Arnold-KatayevIt seems like every publisher wants to get in on the extreme action genre that Devil May Cry has popularized in 2001. In the world full of Devil May Crys, Ninja Gaidens, and Shinobis, is there any more room for Konami's Nanobreaker? The build of Nanobreaker displayed at E3 was a small one. A mode called "Splatter Mode" was available to try out. Basically, Splatter Mode was a timed mode that tells you to collect as much "oil" as possible within 10 minutes. In order to collect "oil", you had to kill enemies, and when they did they splatter "oil". "Oil" is used very lightly, because it wasn't green or even yellow, but it was red…blood red to be exact. We feel that Konami will change "oil" to "blood" when the final version of Nanobreaker hits. "Oil" is collected automatically once you kill someone, and it is collected by the gallons.
The game played a lot like Devil May Cry, minus the handguns. Even though it felt very average and generic, it was strangely addictive and enjoyable. I managed to collect over 15,000 gallons of "oil" before I came to a boss battle and lost. Visually, Nanobreaker looked pretty clean. A decent amount of texture work has put done for the game, and the character detail does the job. The boss, in particular, was quite large and didn't show any signs of poor texturing. The framerate was stable and never slowed down. Nanobreaker may be one of Konami's most violent title since Nightmare Creatures 1 and 2, but unlike Nightmare Creatures, Nanobreaker is actually shaping up to be an enjoyable title. Hopefully, we can get a better look at the game as its release nears.