When I was younger, I remember an episode of one of my favorite TV shows which almost perfectly explains the premise behind Nanobotz.   I won’t say which show, for fear of aging myself right out of this community.  Nonetheless, in this episode, the main character begins to shrink.  It starts as just a few inches, but before long, he has reached Lilliputian proportions.  Had he stopped there, everything might have been OK.  But he did not.  He kept right shrinking until he actually fell out of (or more precisely into) the universe.

Eventually, he shrunk down to a size where he could see full sized atoms with the naked eye.  He kept going further still, and found that the atoms were now the size of planets to him.  And on those planetary atoms, he find an entire civilization.  Now, I have no idea how these atoms found warmth or light, or an atmosphere, but that is beside the point.  The point is that when our character shrunk to a small enough size, he discovered an entire universe within our universe.  In fact, the theory would go that there are billions of atomic universes throughout our world alone.  SHAZBOT!  And living within these universes are infinitesimally small creatures called Nanobotz.  It is within this universe that we set our stage. "Nano-Nano".

Installation and Registration: Nanobotz can be installed through the usual methods.  Simply download the game onto your computer and then load it onto your device via ActiveSync or Windows Mobile Device Center.  There is also a cab file for over the air installation.  This cab file, however, did not seem to work either from the main product page or from their alternate Clickgamer page.  One other issue which has been noted involves the VGA version.  Apparently, the VGA version can cause some lags and other problems.  As such, in their forums, Pocket More Games recommends installing the QVGA version on both QVGA and VGA devices (in the interest of full disclosure, I do not have a VGA device anymore, so I could not test this problem myself.)

Once you do have the game installed, you will be able to enjoy 25 minutes of gameplay before you will need to register it.  Even though you will have access only to a limited arsenal of weapons, I found this was more than enough time to test the game extensively and determine whether a purchase was warranted.

Overview and Gameplay: Nanobotz is an artillery strategy game which takes place in Microworld.  Where is Microworld?  Somewhere in outer space?  Not quite.  More like Inner Space.  Microworld exists as a universe within the universe, it is found in the spaces between atoms.  These spaces are extremely violent, with huge, barely inhabitable asteroids crashing into each other.  And, of course, there is the war.  You see, the blue bots hate the green bots.  Who also hate the yellow bots.  Yellow bots in turn hate the red bots.  All for some unknown slight which probably occurred several millennia ago.  The point is, anytime any of these different races of bots come into contact with each other, you guessed it, everything degrades into a shooting war.  Of course, it does not help that the bots are really nothing more than giant cannons.

When you start the game, the bots will all be randomly scattered across the asteroid field.  Of course, the number of asteroids will increase depending upon which size universe you create.  This is a turn based game, and in each turn one bot gets to take a single shot.  So, select your weapon, aim, and fire at the selected bot.  Hopefully you can knock him down a few pegs.

Speaking of your arsenal, Nanobotz offers an impressive and creative array of weapons.  There are 28 weapons available in your arsenal, along with seven special items (special items allow you to move around the board, replenish health, or build a shield).  The weapons range in value from your free default gun to the $2000 nuclear weapon.  The more powerful a weapon is, the more expensive it will cost.

At the beginning of each round, you will visit the arsenal where you can spend the money you have earned (each successful hit will earn money, each time you get hit you lose money) on new weapons.  Tap a weapon to view its description and value, then tap the buy button to purchase it.  Twenty-eight weapons may not seem like a lot,  Atomic Cannon offers nearly double that amount, but it was more than enough to make the game enjoyable and challenging. 

Although gameplay closely resembles other games in this genre, there is a significant different which makes Nanobotz stand out from the others.  Most games (such as Atomic Cannons) take place on terra firma, solid ground, Earth.  Since this one takes place in the space between atoms, it is like fighting in outer space.  Each shot must pass through or around the other asteroids.  This makes for some interesting and unique physics.  The asteroids are not passive, destructible elements in this game.  As your missile passes the asteroid, you will notice it start to curve.  Yup, that’s right, each asteroid has its own gravitational field, which will affect the flight path of your shot.

