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Nano Assault |OT| A Disgusting Journey

DCharlie

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
I got a feeling (wooo hoooooooooooooo) that this might end up being hard to get down the line so i just ordered it from Amazon rather than pishing around.
 
C

Celine

Member
So the game is out.
First comment from PACIFICSUN0481 on IGN boards:

PACIFICSUN0481 said:
I just got back from the hectic Christmas arena, Known as Toys R Us, with my copy of Nano Assault. The game cost just $29.99. It also seems that you receive club Nintendo points, by registering the title (there is a club Nintendo code and slip in the case) online.

The box art is pretty sweet, it really stands out with the cool and warm purple hues.

I played the first 2 levels of the game, in story mode to get a brief rundown of the controls and visuals.

The visuals are really neat. The 3D looks pretty fantastic, better at 1/2-3/4 of the way up. It's got the same level of environmental polish as Star Fox, I'd say. It's really interesting to float around the cellular sphere-like levels. I do like how the story is presented too.

Control wise, the single analog is perfect and really makes navigating the ship feel perfect. The shooting is really interesting. I'm not used to it, but I can see myself growing to love these controls.

You fire in direction, using X,Y,B & A. One you get the hang of shooting in the spherical environment, getting a fix on which direction you're shooting - it really isn't too difficult or cumbersome. I wanted to also say, using the L trigger will change between 3 different types of blasts: regular shot, spread shot and more spread.

I went in depth with the controls, as some may or may not like to adapt to them. I'm fine with adaptation, because they make sense in the framework of the game.

The visuals look pretty sweet in 3D. It's an awesome game, so far. Well worth the 29.99.

The only thing, it's a little hard (3 lives per level so far) so, you won't be getting an Mario 3D Land forgiveness here. I can see myself getting addicted to do better each play through. Want to play it now again.
Click to expand...
 
D

DrAndonuts

Member
Celine said:
So the game is out.
First comment from PACIFICSUN0481 on IGN boards:
Click to expand...

I'm liking that more and more 3rd party games are getting Club Nintendo codes - just got Sonic Generations and that had one too. Hopefully that means Nintendo starts adding more prizes to the club.
 
C

Cow Mengde

Banned
I know this is going to sound weird, but I find it kind of mundane now that the 3DS has capable shaders compared to the Wii. What made their Wii games look so amazing is that they're able to do so many of these effects that you normally don't see on the Wii. For the 3DS, you don't really have to jump through hoops to get these effects to work.

That said, Shin'en is still putting more effort into their visuals compared to other 3rd parties when making their 3DS game.
 
D

DDayton

(more a nerd than a geek)
Hey, for anyone purchasing this... when you register it on Club Nintendo, would you PM me and let me know if you get the Early Registration bonus? We're trying to track the 3rd party Club Nintendo titles, and no one is entirely sure whether they get early registration bonuses or not.
 
M

marc^o^

Nintendo's Pro Bono PR Firm
Framerate scared me a bit in the trailers, that's the one thing I want to hear more about this game.
 
R

Raggytash

Member
Teknoman said:
Disappointed that he didnt touch on the music since all Shin'en games have great soundtracks.
Click to expand...


He touched on it briefly later on.

PACIFICSUN0481 said:
Updated impressions:

The game controls really superbly with just a single pad, believe it or not. I actually like the shooting mechanic (l trigger changes you blast shot, r trigger to launch homing missiles) XABY to fire in the direction you'd like, based on your angle/degree in the space of the bacterium spheres. It takes a moment to get used to, it does become second nature though.

I'm in the third set of levels, there's over 30 in total. So far, the missions are quite addictive. You can earn upgrades, bonus lives/nanites (your ship is a nanite) and other bonuses. The game is tough, in the way a shmup is, but it's fair and quite fun. Unforgiving, in a Dark Souls kind of way. You're punished for your carelessness and mistakes.

I can't say this enough: Nano Assault game is flat out fun.

The music is reall awesome too. The sound effects, work in conjunction with the amazing techtronic/trip hop vibe. You can even unlock the songs from the game. It's a neat addition and flows well with the entire presentation.

Visually, the game is THE best looking on the 3DS. The shaders, textures and mapping all look superbly beautiful. The colors are bright, vibrant - particle effects abound. The 3D effect looks smashing, some levels have more ghosting than others, therefore I turn it down some.

You can also use play coins to unlock various other things: music tracks, boss rush mode, an encyclopedia of every baddie.

I'm most impressed and can't wait to play again after dinner.

More impressions, from after dinner:

Never been a Shmup fan. I didn't get into JRPGs until Lost Odyssey. Nano Assault, might just have that same effect.

