Despite the flaws inherent in the gameplay design and rather short campaign, this is an excellent space shooter.
Nanostray's gameplay is a tribute to games like Ikaruga, which are easy to learn but difficult to master. The gameplay works like this; you have a choice of 4 weapons, a sub weapon, and a super weapon. You can switch up your weapons on the fly, which affect your sub weapon function, and you have a limited number of super weapons, which clear the screen of baddies and deal serious damage to the bosses. Unfortunately this is where the poor design choices make themselves evident.
To switch up weapons, you have to touch the screen, which will require you to either stop moving or stop firing. Neither of these choices are very appealing, and there isn't a way to change this with the shoulder buttons. The idea of switching between a frontal focused weapon to one that shoots out both sides is a good idea, but unfortunately because of the execution I found myself just sticking to one weapon for the entire level.
The scoring system the gaming uses encourages playing the levels over and over again to get the perfect score, which adds to the replayability as challenges are unlocked with the completion of levels in story mode. The objectives ranging from scoring to staying alive.
The game includes a rudimentary multiplayer component, which consists of trying to outscore your opponent, trying to stay alive the longest, or trying to kill the most enemies. While it certainly doesn't hurt the presentation, a few more options would have been welcome, such as a coop campaign mode.
The graphics are impressive, with very few instances of choppy frame rate. The backgrounds look very nice and are well animated; the ships look interesting, and most importantly, the explosions are excellent.
The sound is also top notch, with the music, weapons, explosions, and other assorted bleeps and bloops sounding fantastic.
While the touch screen unintentionally frustrates, the rest of the game is certainly worth playing, and if you can find this game for less than 25 bucks, there is no reason why you shouldn't give this game a look if your looking for a good ds side scroller.