Nanostray (DS) news

[TheSacrificed]

A german nintendo ds fansite (www.planetds.de) interviewed the developers of nanostray who also made Iridion II for the GBA.

Here are some interesting facts:

- techically, it will be on the same level as Ikaruga
- way more extra content, better 2player mode
- the game will be much faster than iridion II
- the touchscreen can be used to scan your enemies and the environment and to select your weapons
- constant 60 fps
- worldranking like iridion II
- if the game sells well, there will be a soundtrack cd

screenshots:
http://www.planetds.de/images/artikel/n ... stray5.jpg
http://www.planetds.de/images/artikel/n ... stray4.jpg
http://www.planetds.de/images/artikel/n ... stray3.jpg
http://www.planetds.de/images/artikel/n ... stray2.jpg
http://www.planetds.de/images/artikel/n ... stray1.jpg

[Ord]

Certainly looks nice, hope it plays well.

[Thunder Force]

That does look really nice... I hope it sells well so we see more shmups on the system.

I wish someone would port some proper arcade games to the DS though. I'd love to play a Raizing or Cave shooter on a handheld. Unlike the GBA, the DS might actually have the processing power to do a modern shmup with lots of sprites.

Or maybe we'll get lucky and see Cave start porting to PSP instead of cellphones (Ibara on PSP? we can dream...)

[Ghegs]

The isometric view is still in use, I see.

- the touchscreen can be used to scan your enemies and the environment and to select your weapons

I wonder if The Big N is forcing developers to use the touchscreen. Good idea and all, but there are genres where the second screen is just not needed so it feels very gimmicky when something like this is put in.

[TheSacrificed]

I wonder if The Big N is forcing developers to use the touchscreen. Good idea and all, but there are genres where the second screen is just not needed so it feels very gimmicky when something like this is put in.

the developer said that they don't want to create new concepts but spice up the old ones with the new features of the ds.
Of course it is possible that N wants them to put in some touchy gimmicks, but at least selecting weapons doesn't sound as dull as drawing spells like in castlevania ds. Scanning for weak spots of some bosses sounds quite interesting, I think.

[benstylus]

The isometric view is still in use, I see.

- the touchscreen can be used to scan your enemies and the environment and to select your weapons

I wonder if The Big N is forcing developers to use the touchscreen. Good idea and all, but there are genres where the second screen is just not needed so it feels very gimmicky when something like this is put in.

I still feel the touch screen could be adequately used in a shmup, although scanning enemies isn't how I'd do it. If I had the programming experience and a DS dev kit, I'd probably make one that's something like this:

Here are my ideas on how to implement some of the DS's features

Make the controls as follows - d-pad or face buttons for movements, L or R shoulder button for firing. This way, both left handed or right handed players can play. Press the button for a rapid fire burst (that way you only need to press it intermittently rather than tapping it as fast as you can), hold the button to charge up for a larger attack.

On the touch screen, you could use the stylus to draw a line (left to right or clockwise or something) that would deflect bullets for a short period of time. A meter somewhere on the screen would deplete as you draw these lines - longer lines would deplete the meter faster. If a bullet hits the line before you finish drawing (i.e. before you raise the stylus), the line would break. Also, the slower you draw, the longer the line would last (to a maximum point of course).

Now comes the kicker! Drawing lines the opposite direction (right to left or counterclockwise) would cause the enemies' bullets that pass through them to speed up. The longer the line, the faster the bullets would go. Drawing these lines wouldn't deplete your meter at all. However, an enemy or bullet passing through it would replenish a portion of your meter - the exact amount depending on how high up on the screen the pass happens. Obviously a player who draws a line along the bottom of the screen to avoid the increased bullet speed should not have their meter replenished nearly as fast as someone who puts the line up at the top.

Of course, no game would be complete without a superbomb, so you could draw a full circle to unleash a bomb attack - clockwise would destroy everything within the circle (severely depleting your meter), counter clockwise would draw everything towards the center of the circle (the bigger the circle, the faster the pull), then spit it out at high speed (increasing your meter depending on how much stuff you get trapped in there). Doing either of these bomb attacks would disable stylus input for a short while afterwards.

Shouting into the microphone could cause a brief invincibility shield to get you out of those tough situations, and depending on how well the DS's voice recognition capabilities work, it could be used to change weapons as well. If it doesn't work too well for voice recognition, there's always the standard way of switching weapons - collect a new one.

