Old thread of anticipation
It's out! After 9 or so months of waiting for Majesco or whoever to ship out some copies, it's finally out! I only have very brief impressions for now, since I've only played for about an hour at the most. If anyone of the other seven people interested in the game would like to talk more about it, feel free to do so.
Let's get one thing straight about the difficulty of this game, just in case you thought the original Nanostray was too easy once you got past the touch based weaponry and you were worried about how this game would turn out: THIS GAME IS HARD! I'm pretty sure I didn't go through five lives on the first time I played the starting level of Ikaruga, but holy shit Nanostray 2's first level beat me down with great fury! Will it take a while before I ever get to the final level? YOU BET! 5 lives and 3 continues (on Easy) and 8 levels to get through, and I'm still getting my ass handed to me on the first level? Yowza! The good thing about it, like any other SHMUP, is that you'll get better once you know the levels and the capabillities of your ship a little better. It would be wise to just not even try to get through the game in your first sitting and instead get to know your ship and its sub-weapons before you decide to really get into the game. That's what I'm still going to do for now.
"What do you mean 'the capabilites of your ship'? Isn't it all about the PEW PEW PEW?"
Well, yes....but it's HOW you do it. I will admit I haven't played many SHMUPs using those option orbs like the Gradius series, so I have no idea if any of what I'm going to tell is you will be a new mechanic to this style of games, so please bear with me.
Your weaponry consists of the main gun, your sub-weapon, and the option orbs that are around your ship. The main gun is....well, the main gun. This is your PEW PEW PEW weapon. Press A to use it. That's straight-forward. The other weaponry you choose before the start of each level.
Your sub-weapon is a choice of six types, such as a straight-ahead beam, heat seakers, and an electric charge around your ship. You start with three to choose from at the beginning of the adventure, and as your progress through each level, you'll be given an additional sub-weapon to choose from. So after 3 levels, you should have all six sub-weapons. You can only have one sub-weapon per level, so again, when you better know the level you're in, you'll better know what weapon to choose. So if you're on a level where you get constantly swarmed with enemies from all over, having the straight-ahead beam probably wouldn't be a good choice. Just like in the first game, use of your sub-weapon will deplete from its energy gauge and blue coins will regain SOME of its energy back. Press B to use it.
The option orbs (or satellites in the manual) are what's really cool though. If you haven't seen the trailers to the game, you might want to take a moment to do so to better visualize what I'm going to say. The smaller sized video would be better.
http://www.nanostray2.com/about/screens/
There are three positions the option orbs can be in relative to your ship. You will notice that the first time you turn on the game, you'll see the option orbs can be positioned in front of your ship, above and below, or behind. You can cycle where they will be with the L and R buttons. When above and below, they fire their shots above and below perpendicular to the main gun. When in front or behind, the shots will be angled outward. But what probably won't be immediately obvious to you is that they are completely customizable. Both the position of the orbs themselves and the direction they fire -- customizable! If you take a look at both trailers, you'll notice that when the options are above and below, the directions they fire their shots are different. You could have your guns spread out, parallel with the main gun, or you could even have your options in the same place for all three positions and only the direction they fire change, or you could even have the options in the front of your ship and have them fire behind you (barely). You earn them at the start of each level after downing your first two waves of enemies, and from there, go nuts. The only negative I'm seeing with the option orbs is that they DO NOT block enemy shots. It's all about dodging in this game, and wow, you're going to need to.
Basically, between the sub-weapons and the option orbs, you get to make your ship exactly as you want it. You can also set the speed of your ship before each level, but only if you're using the default controls where the D-Pad moves your ship. The other control schemes involve the touch screen for movement, and I'll try them later. From what I can tell, it looks like it could cause "Metroid Claw". It seems you control the ship with your stylus, and that probably would give you much greater control over your ship than the D-Pad and a fixed ship speed would. For the left-handed, the controls are the same as default except you drag your stylus to move your ship. For righties, drag to move your ship, tap to cycle the option orbs, D-Pad for main gun, L for sub-weapon.
