Nano Assault Neo

Nano Assault Neo is a twin-stick shmup from the German studio Shin'en Multimedia, which built a reputation on Wii U thanks to visually impressive eShop titles running on limited hardware with surprising graphical quality. The player controls a small ship inside a microscopic world resembling cells and organic structures, with the environment made up of spherical asteroids and organic formations across whose surface the ship moves and fires at enemy microorganisms and bosses. The game continues the earlier 3DS title Nano Assault and brings its microscopic-world concept to more powerful hardware.

Gameplay combines classic shmup elements with a structure of gradually unlocking weapons and abilities between levels, with stages that are short but demanding, encouraging repeated play for score and leaderboards. The spherical shape of the game's arenas forces the player to think in the whole space around them, not just on one plane, giving the gameplay an unusual sense of spatial depth. The Wii U version used the GamePad to display a radar and supplementary information, while the main image ran on the television in high resolution with strong particle effects and a smooth frame rate even in more hectic passages with dozens of enemies and projectiles on screen.

The game was praised in its time especially for its graphics, which were among the best the Wii U eShop had to offer, and it proved that even a smaller independent studio could pull a visually impressive result out of the console. The atmosphere is rounded out by electronic music supporting the fast pace of the action and underscoring the futuristic, organic setting. Today, Nano Assault Neo is remembered as one of the most technically accomplished eShop titles of the generation and an example of how the shmup genre came alive in a modern, clear form without losing its old-school demands.

Why play it: Thanks to its above-average visuals and electronic soundtrack, it's one of the most technically accomplished eShop titles of the generation, ideal for fans of modern, clearly readable shmups.