Hands on: We take Nnooo’s Spirit Hunters Inc. and escapeVektor for a spin

After many trips to Sydney I at last had enough time to go visit the fine people at Nnooo and see what they’re working on. Finally I say!

With Spirit Hunters Inc due (in two flavours) for release on November 22nd and EscapeVektor for the 3DS (and Vita) planned for this year as well the guys were still flat out, but offered their time to show me their games.

Spirit Hunters Inc

I have to be honest; I’ve never really had an experience with an augmented reality game that I’ve really enjoyed. I’ve found most of them to be simple hide and go-seek games, or simple shooters that require you twist and squirm around for nothing. That has now changed with Spirit Hunters Inc.

In Spirit Hunters Inc. you’re recruited to a task force to take care of a whole variety of mischievous and funny looking spirits. They’re causing trouble and you’ll need to select the best element and skills to take them down. First you’ll have to find them though, and that’s where the AR comes in. You’ll have to search the real world to find your Spirit and depending on the time of day and the colours around you, the types of spirits that will appear will change.

I played a couple of demos that the guys had setup. There was a fresh game starting from Level 1 and battling with some simple types of attacks. You’ll have have to pick a starting element (I chose Fire) and with that element you’ll get the most simplest of attacks to start battling against ‘wild’ Spirits. You have to move your DSi or 3DS around to keep sight of the enemy, and there’s no defending to start with. You’ll have to attack as fast as possible, but while the first moves you learn might just require taps on the screen later moves require you to flick the screen, tap and hold, and draw circles. It gets quite hectic especially on the later levels.

The different elements aren’t just there to look pretty. Each element has a strength and weakness against other ones. Certain moves only work well against certain elements too, and even with a wide arrange of items it’s hard to keep on top of the Spirits.

Speaking of later levels, Nnooo then threw me in the deep end with a game with everything maxed out and the most difficult of enemies, with every move unlocked. Things got hectic fast and I didn’t last long. You’re going too need all the preceding levels to train up for these kinds of battles.

As you win battles you can then choose what moves you wish to learn in a particular element and expand your range of moves as you level up.  You’re going to need a lot of practise with this one, and maybe an office chair.

The Spirits themselves are characters in their own right as well. I laughed out loud at some of the designs of them; the ones in the top hats especially made me giggle. Once you defeat a spirit it’ll be added to your collection.

The game also features some quasi multiplayer as well. You can share codes with friends to swap challenges. This allows you easier ways to level up and more ways to collect all the spirits. The Nnooo team have been working on this game a long time and it shows. There’s tons of content here and it’ll take you a while to level up yourself and collect and battle all the Spirits.

escapeVektor

After hitting WiiWare last year, Nnooo is bringing the game with a slew of new levels and powerups to the 3DS and the the PS Vita. I got to go hands on with both of them and while the bigger Vita screen does make the game look nice, big and beautiful, the 3D effect on the 3DS help drive home the games story. You see Vektor is trapped in the CPU and it’s your job to get him out.

To achieve this though you need to fly around the grid covering the lines in order to unlock the exit. Some stages though have multiple segments so you won’t want to stop as you never really know when the end of the level is near.

This isn’t a straight port of the WiiWare version though. That game was dubbed ‘Chapter 1’ and since WiiWare is… well kind of dead right now, Nnnooo decided to roll all of the planned episodes into this one game. That means the new enemies such Muncher and Locust get their first showing. The Muncher is a new enemy who eats the lines you’ve already dropped and the Hornet will chase you for a little while then try and get the drop on you beam in front of your path.

Luckily you’ve got some new skills too though to avoid this, such as the boosternate which allows you to plow through your blast and boost you way through your enemies in your path. Each chapter in the game now focuses on each of these abilities slowly introducing them.

escapeVektor is connected to the internet the entire time you play (if you so wish!) so you can see how you rank against the world and your friends. You’ll want to get your route through the levels down to a fine art to get high scores; you will be hitting the restart button a lot. The boosternate levels which are more frantic did this for me. I must have been playing one level for about 10 minutes trying to get the route perfect. You’ll want to go a certain path to make sure when you reach the nodes that extend the levels you’re set to continue on in a timely fashion. Because if you falter on these levels, you’re gone.

Spirit Hunters Inc: Shadow and Spirit Hunters Inc: Light is out on November 22nd on the Australia, New Zealand, European and American DSi Shop (800 Points) and of course the Nintendo 3DS eShop as well. Bravo to Nnnoo for securely a worldwide release date!

escapeVektor is due out this year as well on the eShop and the PlayStation Vita.

Thanks to Nnooo for allowing me to come past and check out the games and their offices.