Nanobreaker (PlayStation 2) review "If you could take a sci-fi story line, a cyborg he-man character, and throw in some Castlevania 3-D fighting style in it, what would the baby come out like?.....pretty ugly. I think that is the only description that you could give Konami's Nano Breaker. Anybody who enjoyed Lament of Innocence would expect to be in for a treat, but ladies and gentlemen Igarashi left you at the end of a cliff ready to fall off. I think you would be better off falling off the cliff, then having to play this game fo..."

If you could take a sci-fi story line, a cyborg he-man character, and throw in some Castlevania 3-D fighting style in it, what would the baby come out like?.....pretty ugly. I think that is the only description that you could give Konami's Nano Breaker. Anybody who enjoyed Lament of Innocence would expect to be in for a treat, but ladies and gentlemen Igarashi left you at the end of a cliff ready to fall off. I think you would be better off falling off the cliff, then having to play this game for non needed waste of hours.

Players will take the role of a cyborg-man who goes by the name of Jake. Seems kind of a simple name for somebody who is feared by a lot of the human race. The endless slaughter he did lead to his supposed execution that never took place. Now Jake has been summoned by the government to take down things that were once humans, and set things back to normal on the island. The humans who lived on the island took the role of a host for the microscopic nanomachines placed into their bodies. And all the scientists on the island wanted to take advantage of the hidden power possessed by the nano's.

Well Konami wouldn't let you just go to a random island an start killing people for no reason, they obviously put some attempt to a story. The main computer on Nanotechnology Island had some malfunctions and lead to the nanomachines going crazy. The islanders are unwillingly transformed into what are known as Orgamechs, and go crazy on anything around them. Now all Jake has to do is take his Plasma Blade issued by the government,
and blow anything and everything away. Oh and don't forget that you have to find some self centered chick and bring her back alive...but we all know you want to just kill and blow things up.

Nano Breaker is the same type of 3-D action game as any and all that have came out. You will start out with a few abilities, that include a couple of slash attacks, a unnecessary jump button, and eventually work your way up to becoming the ultimate fighter....or is that UFC? The way for Jake to get stronger, is he needs to find well placed combo chips. With each one he finds, his combos can blend together for each button you use. Most of these combos seem useless during the levels, but they can come in handy when you have a rough boss battle. Some combos also help out when you have a lot of enemies around you,but since the enemies have such low health, it wouldn't take a couple of attacks to take them all down anyway.

It seems that the enemy has no real purpose in the game but to annoy you. If you wanted, you could just skip all the enemies to save you time, then make your way to the boss of the level. The only time they really pose a threat is if a large group and they won't stop attacking you as you try to get up. Other than that, the usual enemies tend to be worse than the occasional bosses you fight. Each boss has one specific way to beat them, and trust me it takes no brains to figure out how to take a boss down. As I mentioned earlier, your best bet is to blow past the main Orgamechs and save yourself some time.

The layout of the levels seemed kind of sluggish. It would be really easy for one to misinterpret a jump with Jake. Since Konami put a horrible jumping mechanic in, you could only expect the worse. The only thing that could save you a little bit of trouble is the double jump technique, which still leaves you a little dry sometimes. The camera can also be your worst enemy when certain puzzles arise through the levels. The puzzles really take no talent to complete, but since Konami made the controls the worse way they could, it takes a little more work than expected. It's also hard to tell with the graphics whether or not you're going to a correct platform or not. That's where the level map can come to your rescue!

The only thing it seems that Konami had going for them, would have to be the graphics, but they also messed that up as well. Videos in the game were well designed, and probably would be the only thing to keep the gamer into Nano Breaker. One aspect it seems that Konami forgot about, was the fact the blood/oil needs to look realistic. Some games can have it down to the plasma, but Nano Breaker just seemed to have a bunch of Zombie like creatures with jelly in their veins. Blood/Oil is spilled all over the place, and it almost seems unnecessary at times. The only way you can spare seeing the MS Paint blood is by changing the color to black, so it makes it harder for you to see. The Orgamechs seemed to pose a threat in the videos, but when you actually confront them, they just seem like upgraded monsters from Parasite Eve. The Blood/Oil is measured on the bottom right of the screen, and the more that you spill, the more health regeneration you will receive. So get to slashing!

As far as sound quality you could just imagine the worse. It seems that Konami just has a list of bad voice actors, and hires them for each of their crappy titles they release. It would only make sense to mix crap with crap, and make a pile! Like any hack and slash game it gets annoying hearing the protagonist yelling the same 3 grunts with his attacks. I think Konami records the voice actors while they are using the restroom. There is no good music to cover up the grunts either, so your best bet is to place one of your favorite cd's in the cd player, and maintain the little amount of sanity you still control.

In a conclusion, Nano Break just doesn't have what any gamer seems to like play. With horrible game play, and few upgrades, all is seemed lost when wasting brain time for this game. If you were hoping for a great hack and slash game, then I am sorry to inform you, but Nano Breaker is not for you. If you would like to pay your lunch money for a hopeless game then be my guest, but I think even Konami knows that they had too much time on their hands to make such a pathetic attempt at a action game.

Community review by alucard517 (September 12, 2005) A bio for this contributor is currently unavailable, but check back soon to see if that changes. If you are the author of this review, you can update your bio from the Settings page.