The newest Moregames Entertainment game, Nanobotz , was expected with a lot of interest and pessimism at the same time. It's another artillery arcade and the point was that "Worms World Party" by Jamdat are the best in genre and cannot be beaten. Well, Nanobotz probably didn't beat WWP, but Moregames succeeded in making a beautiful and original game.

The gameplay is traditional for artillery games: you control a team of maximum 4 nanobots while struggling with enemy teams (3 max). You can use a huge variety of weapons (28 all in all) and a number of special abilities, like rope, teleport, medikit, shield and so on. Weapons are divided into seven groups (4 weapons in each), according to their type: missiles, smart missiles, grenades, plasma, air strikes, guns and special weapons. Each game consists of customizable number of rounds (1-5) and you can purchase additional weapons before the beginning of each round. Money is earned by damaging and destroying opposing bots, in addition to the sum received in the beginning of the game (also customizable). It seemed strange to me that it’s impossible to buy weapons during the round, because I prefer to play short games (like while riding in public transport) and in this case the money feature becomes pointless. In Nanobotz several persons can compete with each other on one device, but sadly BT-multiplayer is again unavailable. It’s not like it should be necessarily present, but I could not to pay attention to some of the game’s weak points if I had a pleasure of wiping out my mates’ bots through Bluetooth.  

Probably the most important and innovational feature of the game is gravity. As described in the promo it's totally unique, and I have to agree with the statement. The micro-world consists of lots of "asteroids" and each of them has its own gravity field, moreover the strength of the field varies due to asteroid size. This means the next shot will never be the same, because every time you cause damage to an asteroid the strength of gravity field will weaken. Doubtlessly the idea is magnificent: Moregames found a way to make a different artillery game. Unfortunately I can't say the same about the realization of this idea... Sometimes the affliction of the gravity is so unpredictable, that even Newton would scratch his head (not even mentioning your humble reviewer). Quite often, after another accurate hit, nanobots keep bouncing from one asteroid to another for a while. If bots hit each other, the calm ones also get involved in this chaotic movement. Further on, if you hit a bot with a grenade which is still on timer the crazy bouncing will also begin. Yeah, I understand that such kind of traffic displays us, mere mortals, the realities of life in micro-world, but my brain, not being a multi-core CPU, can’t count all the possible variants of bots’ after-shot positioning. This fact considered, the tactical aspect of the game is much lower than in the best artillery games. For example, collecting several nanobots in one place for further annihilation or pushing a nanobot to a mine (yes, these little helpers are not forgotten here) becomes very hard. And, to my disappointment, in most cases it’s just a matter of luck. It’s much easier to aim (especially if you’re using smart missiles), but hitting a bot which is not facing you, again becomes a very hard thing to do.If the gravity seems not to be enough to you, it’s possible to enable “atomic wind” in options. Yep, it’s just the good old wind which we all know from WWP and Atomic Cannon and other artillery arcades. The thing I didn’t like about this wind is that the background of the map isn’t animated, like it was in WWP, so it’s sometimes not so evident what correction should you make to perform an accurate shot. 

Moregames invented a great number of weapons and that’s certainly a big plus, but I didn’t like that basically all these weapons differ in simply how much damage they do, and how easy you can deliver them to desired target. You can’t block a bot with a “nano-wall”, you can’t blow it out of the map, you can’t make it fall in a deadly “nano-blackhole”, and so there is only one way to harm bots – just bash them as hard as you can. Such lack of tactical variations makes the game too straightforward even for an artillery arcade.

Dropping a word about controls, I’d say they are perfect. Basically, the whole gaming process is easily controlled with a stylus – I didn’t even bother myself to check what the buttons’ bindings are. The strength and direction of shot are selected in the same way they are in Atomic Cannon (just by tapping on place you want to shoot in) – very simple and convenient.   

Not a single Moregames product disappointed me with graphics and in Nanobotz they are as good as always. Explosions, bullet traces, plasma bursts and other demolition effects are especially beautifully drawn; they remind Enslave graphics a little. You won't find anything like this in any other artillery arcade - that's for sure. Notice that the VGA version of the game is available, so if you’re one lucky owner of such device, you’ll get a chance to enjoy all the beauties of VGA graphics. The interface is also nicely made: all the menus are animated, bright and completely intuitive. I only didn’t like that the fonts in the main menus are too small, although there is pretty much space left for expanding the menus to normal size.  

Moregames hit the target in the sound aspect too. There are three soundtracks for battles and another one for main menu. The sound is clear and loud, it pretty much suits the atmosphere. Every weapon and nanobot’s action is "equipped" with the proper sound effects, so everything is done on the highest level. Summing it up, I’d say that on the one hand Moregames did a great work, equipping “Nanobotz” with outstanding graphics and sound, and on the other hand the gameplay isn’t polished at all. “Nanobotz” become repetitive very fast, because it’s really hard to think up any original moves when the only thing you can do is to try to manage with the gravity. Such variety as it was in WWP is absent here. The second point which disappointed me is that the current 1.0 version is far from being bug-free, but Moregames don’t hurry to release further versions. If you’re a fan of artillery arcades or you just want to spend this tedious time while riding in metro, go right ahead and download the demo, because this is certainly a game that is worth to be tried. 

Overall score: 7.5.   

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