Multiplayer is easy for a shmup, but in this case I think there would have to be a slight change in the gameplay. In other words - multiple modes of play. There could be a score attack mode where each player goes through their stage individially and the score is tallied at the end of the round. Winner chooses next round.

To get a bit more elaborate, you could have one person controlling the ship and one person controlling the stylus drawn lines. This could be either cooperative or competitive. Cooperative is obvious but in competitive, the person controlling the stylus lines would be trying to cause the bullets to hit the player. Upon death, the two players switch roles and continue the level - whoever is controlling the ship when the level is completed wins.

So even though this will probably never happen, I can hope it does.

[99pence]

Shouting into the microphone could cause a brief invincibility shield

Shouting into the microphone could cause near by people to run away from you. Very fast.


You couldn't have and action game where one minute you're playing like normal then next you're scrambling for the stylus.

[Darkcomet72]

You couldn't have and action game where one minute you're playing like normal then next you're scrambling for the stylus.

That's why there is a Wrist Pad.

[LoneSage]

Ben certainly has quite a few ideas for the DS

"Technically, it'll be on the same level as Ikaruga."

I don't understand this comment; do they mean graphically? Because I doubt the DS can create something that beautiful.

Other than that I want new screenshots! I've been seeing those screenshots ever since it was announced.

[jp]

A soundtrack? Rock on if it happens!!! I don't know about the rest of you, but I thought the music in Iridion II was amazing (as was the game).



I'm definitely hyped about this title.

[TheSacrificed]

Ben certainly has quite a few ideas for the DS

"Technically, it'll be on the same level as Ikaruga."

I don't understand this comment; do they mean graphically? Because I doubt the DS can create something that beautiful.

I think he means things like polycount, effects etc.

Other than that I want new screenshots! I've been seeing those screenshots ever since it was announced.

Refering to the page, new screenshots will be available at the end of february

[cdawg4949]

Looks like Iridion with better background graphics to me.

The isometric thing kills me, I don't know why, just like the first level on Axelay with its false isometric mode 7 stuff.

-CODY-

[alpha5099]

Shouting into the microphone could cause a brief invincibility shield to get you out of those tough situations, and depending on how well the DS's voice recognition capabilities work, it could be used to change weapons as well. If it doesn't work too well for voice recognition, there's always the standard way of switching weapons - collect a new one.

You had me up until this part. Everything else sounded like a great concept for a game. But you can't have people shouting into their handheld. It was a dumb idea when Nintendo put it into the DS, and I can't see anyone coming up with a good use for it.

Considering the way you've designed the controll scheme, it sounds like multiplayer wouldn't be that bad. It'd be like multiplayer in Wario Ware. One person holds one side of the DS, the other holds the other. The only issue of course is the stylus. If you had two stylus, and each player had a distinct side of the screen to draw on, then that could work.

[benstylus]

You had me up until this part. Everything else sounded like a great concept for a game. But you can't have people shouting into their handheld. It was a dumb idea when Nintendo put it into the DS, and I can't see anyone coming up with a good use for it.

It's just an idea to be thrown around like any other. Just toying with ideas on how to take advantage of all the DS capabilities. The invincibility shield idea might be better suited to tapping the stylus against the player's ship/character, or may even be better if it were disposed of entirely.

You couldn't have and action game where one minute you're playing like normal then next you're scrambling for the stylus.

Well you'd be using both at once - you hold one side of the DS for your movement (d pad and XABY buttons would perform the same function) and shooting (L and R would do the shooting). Similar to the way the Metroid Prime Hunters demo works - youd use both the screen and the D-Pad at the same time.

Ben certainly has quite a few ideas for the DS

Hey, I'm willing to flesh it out more if there's anyone who's got a DS dev kit and an interest in making a shmup.

[TVG]

you know, one thing that could actually be too good for a DS shmup is using both screens, and i mean both screens as the playfield, a la darius, who cares if they are slightly cut off.

i dont know, i just dont put my hope high for nanostray, but eh, you never know.

[LoneSage]

I think he means things like polycount, effects etc.

Is it really possible for the DS to put out Naomi-quality graphics? I'm still not understanding the comment, suppose I'll have to see the game in action for myself.

[Thunder Force]

Is it really possible for the DS to put out Naomi-quality graphics?

Not really. But they could fake an Ikaruga-looking game by using clever programming tricks (FMV loops, etc.), especially since it is on a small screen everything tends to look better anyway even if it has less detail.