In Retro: "Nano Breaker" Review (PS2)

My review of said game circa 2005...

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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.

FINAL SCORE: 6.3 (Fair)