Man, oh man, Nintendo needs to enlist Shin'en NOW to make the next Star Fox. Once you play the flight/tunnel levels (I've never seen anything like this) you'll see what I mean.

The ideas, colors and visuals in these select levels, are worth $29.99 alone for what you'll see on the 3Dscreen.

This game just radiates "jaw on floor this looks Whoa!"...the game plays as well as it looks, once you get into it, it flows.

I will admit, I can't wait to play this and play this and play this some more. I don't know how Nintendo Power could award this a 7?!

I'm shocked. It's like Mario Land, in that I expected a passable game. This far exceeds a 7. I'm not even a shmup fan.

Best bang for your buck so far, on the 3DS.

I don't know how hard to find the game is, or may become? It's not a big pressing, I'll assume...

Toys R Us (buy 1 get 1 50% off) had 3 copies, one of which I bought. I live in the Capitol city of California.
Click to expand...



Any word on an EU release date yet?
 
M

MooMoo

Member
UPS just delivered it to my front porch! I'm actually pretty busy today (damn course work!) so I probably won't be able to play too much/give my initial impressions. This game does come with a Club Nintendo code (which was mentioned in the Club Nintendo thread) and skimming through the manual (yes, I read teh manual :p) it seems this game has a:

Story Mode
Arcade Mode
Boss Rush Mode (need to complete Story Mode first to unlock)
Nano Shop (Use Nano Coins to buy virtual items!)
Nanopedia (Gallery of all unlocked Nano Assault organisms)
AND
JUKEBOX (fuck yeah! Unless my memory is hazy, they stopped doing this with the Nanostray series so it's great to see this back again!).

Based on my reading, it seems Story Mode progresses very similarly to Nanostray; i.e. you have worlds or "Cell Clusters" and each world has thee levels or "cells." You need to collect the DNA sequences from each cell to progress forward/unlock new clusters.

I'm pretty sure this was also in Nanostray, but this game also has online leader boards.

Nano Coins for the Nano Shop are obtained through the Arcade Mode and the Boss Rush Mode. I'm not sure if Story Mode grants any Nano Coins. Nano Coins are used to unlock Nanopedia files and songs for the jukebox. You also have the option of converting Play Coins to Nano Coins. One Play Coin = One Nano Coin.

Nanopedia obviously lets you view the enemies from the game. It also lets you see what score they net you in the Arcade Mode for killing them. Furthermore, you can see what an enemies' shield power is.

Again, this is all pretty much from reading the manual, so hopefully someone else can provide a little more detail regarding the actual gameplay :p There's a few other things in the manual about powerups and stuff but I'm too lazy to type it up.
 
C

Celine

Member
MooMoo said:
snip
Click to expand...
Thanks for the initial (manual) look.
Hope more impression come in as time fly.

Cow Mengde said:
I know this is going to sound weird, but I find it kind of mundane now that the 3DS has capable shaders compared to the Wii. What made their Wii games look so amazing is that they're able to do so many of these effects that you normally don't see on the Wii. For the 3DS, you don't really have to jump through hoops to get these effects to work.

That said, Shin'en is still putting more effort into their visuals compared to other 3rd parties when making their 3DS game.
Click to expand...
It's not that there are many games on 3DS that cover everything with shader.
I expect Nano to be the best looking game currently available on the platform.
 
M

MooMoo

Member
Okay I lied. Screw course work :p It's a good thing games like this and MK7 have quick, small (but addictive) levels lol.

Anyways, managed to *almost* beat the first cell cluster (damn boss!). So here are my extremely quick initial impressions based on the first four cells/levels:

1. MENU SCREEN: Yes, this gets its own section. The default menu screen sort of reminds me of Metroid Prime 1's menu screen. It's not nearly as great and dynamic as MP1's menu screen, but it's the first thing I thought of when I saw it :p Although really, I'm only reminded of MP1's menu screen because this game uses a cell as its background image. That and the music haha. Hopefully I'm not being crazy here and someone who gets this game will agree with me :S

2. MUSIC: Music, imo, is freaking great; it definitely fits the vibe of the game. Not really sure how to describe it on a more technical/musical level, but I don't think anyone will be disappointed with the soundtrack.

3. GRAPHICS: Graphics are awesome :D I'm loving the whole atmosphere of the game too; fighting microorganisms is great. 3D adds a nice sense of depth too and is a welcome addition. For those not impressed with 3D in general, I don't think you'd be missing out on much.