Scoring? No idea how it works yet. Nanostray's website leads to the
GameFAQ Nanostray 2 forum, where you can speak to the developers there about the game. You could probably ask in there and they'll tell you.
After all, they did show your ship's hitbox.
I'm really not sure what more I can add, but if you have any questions, I'll try to answer them.
Posts
It looks grand. The first one was fun, but broken, so I've been looking forward to this one for awhile.
Regarding touch controls, only use it if you have a very long stylus. I'm using DS Phat stylii, and they just won't do since my hand is covering up the screen. (Yes, the touch controls make the gameplay appear on the touch screen instead of the top screen.)
I WILL NOT BE DOING 3DS FOR NWC THREAD. SOMEONE ELSE WILL HAVE TO TAKE OVER.
Spoiler contains Friend Codes. Won't you be my friend?
More Friend Codes!
Mario Kart Wii: 3136-6982-0286 Tetris Party: 2364 1569 4310
Guitar Hero: Metallica: 1032 7229 7191
TATSUNOKO VS CAPCOM: 1935-2070-9123
Nintendo DS:
Worms: Open Warfare 2: 1418-7870-1606 Space Bust-a-Move: 017398 403043
Scribblenauts: 1290-7509-5558
the talking part.
I've played about ten minutes of the game so far, but I like what I see. In comparison to the first one, more stuff fits on the screen, the controls aren't totally crippled by the necessity of the touchscreen, and the difficulty is much more like what I'd expect of a shmup. It's also way cool that you can adjust the gun angles for your different firing modes.
I guess I don't have any complaints so far, which is uncharacteristic of me. Anything less than Tyrian DS will probably get some nitpicking though, so I'm sure I'll come up with something. :P
After peeking at wiki I notice too things:
1) mixed reviews. Really mixed. Like if they did a "Will it Blend" on these reviews, the answer would be "Unnecessary"
2) Online leaderboards. Sweet.
Ignore the reviews, at least EGM's. They mention a "ridiculous continue system" where when you run out of continues, you have to start over from the beginning.
Yeah, you read that right. They don't remember the concept of "Game Over". O_o
I WILL NOT BE DOING 3DS FOR NWC THREAD. SOMEONE ELSE WILL HAVE TO TAKE OVER.
Spoiler contains Friend Codes. Won't you be my friend?
More Friend Codes!
Mario Kart Wii: 3136-6982-0286 Tetris Party: 2364 1569 4310
Guitar Hero: Metallica: 1032 7229 7191
TATSUNOKO VS CAPCOM: 1935-2070-9123
Nintendo DS:
Worms: Open Warfare 2: 1418-7870-1606 Space Bust-a-Move: 017398 403043
Scribblenauts: 1290-7509-5558
Anyway, I am amazed how much better this game is over the first one. I haven't spent a whole lot of time with it but from what I've seen/heard, the level design seems like an homage to a lot of other games, which is a good thing as it does seem almost like a carbon copy of a Gradius game at times. HOW CAN THAT BE BAD.
There's a pretty largish thread on the shmups.com forums and they have some info about the scoring and the like.
Also that's not a hitbox, it's a hitball.. hurr.
Nanostray 2 has nothing like that. I'd like to know just how they thought this was a good idea, especially when those X and Y buttons are there doing nothing. I'm totally cool with them getting rid of infinite continues and making your ship be one-hit killed, but losing the bomb or any limited method to protect you from everything that's on the screen for two seconds has really killed some of the joy I had for this game. Having full customization over how the options fire is a great idea, but it's going to take a lot of time to trial-and-error my way through it until I finally get them just right....for each individual level. I'm halfway thinking of just simply going through Adventure mode once and stick to playing Arcade mode until I can get through each level without any problems, because the only way I'll never need a bomb is to memorize exactly where and when the enemies come on the screen. The only problem I have with that is that I should be able to have fun with the game before I try to master it, but I'm forced to master it from the beginning and so I won't get much fun out of it.
I'm still going to give the game an honest chance, but wow, I wasn't expecting this.
I WILL NOT BE DOING 3DS FOR NWC THREAD. SOMEONE ELSE WILL HAVE TO TAKE OVER.
Spoiler contains Friend Codes. Won't you be my friend?
