 given my recent casual interest in shooters.

 

[OG_Original Gamer]

I'm feelin it.

 

[CO_Andy]

Hawt Dreamcast graphics.

 

[Mejilan]

Iridion 3D (I) sucked hard. Iridion II was very close to brilliant. A very good game.

Both have absolutely amazing soundtracks.

 

[Agent X]

Hm, maybe I'll keep an eye on this one. What was Iridion's gameplay (quality) like?

The original game was a very beautiful 3D space shooter, but somewhat on the challenging side, so a lot of people didn't like it. The sequel was also beautiful, but got rid of the original game's "behind the ship" view for a more conventional vertical scrolling shooter (though angled down slightly to give a 3D appearance), and was a better game all around. Iridion II still stands as one of GBA's finest games, in terms of gameplay as well as audiovisual quality.

This game (which bears some resemblance to Iridion II) is one of the reasons why I would consider getting a Nintendo DS.

 

[Culex]

Hot damn, those videos make this seem like it could be a killer shooter. I'm liking the music, too.

 

[Mejilan]

Actually, Iridion 3D didn't suck because it was hard (Iridion II was no slouch in the difficulty department, either), it sucked because the controls were crap and the gameplay was an uninteresting, unrefined mess.

 

[Kamille]

This one's looking like another must-purchase for my DS. Not that there's been many of those so far, but lots of great looking stuff is coming up this year.

 

[temp]

That looks really nice. I'm impressed with some of these DS graphics.

 

[GaimeGuy]

MINE

 

[Kojima]

Wow. That looks great. I mean, the game comes from Munich (Oktoberfest), so it has to be great ^_^

 

[nubbe]

Finally a REAL game for DS

 

[TekunoRobby]

Mejilan converted me; Iridion II was a damn fine game for the GBA. I'm really looking forward to this releases, those videos certainly show a great 3D engine is at play.

 

[Rlan]

This actually looks a bit like an old PC favourite of mine, Tyrian..

Is it any comparison?

 

[radioheadrule83]

For those who never saw the original footage with more locales and some bigger enemies/bosses watch this one:

http://media.ds.ign.com/media/697/6...cle/593/593721/nanostray_030405_01_wmvlow.wmv

Insiders can watch quicktime:

http://media.ds.ign.com/media/697/6...icle/593/593721/nanostray_030405_01_qtlow.mov


I'm really liking the look (and sound) of it more and more. I tend to get frustrated by difficult shooters and only play in short burts, so maybe the price will be hard to justify - but I'm sure I'll get it.

 

[Kiriku]

It looks good in movies (wish they would drop the second screen in the IGN movies though), apart from the horrible aliasing...but I guess that's because the picture is blown up + compression. The game reminds me of Raystorm, which is a good thing, music is OK too.

The game doesn't seem to do anything new/different at all though, apart from looking nice (for a DS game), but I guess that's OK as long as it plays good.

 

[Unison]

This actually looks a bit like an old PC favourite of mine, Tyrian..

I dunno how Nanostray plays, exactly, but Tyrian was awesome!

 

[3phemeral]

The water effect on that second video oli posted is amazing.

 

[Mejilan]

Mejilan converted me; Iridion II was a damn fine game for the GBA. I'm really looking forward to this releases, those videos certainly show a great 3D engine is at play.

What did I do? I've never played Nanostray...

 

[Jeff-DSA]

Yeah, this looks to be must-buy to me.

 

[ChronoMagnus]

I'm really liking how this gaming is looking.
+1

 

[Lyte Edge]

Iridion II was a great game, so I'll definitely be getting Nanostray whenever I buy a DS back. Iridion 3D sucked.

 

[Panajev2001a]

Great looking title.

 

[dbish]

Looks hot. When is this coming out? I need some more ds games like whoa.

 

[Jacobi]

Shin'en is always able to put out really beautiful graphics. The question is if it will play good...but the impressions sound good.

 

[oldskool]

I think it would have been cool if they used both screens as one giant screen, with your ship able to move between both. Game looks good nonetheless, I'll be getting it. With all this talk on how good Iridion 2 is, I'll need to look for that too...

 

[dbish]

Re-looking at the game and movies, one problem has arisen...is touching the screen the ONLY way to switch weapons? Because on the fly weapon switching on a touchpad means not enough time to use the stylus...which means touching it with my finger. Is it weird if that bugs me?

 

[Li Mu Bai]

Re-looking at the game and movies, one problem has arisen...is touching the screen the ONLY way to switch weapons? Because on the fly weapon switching on a touchpad means not enough time to use the stylus...which means touching it with my finger. Is it weird if that bugs me?

Yes, this is indeed weird. How much more simplistic could they have made the weapons switch? This is a beautiful shooter btw, when's the street date?