4. FRAMERATE: As for frame stability, I *think* I experienced some moments of slowdown during Cell 4 of the first cell cluster; someone who gets this game should double check. It might just be because I'm sick right now and the way that the level scrolls around doesn't really help :p. If it really was slowdowns, it wasn't anything major. I've been playing explicitly in 3D more, so maybe that's why? Or it might be the way how the screen shifts slightly as your ship moves too, which could be giving me the notion that things are slowing down. Anyways, hopefully no one freaks out over this statement/someone else can confirm; I don't want to make this game sound not-optimized when it could just be a fluke of sorts or just bad judgment on my part. Also for those wondering what the FPS is (has this even been confirmed? o_O), my eyes lack the ability to easily discern the difference between 30 and 60fps, sorry!

5. GAMEPLAY: This game is more forgiving than Nanostray in the sense that with Nanostray (2), you were given a certain set of lives and continues and once you lost all of them you had to restart from square one. In Nano Assault, you're essentially given 3 lives per level and infinite continues; you don't have to worry about restarting from the very beginning. I don't think Nanostray 2 had checkpoints, but Nano Assault appears to have checkpoints. I died at the boss on cell 4 and instead of replaying the stage all over again I found myself rewatching the quick boss battle cutscene. To be honest, I'm sort of glad this game is a little more forgiving with the lives/continues; makes it easier/more tempting to jump in and play like crazy without having to worry about the negative repercussions. Otherwise, from the little I've played, the gameplay seems tight. The first couple of levels are intro-levels (i.e. really easy) but things quickly pick up by the fourth level/cell. There are basically two different types of stages: one where you traverse a cell and another that is more akin to Sin & Punishment. A little more about this in the following controls section.

6. CONTROLS: So when you're traversing a cell, you move with the slide-pad and shoot with the ABXY buttons. There are two control schemes for shooting; you can have it so that the ABXY shoots relative to your ship's position (i.e. 'X' will always shoot from the tip of your ship) or you can have it so it shoots relative to the screen (i.e. if the tip of your ship is pointing left, 'X' would shoot up, rather than left.). You can shoot diagonally by pressing two of the ABXY buttons simultaneously. Controls while playing the 'traverse the cell' portions are solid.

The other type of section is what the manual calls the "3D Action Shooter Flying Sections." This is similar to your typical sidescrolling shmups except you view your ship from behind and things scroll forward, rather than left to right. I definitely need time to get used to this though. You move both reticle and ship using the slide-pad and shoot with any of the ABXY buttons. You can change the sensitivity with regards to how much your ship lag behinds the moving reticle, but I haven't found it to be particularly comfortable. I would have preferred to have a button to hold to simply fix the ship in one position or maybe even have the slide-pad and ABXY move the reticule and ship independently of one another.

In either case, the left trigger toggles three different shooting modes (sort of like those satellite things in Iridion 3 or how in Nanostray you could adjust where your bullets originate from). Right trigger uses your special weapons, which of course use of energy. I haven't read or experienced anything yet about nukes (sad face) or sending your special weapons into overddrive, which is a slight disappointment.

As a side note, there's no virtual manual and I guess I'll just re-emphasize the point that you get Club Nintendo points :p

Anyways, I definitely liked what little I've played and look forward to blasting more nasty bugs.
 
T

Teknoman

Member
Looks like i'll be snagging this then. Now to figure out whether I want to grab Shinobi or Kirby Mass Attack as part of the 50% deal.
 
D

DrAndonuts

Member
Played through two complete stages/clusters. Here are my thoughts.

Gameplay:
Seems like each level is divided into 4-5 stages. The first 2-3 stages are the Super Stardust-esque sections. These have been fun so far, if a bit standard. The boss stages take place on a 2D plane - the 2 I've played have been challenging, and fun. The final stage of the level is straight up Nanostray-style, and these have been my favorite.

The Super Stardust levels are quick, usually lasting 3-6 minutes. The 2D boss fights run about 5. The Nanostray levels have been the longest (and most satisfying), going about 5-8 minutes. Difficulty has been tough so far, too, which I'm appreciating.

Music:
Awesome so far. Reminds me a lot of Metroid Prime.

Graphics:
Some of the best of the system. The 3D effect is a bit disappointing on the Super Stardust levels, but I don't see a way that overhead levels could look great in 3D. The 2D boss levels look great in 3D. The Nanostray levels look phenomenal, easily the best use of in-your-face 3D I've seen on the system.

Controls:
Fine so far. No complaints.

Overall, the game is great. I'll post more impressions later (maybe).
 
