A crazy game with tight controls, also very addictive and fun.
Wow! This game caught me by surprise, due to the high acclaim by some specialized media I was aware that this could be a very fun game, but never imagined it could be this much fun. Claiming that this game is innovative is simplify too much the great dose of weirdness that is found in it. It is so fresh that it ends up being strange, but what it has of strange it has of fun, that's for sure.
This is a shoot-'em-up game where you basically has to protect one little thing in the lower-screen of your DS by moving it around, you need to defend yourself from the enemies in the upper-screen by throwing fireworks to the sky and collecting stars dropped by them when they're defeated. Yes, it sound very strange, and it is indeed very strange if you stop and start thinking about it after you play, but you don't have to really pay attention to that because what really matter are the game mechanics. The action happens in both screens at once, and the pace is merciless. To shoot the fireworks you just need to draw a vertical line with your stylus; you can, and most of the time will, fire multiple shots creating some crazy firework action. The thing is, all the firework you throw in the sky can ricochet right back to you if you miss the shot, you'll have to move you little "thing" in the lower screen with restless movements. There's a bar to be filled on the left of the lower-screen, each little star you collect from the downed enemies will fill it a little, sometimes some enemies will drop bigger stars that will do a much better job in filling the star-meter; you beat the level when you have it completely full. The game gets so dynamic that will easily suck you in, the fast-pace will keep you entirely focused and the adrenaline in non-stoppable!
That's the beauty of this game, from the moment you turn it on, until the moment you decide to turn your handheld off, the game grabs you by the neck and never let you go. For all the firework here you find great graphics with tight animations and great atmosphere. You play through various locations, it can be a city like New York or Rio de Janeiro, as well as in an abyss under the sea or a savanna. Another incredible thing is that each location will give you levels with its own set of uniqueness, like each one has its own design for the star-meter and for the little thing you control, not to mention that each will have the background coherently designed by the place it represents, but in a very freaky way. Another aspect that is unique in each level are the musics, each has to do with the location of the level; in the savanna you have some drums playing, in Rio de Janeiro you have Samba-like beats, in the snow level you have some high-pitched sounds creating a well-known atmosphere of frost.
When you finish the level you have the opportunity to play a brief bonus level, you just need to connect dots to form an image in a constellation. The nice thing is that as well as everything else, this changes from location to location too, each has it own way of running onto the numbers and form the image, as you advance into the game, the job gets harder and harder; and if you manage to complete every single bonus-screen in the game you are awarded with a new game mode. There are various game modes; from the tutorial, which will be the first one you play and probably will only play it once, to the arcade mode containing the main game. Also a multiplayer mode requiring only one cartridge to play, and a high score mode with scores being submittable via Nintendo Wi-Fi connection. In addition, there's extra modes for those who are done with the main game; like Mission, where you have to redo missions from the main game but meeting some special requirements like time, quantity of shots, and some other stuff that will surely spice things up a little bit more after you finished the main game.
The controls are like nothing seen on the DS, they are tight, solid as rock! You won't find much trouble to make every move you make in the game to be the way it was meant to be. Not only this game fits on the Nintendo DS perfectly, but it was perfectly developed for it. You have to keep your eyes glued to the touch screen as the action requires instant movements based on pure reflex, and since bullets will come in many shapes, types, forms and directions, your job won't be a walk in the park, but sometimes it's good to take a quick glance at the upper-screen to see how things are going there, not for long though, the action is relentless most of the time. This is a very addicting game, but some may find it a little tiresome to play it through too much time without rest as, like I said, the pace in incredibly fast.
The fireworks will be your main weapon, but as the game advances you are presented to some others, some will stay with you until the very end, others will be exclusive to each location. Among the weapons that will stay with you in every level, the most important is the incredibly powerful three-shot fireball, to do it you just have to press the stylus against anywhere in the touch screen and charge it until it's ready to be unleashed, it is very powerful and will kill practically any enemy with one shot. But there's also the momentary weapons, these are the most amazing weapons of the game because you never know what to expect and they always bring an especial flavor to the already unique levels. They can do a whole lot of good to you if you use them wisely; they go from a shield you can draw with your stylus by simply making a horizontal line in the touch screen to reflect every bullet that hits it; to a brief moment of frozen time where enemies and their shots won't move, just stars and you; also whirlwinds to suck bullets; of course you'll find many other types. The developers certainly spent some time thinking in very good ways to create and make each momentary weapon memorable and completely awesome. It's pointless to point out every temporary weapon in the game, each location has its own, and the game will teach you how to use them at the beginning of each of these locations.
In the end of a location, after beating 9 levels in each of them, you'll have the opportunity to face a boss battle. In the boss battles you can't use any weapon except the fireworks; that means any other weapon, temporary or not, will be unavailable at this point. The bosses have a four round battle with increasing difficulty, if you manage to pass all of them, the boss is defeated and you're allowed to advance to the next location and play the next levels. The bosses are as strange as the rest of the game itself.
There you go, a nice looking game, with plenty of action and relentlessly fast pace. Not only another one of those games that are hard to imagine being possible without the innovative and incredibly functional Nintendo DS's hardware, but also another game that can be called innovative, so much that it almost goes beyond this. It's really an amazing game, with immensely colorful stages and effects, lots of weirdness, and wonderfully responsive controls. A must-have for anyone looking for a great game.