More Friend Codes!
Mario Kart Wii: 3136-6982-0286 Tetris Party: 2364 1569 4310
Guitar Hero: Metallica: 1032 7229 7191
TATSUNOKO VS CAPCOM: 1935-2070-9123
Nintendo DS:
Worms: Open Warfare 2: 1418-7870-1606 Space Bust-a-Move: 017398 403043
Scribblenauts: 1290-7509-5558
Anyway, I've been looking forward to getting this, as it was meant to come out on the 11th or 13th, but no stores have had it in yet. I think that some Best Buys do, now, but I haven't had a chance to go by one to get it yet.
I'll post my impressions once I do.
How was Nanostray broken?
There was nothing broken about it.
The weapon switching takes minutes to get accustomed to via muscle memory, but even without that, it's not so hard to switch weapons. Big deal.
And the tilted viewpoint? Big deal.
nothing broken about it.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
thank god someone else saw it, i thought i was the only one
Sounds like they took what was awesome in the first game, enhanced it, expanded upon it, and forgot all the (small) problems that the first one had.
Also.. Nanostray 1 did have bombs -- You don't get bombs in N2? Not that I care that much, but it's a little surprising.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
I never figured out a good way to switch weapons quickly, so I ended up playing all the way through levels without switching, which ends up being pretty easy to do. How did you handle it?
I'd either switch weapons during the short 'breaks' between swarms of enemies or I'd just click the right weapon out of muscle memory, which really only takes a short time to 'get.' But I really never found an instance of dying simply because I was distracted by changing weapons.
that said, I can understand that the weapon changing system in N1 is undesirable compared to something that doesn't require clicking an icon on the touchscreen, so your complaint is valid.
Nevertheless, N1 is a good portable shmup. Not amazing like Gradius Galaxies, no, but good.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
The challenges, though, are hair-tearing frustration so far... which is actually pretty fun in this case.
I don't remember any simulations. Then again I got bored of Nanostray pretty quick after I beat the campaign. What are the simulations?
"Read twice, post once. It's almost like 'measure twice, cut once' only with reading." - MetaverseNomad
If they're anything like the first one I unlocked, they're really awful minigames. I unlocked some abysmal version of touchscreen-controlled breakout. Uugh.
I just compared any look invulnerability just after dying to anything after receiving a blue coin. Nothing changes after getting a blue coin. Your ship doesn't blink or anything. So I guess that's gone too. Blue coin also only refills a small portion of your sub-weapon's gauge, instead of a total fill-up like in N1.
And I will say this once again to any who say they had a hard time switching weapons in Nanostray 1. USE THE L BUTTON FOR PRIMARY FIRE! Go ahead and use the A button since that's more comfortable, but for the brief moment you need to switch your weapon, hold down the L button so you can keep firing while freeing up your right hand to get to the touch screen. It really does make a huge difference.
I WILL NOT BE DOING 3DS FOR NWC THREAD. SOMEONE ELSE WILL HAVE TO TAKE OVER.
Spoiler contains Friend Codes. Won't you be my friend?
More Friend Codes!
Mario Kart Wii: 3136-6982-0286 Tetris Party: 2364 1569 4310
Guitar Hero: Metallica: 1032 7229 7191
TATSUNOKO VS CAPCOM: 1935-2070-9123
Nintendo DS:
Worms: Open Warfare 2: 1418-7870-1606 Space Bust-a-Move: 017398 403043
Scribblenauts: 1290-7509-5558
Heh, I kinda thought it was cool.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Wii U - 'Nocero'
XBox ID - therealmasume
PS4 ID - realmasume
Space Invaders Extreme, stat.
What is this you speak of? To the google machine!
Wii U - 'Nocero'
XBox ID - therealmasume
PS4 ID - realmasume
Holy shit. I just looked this up, and I must own it immediately.
Nanostray 2 also looks nifty. Never played the first one, but I have a long-ish plane trip next week that this sounds perfect for.
It is exactly as good as it looks.