M

MooMoo

Member
Just a few more clarifications on level progression:
1. So each "cell cluster" (i.e. worlds) can have multiple "cells" (i.e. levels). I initially said that each cell cluster had only 3 cells but apparently not :p

2. Level progression and gameplay are split like this:
-There are basically three different type of cells: ones where you collect DNA sequences, ones where you collect microcodes, and ones where you establish "synapse links."
-DNA sequence cells are the stages where you will be traversing a cell and to simply beat the level it's as simple as collecting all the DNA sequences (no duh) as well as defeating all enemies. There are 3 DNA sequences for a given cell. I've only ran into this once, but it appears that if you happen to beat all the enemies BEFORE collecting all the DNA sequences, a countdown starts and you only have that much time to collect the remaining DNA sequences. I don't know what exactly happens if you don't manage to collect all of them before the countdown gets to zero, but my guess is that you pass the level rather than failing it. I don't know if the countdown will actually matter later, where the level should be harder, but I figure it was worth mentioning. On the flip side, if you collect all the DNA sequences first, you do NOT get a timer to defeat the rest of the enemies; so no worries there.
-(I've only played one microcode stage, so this might not apply to all of them)Microcode cells/levels are similar to the traversing the cell portions, although I actually think of them as a mix of both types of gameplays. Microcode stages appear to be the levels where you collect your secondary weapons and are like mini-boss battles.
-Synapse link stages are the "3D action flying shooter sequences" and are your full-on stages. At the end of the level, there's a boss (of course) and beating these levels allows you to progress to the next cell cluster. You require a certain number of DNA sequences to unlock the synapse link stages, however, so it's something to keep in mind while playing.
-As an aside to the DNA sequence requirements, they seem to be closer to the strict side. For example, by the time you hit the second cell cluster you'll need 15 DNA sequences out of a possible 16 you can collect.

Anyways, glad to see I'm not the only one who gets a Metroid Prime feeling from this game.
 
C

Celine

Member
EloquentM said:
For the resolution is running at. ={ the 3DS screen is of such low quality ={
Click to expand...
How is aliasing ?
:-\
any AA ?

Also can you check the manual who did the soundtrack? from the early samples it sound very good.

Is the targeting in the "starfox section" precise enough ? it seemed a bit clumsy in that video.

EDIT:
Didn't see DrAndonuts post ...
Thanks.
 
Y

Yuterald

Member
I'm saving this game for xmas. I will definitely be receiving it though so I can't wait! Glad to hear the impressions are pretty solid! Game looks so cool!
 
C

Cow Mengde

Banned
Celine said:
Some gameplay preview footage taken by PACIFICSUN0481:
http://vimeo.com/33235830

EDIT:
@MooMoo or DrAndonuts
Does the game feature AA ? Maybe in 2D mode ?
How bad is the aliasing?
Click to expand...

:O

Easily the best looking 3DS game so far. Man, I wish these guys would get their big break and have a smash hit instead of making cult classics known by a few people. I wonder how their WiiWare games sold? There was a bit of hype for Jett Rocket and FAST.
 
A

AceBandage

Banned
Just picked it up.
Glad to see so many positive impressions from GAF!
And yes, the menu screen is very Metroid Prime-esque.


Edit: Surprised that there's proper Voice Acting in this. Nice.
:D
 
A

AceBandage

Banned
marc^o^ said:
How is the framerate?
Click to expand...

Only done a few cells, but it seems solid so far. I also can't tell directly between 60 and 30 FPS, but it's solid either way.

Also, Celine was asking about Aliasing. There is some in 3D Mode (really only noticeable on the ship), but it's pretty much eliminated in 2D mode, which is nice.
 
C

Celine

Member
AceBandage said:
Also, Celine was asking about Aliasing. There is some in 3D Mode (really only noticeable on the ship), but it's pretty much eliminated in 2D mode, which is nice.
Click to expand...
So there is 2xAA in 2D mode, good.
Is Manfred the soundtrack composer?

Cow Mengde said:
:O

Easily the best looking 3DS game so far. Man, I wish these guys would get their big break and have a smash hit instead of making cult classics known by a few people. I wonder how their WiiWare games sold? There was a bit of hype for Jett Rocket and FAST.
Click to expand...
Told you so :p
It's Shin'en.

Shin'en Wiiware outings should have done quite well. They released one game per year between 2008 to 2011 so that mean they got a return in between.
Apparently the minigolf one was the best selling game that's why they chose to release a sequel on 3DS.
 
E

EloquentM

aka Mannny
this is probably the best looking 3DS game though to be fair they don't have to render many different assets on that screen at a time since you're usually stuck navigating one surface/environment at a time.
 
A

AceBandage

Banned
EloquentM said:
this is probably the best looking 3DS game though to be fair they don't have to render many different assets on that screen at a time since you're usually stuck navigating one surface/environment at a time.
Click to expand...

No, but it's still pretty impressive, given that the game was made by like 6 guys.
 
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