Customer Reviews

Nano Breaker

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Wow, is this game horrible. I'm a big 3rd-person adventure/action game fan and bought this on a whim when I saw it. Bad mistake. I usually try to be balanced in my reviews, but Nano Breaker is desperately bad.

Except for the cut scenes, the graphics are really low-rent. The blood splatter borders on the comical, and the map design is poor.

As for gameplay, it's the combo attacks that really bothered me. They're easy to set up (you gather crystals, plug them in to a combo "flowchart," and then the combo is available to use. Problem is, I had to try dozens of times before a combo would execute. The button flow is commendably easy (R1 and square, then triangle, for example), so I was baffled as to why the combos wouldn't execute.

The game is kind enough to have the first miniboss hover there harmlessly while a screen tip suggests using the "finishing combo." I added the combo and tried over and over and over to make the combo work. No luck. Then on the umpteenth attempt it suddenly worked. A little while later, I tried the same combo (still set up, so it wasn't that I was trying a deactivated combo) and again, it refused to execute.

The guidebook is unclear and doesn't provide much information. There's some vague notion that the "wings" on your back have to be deployed before a combo will work, but they only appear when you're battling a hoard of enemies. So what about facing a single boss? I didn't notice them appear when the combo finally worked on that first boss. Plus, those "wings" look kinda like fairy wings, which is both kinda funny and kinda stupid.

To add insult to injury, you have to battle your way through huge sections before the game will save. Then, the next time I tried to play, I chose "continue" but there was no saved game listed! That's the point where I pulled it out and threw it in the "trade at my local EB Games" pile.

Simply avoid this game, or at least rent it first.

Produced by the man behind "Castlevania: Lament of Innocence," "Nano Breaker" successfully takes that game's formula and carries it over into more absurd science fiction territory, complete with all of its parent game's problems and a few extra ones as well.

The story is more of the usual anime-style fluff that you're probably well accustomed to. It involves a cyborg named Jake, a rival cyborg called Keith, a crazy old scientist and his hot blonde of a daughter, genetic engineering, and military corruption - the usual, in other words, but done with less charm than other stories of this ilk. If the plotline is a deal-breaker, then consider this one broken. It's completely predictable in every way and lacks interesting characters that might have rescued it from mediocrity. At least the rendered cut-scenes are of splendid quality, and here and there offer some entertainment value (primarily the gory opening and the amusing but tonally inconsistent finale). At any rate, the catastrophe that forces you to kill countless monsters is your basic "Resident Evil" with nanomachines (instead of the usual viruses and plagues), and that's as creative as this one gets.

The game itself, however, does offer some repetitive fun of the hack-and-slash variety. Jake is armed with a powerful, shape-shifting plasma blade that, while generally in the guise of a broad sword, can, with the appropriate combos, transform into a scythe, an axe, or even a whip-like extension that can jerk enemies into the fray. Only the whip is ever truly useful, however, as attempting the more complex combos in the thick of things can lead to certain death - swift strokes or thrusts with the sword get the job done. Although the game hopes to encourage the player to really go full-bore with these combos (even allowing a combo upgrade system), it's never necessary to do so, and is sometimes even detrimental.

Fortunately, the combat is relatively fun, if not overly complex. Much of this is owed to the copious amounts of blood that gush from wounded and slain monsters, making the red geysers in "Kill Bill" seem realistic by comparison. Control over Jake is sharp and responsive, and it can be cathartic to hack your enemies to bits. Of course, at several points in the game you don't even have to do this, as you can simply run past your slow, dim-witted opponents and make for the next corridor or room without a backward glance. This was also true in "Lament of Innocence," and it's an inherent flaw in both games' design. There are points where melee is unavoidable thanks to barriers that dissipate only when all the area's monsters have been slain, but these circumstances are fewer and further between.

In "Lament of Innocence," lots of needless backtracking and enemy respawning crept up to detract from the experience, and these issues remain in "Nano Breaker," and, in fact, are amplified. The layout of the game is far more confusing than in the aforementioned, and there are several points where you'll have to run from point A all the way to point B without encountering anything new that wasn't there the first time - a recipe for tedium, as always.

"Nano Breaker" is, in a word, unremarkable. There's absolutely nothing about its design or presentation that makes it stand out (save perhaps the gallons of blood). Still, the hacking and slashing and overall goofiness of the concept keep it more entertaining than it probably should be, and there are the usual impressive Konami bosses to break things up and keep the game challenging - but can it be recommended wholeheartedly? Like "Lament of Innocence," absolutely not.

I wanted a good,challenging game that got you involved right from the get go.Nano breaker does not disappoint!Lots of slicing and dicing your enemies(If you,re into that sort of thing,I know I am!)and lots of challenging levels.I still have not finished the game,(I'm in no hurry,i'm taking my time on purpose!)learning the combo moves is a game in itself!With all of these era games coming out,i'ts good to know there are still good highly engrossing genre games like NANOBREAKER still out there for our enjoyment.I hope there is a NANOBREAKER for ps3 in the future, and I hope that Amazon is selling it!Keep up the good work!

If you like Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden then you will like this one. I'm not sure why it gets such bad ratings. I guess some people just cant handle it.

The game Nanobreaker was alright. Very repetitive and fairly easy. This game reminded me of the two castlevania games that came out for the PS2. overall I suggest trying the game out as a rental unless you find it cheaper to buy.

What a great game! I had a blast playing this little gem.... One of the few games that actually made me want to play through a game again....

What's so great about it? Great graphics, great story, customizable combos, and great fun! Don't buy into the poor reviews, this game is a gem!

After being a HCG for a long time, you understand games and are able to pick up on things that most casual gamers don't... that's how I know this game is a true gaming experience.....

Don't miss this one!

This game has horrible story, graphics, and gameplay. Music and sound effects are extremely generic. From the first moment you play it is just poor looking constant gratuitous violence.

yes the graphic kind of suck but hey thats all that playstation ever did for their games I mean even the ps3 graphics suck they focused more on backgrounds that have nothing to do with the game itself alot of the characters look horrible. nano breaker is an interesting concept for those who love extreme sci fi. those who dont like it are usually the same people whe think the madden games are great...instead of getting off your but and actually playing the game in the fresh air

Yep. Nothing I can say. This sucks. I played it over my friends house. He says it sucks too. Jake and Ted. Wow. Cool cyborg names. Jake looks like Sephiroth and Kate Moss had a baby. The only decent thing about this game is the blood effects. This game tries too much to be a platformer/third person shooter. Don't buy it. It sucks too much to be even looked at.