NOW ---
If anyone wants more shmups on the DS, you HAVE to get:
Geometry Wars Galaxies
You just have to. It's not a 'traditional' shmup per se, it's more like Robotron meets Asteroids, but it's far better than either of those games. It's incredibly fun and good and includes tons of content and online leaderboards. Highly recommended
NOW THEN.
I finally found Nanostray 2 at Best Buy yesterday. Haven't had much time to play it. But here are my initial impressions:
This game is fun in the 'basic shmup' kind of way that Iridion II and Nanostray 1 were. So don't go in expecting the next Ikaruga or anything.
That said, as much as I'm enjoying this game, it still feels like Shinen took one step forward from Nanostray 1, and one step back.
First of all, there are less offensive options in this game.
In Iridion 2, you had multiple weapon types, and iirc multiple 'levels' of each weapon, a charged shot, and bombs. In Nanostray 1, you had multiple weapons at all times, a sub for each weapon, and bombs. In Nanostray 2, it takes a step forward by providing Gradius-like 'options' for you - these little guys you can adjust the angle they shoot at before starting a level, in 3 preset angles, and switch between them with the shoulder buttons. Adds some variety to the weaponry/offense there, and I think it's nifty. Step forward. But, the game only lets you take 1 subweapon with you upon entering a level. So while Nano1 you had the close-range shock, the seeking beams, the strong blue blaster, etc., Nano2 lets you choose from one of these types and that your sub weapon for the game. Shinen has also taken bombs away from us, instead turning bombs into a subweapon type, that you can manually detonate. So the step forward is the Satellites/Options and ability to choose a sub type, but the step back is being stuck with your sub type for the whole level. I kind of liked switching between weapons in Nano1 because it allowed you to take different strategies for different aspects of a single level.
Other than that, I love the new camera angle. While the tilted view of Ir2 and Nano1 never bothered me, you can't go wrong with a 90 degree side or top view.
I enjoy the levels, enemies, and bosses. The bosses are mostly .. er.. tributes or references to other shmups - I've seen some of these bosses in RType and Gradius games before :P I think it's fine that they're here in this game, too. In fact, these Nano games have always seemed to take their inspiration from Rtype and Gradius; and while they've never lived up to the inspiration from which they've drawn, these games still manage to be decent over all. Worth it for a shmup fan, I suppose.
The coin system has changed. You can't hold R and gravitate the gold/blue coins to your ship any more. It forces you to take a risk (of being killed) in exchange for the reward (points, recharge subweapon). Although it's hard not to miss the coin-magnet from Nano1; which only detracted from your score if you held the button too long. But oh well. Minor gripe I guess.
The controls are better, but they are also more simple. Step forward: No touch screen weapon switching. Step back: No weapon switching anyway. (except primary and sub weapons, and angle control of your Options/satellites).
You can control your ship's position entirely with the stylus with an alternate control scheme, but it's hard to see under your stylus and the standard default controls seem to be better for this game.
You can also change your ship's speed, but I haven't tried it yet.
Now --
The game offers another slew of new Challenges. Most Nano1 fans will remember the Challenges as a great source of replay value. Just like Nano1, Nano2's Challenges provide fun Challenges to complete. In fact, I think they are even more varied and even more fun, and more fair, than the Challenges of Nano1. I think they're great, so far.
There are also unlockable minigames. I've only unlocked the Breakout/Arkanoid clone. I think it's decent for a completely optional, bonus, minigame. Play it a couple of times and forget about it? Then it served it's purpose. Whatever. It's a bonus. The fun stuff is the Adventure, Arcade, and Challenge modes. And increasing your score.
So. Anyway. So far I'm enjoying it. But for every improvement they made to Nano1, they took something out that at least I personally liked about Nano1. So it's a good, fun game - not groundbreaking, and not on par with Gradius Galaxies, GeoWars Galaxies, or whatever - but if you liked Nano1 you'll probably like this.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Overall, I really enjoy this game. Yes, it's a very straightforward shmup, and yes, they took out some 'defensive' aspects of Nano1, but overall, I really enjoy it. It still has a pretty good difficulty level, and the levels/bosses are all pretty fun, and I like the Satellite helper system you get. The bosses are cool and fun as well.