Likewise, when you take a hit, the force of the blow will send you spinning backwards.  If that blast knocks you off of your precarious perch on the asteroid, then watch out.  You may find yourself bouncing and spinning through space, desperately trying to find a perch upon another asteroid before you completely lose control.  Of course, you can also move around without getting knocked out of control by a missile.  You have a jet booster which can send you on a semi-controlled jump into space.  You also have a rope which allows you to swing from one asteroid to another; or a digger which will burrow your bot deep within the relative safety of the interior of the asteroid.  If you really need to get there fast, you can even use a teleportation device which will drop you anywhere you need to go.

Obviously, what this all adds up to is that the last one standing wins.  Pretty simple, really.  Just blow up all of your opponent’s bots.  Sounds easy enough.  Of course, he will be firing back at you so watch out.  Blow up his bots before he destroys yours and you win the round.  If he blows up all of your bots, or if all of the land surfaces are destroyed, then you will lose the round.  If you set up multiple rounds, then you will be able to visit the arms depot and purchase new weapons in between rounds.

Menus and Options: I don’t think I can explain the menus any better than the way one member of the Nanobotz support forum put it:

ok, we get it, nanobots…nanomenu.

Yup, the menus are small.  In fact, the menus are in a small screen which takes up about a third of the screen.  This makes for a menu which is extremely difficult to read and navigate.  There is really no good reason that the menus could not more effectively utilize the full screen.

Making matters worse, the menus are just plain confusing.  Each item has an arrow pointing in both directions.  One would assume that tapping one arrow would cycle forward to the next option and pushing another arrow would cycle back to the previous option.  One would be wrong.  In fact, tapping the menu item always cycles to the next option. 

Nonetheless, the menus do offer quite a bit of control over the game.  You can customize the size of the universe, how many players will compete and how many bots each player will control, how many rounds in the game, whether there will be atomic wind or mines, and how much money you will start with to buy weapons.  While I loved being able to reset these options with each new game, I did find after a while that I tended to use more or less the same options every time.  As such, it would have been nice if the game would save your selections and remember them for next time.

Memory: Just a quick note on the memory requirements for this game…it requires a lot of RAM in order to load and run.  According to the product page, the game requires 12 MB or program memory to run.  Considering I usually have 15-20 available after a soft reset, that is  a fairly hefty price to pay.  In testing Nanobotz, however, I found this 12 MB to be on the low side of what the game would actually require.  Frequently, I found that unless I had up to 15 MBs of memory, the game would either not load or would crash during gameplay.  By comparison, Atomic Cannon which is based upon a similar gameplay model require only 5 MB of program memory.

Conclusion: I was extremely impressed by Nanobotz.  The graphics are superb, like all of More Games’ offerings.  The simple change in atmosphere from two tanks duking it out on the ground to groups of bots blasting through the asteroids makes for an exciting change to this genre, and really sets Nanobotz apart from the competition.  Of course, Nanobotz is not without its problems.  The menus are terribly small and not particularly user friendly.  Someone really needs to inject a blue pill so these menus will grow a little.  Also, like most More Games’ games, this one is a real memory hog.  Get ready for 12-15 MB each time you play.  But those are tangential issues.  Once you are in the game, you won’t be thinking about how much memory you are using, and the menus are only an issue in setting up each game, they do not affect gameplay in any way.  So, sit back and get ready to enjoy the full destructive firepower of Nanobotz.  Though it does make you wonder, exactly where in our universe does the Microworld of Nanobotz exist?  It could be on your desk right now…in your computer screen…or maybe in the lining of your stomach…which would certainly explain that acid indigestion!  Happy Hunting.

Vital Stats:

Name: NanoBotz

Developer: More Games Entertainment (PocketMoreGames)

Where To Buy: PocketMoreGames

Price: $19.95

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