There's an easy way to tell when someone started playing video games. Merely ask them to name a few shooters. Anyone for whom the Xbox was their first console will probably say something like Halo or Grand Theft Auto (3 or higher), or, if they're particularly dim, maybe even Dead to Rights. However, those who remember the days when controllers didn't even have shoulder buttons might toss out names like Gradius or R-Type, or, if they're particularly cool, maybe even Radiant Silvergun or Gaiares. These folks are referring to the former king of video game genres, the 2D shooter, or "shmup" (that's short for "shoot-em-up," in case you didn't know). Less commonplace these days than Democratic political muscle, the 2D shooter is a pure test of reflex and memory, and it still has fans, albeit fewer in number and largely balding in nature, now learning that the term "401K" can refer to something other than a high score. They're a loyal lot, and thanks to Majesco's policy of publishing games no one else will touch, they now have one very good reason to buy a Nintendo DS, and it's called Nanostray.

Short on storyline, Nanostray puts players in the cockpit of a futuristic spacecraft and presents them with hundreds of things to kill. There might be a reason for the slaughter, but none is immediately obvious, and stories in games like this tend to be shallow and pointless anyway, so the lack of one really doesn't hurt the experience much. While entirely 2D in gameplay, the graphics themselves are almost exclusively 3D, and pretty 3D at that. Backgrounds are lovely, the enemies are nicely diverse, and the various weapon effects succeed in looking both cool and deadly, kinda like Chow Yun Fat. Special mention should also be made of the sound in Nanostray, because it slays mightily. No generic shooter music here – the compositions are excellent and the quality of the music is very high, providing nice counterpoint to the crisp sounds of weapons fire and alien death. Anyone playing this game would be well advised to plug a pair of earphones into the DS, so they can hear what its audio hardware is capable of.

Nanostray presents players with several gameplay options, including Adventure, Arcade, Challenge, and Multiplayer modes. Adventure mode allows the player to choose a path through the game's eight stages, and saves progress after the successful completion of each, while Arcade mode offers a single stage at a time, and records the highest scores for posterity. Challenge mode is a bit different in that it presents a series of objectives that the player must complete. For example, a given challenge might be to complete a stage while accumulating a certain minimum score, or using only a single ship. Far more difficult than simply making it through the level, the challenges provide significant replay value for what is, in fact, a brutally short game. Adventure mode can be completed in well under an hour, and for players who just want to "beat the game," it simply doesn't offer enough. Fortunately, the breed of player this type of game attracts tends to be unsatisfied with merely beating the game, instead focusing on beating the holy hell out of the game. Shin'en seems to have realized this, and has provided a lot of incentive for the shmup fan to keep playing, most notably the Valor bonus, which gives big points to players who complete a stage without overusing autofire or the ship's ability to attract the bonus coins that appear when an enemy is killed. Playing for points makes the game exponentially more difficult, and this is where hardcore shooter fans live. Multiplayer mode adds even more depth with its various games, the coolest of which is the Sudden Death game, where the first player to die loses.

So while all of this is really lovely, there are a few minor flies in the ointment that prevent Nanostray from achieving shooter immortality. The biggest problem lies in the fact that while the ship comes equipped with four different weapons (each with an infinite normal shot and an exhaustible, "powered-up" shot), players will find very little reason to use them all. The main weapon is suitable for nearly every situation, and since switching weapons via the touch screen isn't exactly second nature, it's not hard to envision players who simply never bother. The touch screen's other main function (other than providing a radar screen that shows players absolutely nothing they couldn't see on the main screen) is during boss battles, when the player can touch the "scan" button to see where the boss's weak points are. This is simply gimmicky and pointless, and while it doesn't make the game any worse per se, it would have been nice to see the DS' unique hardware put to more significant use.

Most of the complaints fall into the realm of nitpicking, however, since Nanostray is a shooter for shooter fans, and as such, it succeeds admirably. The abbreviated Adventure mode is more than made up for by the additional modes and brilliant scoring system, the control is crisp and responsive, and the all-important-for-the-genre hit detection is spot on. It gets nothing wrong, even if it doesn't always get everything quite right. Pretty, challenging, and fun, this is one stray that shooter fans everywhere should seriously consider adopting.