I like how every boss is an "homage" to bosses of other games, namely Gradius and RType - although the final boss is:
lol.
I just unlocked 3 of the Simulations too. So far, my favorite are Nanobreak and Nanorush, which are a Breakout/Arkanoid clone and an on-rails behind-the ship shooter, reminiscent of a particular StarFox1 level where you had to fly through a base avoiding doors and shooting enemies. The third is a game kind of like Asteroids, except instead of destroying asteroids, you have to shoot to rotate them and cause matching colors of the asteroids to collide. So it's interesting but I haven't played it as much as the other two.
The challenges are all good fun.
Challenge C2 was the last one I achieved. But it's actually very easy; take Raydion and just use it to blow up each Wave of enemies all at once for maximum points. I got 55k points by the end, which is ~20k points over the required number.
So overall I'm enjoying this game. But I'm a shmup fan and like Nano1, it's hard to recommend these types of games to anyone but shmup fans.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Still digging the Nanostray 2 though, just haven't had time to play it.
But if it's anything like its console big brother on the Wii, then I'd expect it to be fuckawesome.
Because Geowars Galaxies on the Wii is an incredibly good game, incredibly addicting, tons of levels, online leaderboards, multiplayer.. I love it.
I know the DS vsn gets some slowdown and the viewable area isn't quite as large, but I still need to buy it. I look forward to it. But first comes Ninja Gaiden DS..
Nano2, it's really fun, I enjoy it so far. It's just a very straightforward shmup without much in the way of fancy mechanics.
I really enjoy the Challenges, too.
And the simulations they unlock are actually kind of fun, for unlockable minigames.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Yes it does; it allows you to download the entire Retro Evolved game to the DS.
As is natural for DS downloads, it only remains on the DS so long as the DS is not turned off.
But it nevertheless is the whole game and works brilliantly.
For me, though, I'd still like to get Galaxies for the DS because Galaxies is a much, much larger, expansive, and deeper game. Plus it saves scores and has online leaderboards.
But considering the DS download from the Wii version is a neat, free little thing, it's still a much appreciated, cool feature nonetheless.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Differences I know about between Wii version and DS version:
- DS version has slowdown on heavily populated levels
- DS version is not nearly as visually stonerrific -- my wife, who was addicted to the DS version for at least a month, finds the Wii version much harder because of all the bright-and-shiny
- Black holes do not deflect your bullets in the DS version
- I, personally, find that no control scheme for the DS version is really satisfactory. These games have been left-hand-move, right-hand-fire since Eugene Jarvis spake in 1982 and commanded it so. But I'm left-handed. This means my choices are:
(1) move with D-pad, fire with face buttons; this makes my wrists hurt because I grip the DS too hard, plus the face buttons make a lousy D-pad
(2) move with stylus, fire with face buttons; the stylus move controls are too imprecise and don't feel natural, plus the lousy D-pad problem
(3) move with D-pad, fire with stylus; now the stylus is in the wrong hand, and I die over and over and over because my right hand is too stupid to hold a writing implement
My right-handed wife happily uses option (3). Me, I play the Wii version with the Classic Controller and use the dual-stick interface that God, or at least Williams, intended.
For me, though, I can completely forgive any graphical shortcomings because what it provides is already extremely well done, and the slow down I can live with.
I've played the Demo version of RE sent to my DS via my Wii, and for a righty, I find the move on Dpad shoot with Touch screen controls to be extremely precise and responsive.
So the only thing really holding me back from buying the game is monetary constraints :P
The Wii version I have owned since release, and absolutely love it. I have achieved a Gold Medal on every single level.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
I know that if you kill consecutive enemies before the "Nanogauge" runs up you'll increase your score by a multiplayer.
But does having your Sub weapon tank maxed out help your score? It helped with Nano1.. but.. I dunno about 2..
edit:
And obviously collecting Coins, particularly the Blues, and as well as reducing the number of deaths you have, this all helps.
What are the "secrets" that each level have that counts for points?
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
I'd agree, even as a rightie. The best I can do is, move with d-pad, fire with stylus, using one of these
on the right thumb. It's a little more like having an analog stick.