It’s surprising to considering that despite the huge popularity of the World War II shooter on virtually every other platform, the Nintendo DS has been bereft of any missions to the war. UbiSoft has aimed to change that with their pint-sized port of the popular Brothers In Arms series. The results are passable, but the usual issues with controls hamper an otherwise technically impressive game.

War On the Run!

The structure of Brothers In Arms DS is completely by the numbers. The game is divided into three campaigns, each with about six of so individual missions. Don’t expect anything deep or meaningful in the mission design, but there’s plenty of Nazi-killing action to be had. Unlike the big console versions, the storyline is definitely lacking and the game isn’t squad-based or first person.

This time around, you’ll view the action from behind your soldier and you don’t have any control of your allied troops. As usual for portable shooters on both the DS and PSP, controls are the main breaking point of the entire game. In this case, Brothers In Arms tries hard to find a way to use the stylus as an equivalent to a PC mouse. The action takes place in the top screen. You’ll look, aim, reload, and throw grenades from the touch screen.

Some of the stylus usage is creative—such as dragging a clip to your gun icon to reload or the drop down menu to switch weapons. Unfortunately, these little touches, while interesting, feel slightly extraneous. Aiming and looking with the stylus simply doesn’t feel convenient, and after a while, can actually hurt. Turning isn’t responsive enough since you’ll have to keep swiping at the screen to change direction. When the game isn’t throwing enemies at you from all directions, the controls are certainly manageable, but when a firefight gets heated, everything tends to feel frustrating and muddled.

The OK War

On the plus side, Brothers In Arms looks very good. The 3D graphics have a PSOne-look to them, but offer a surprising amount of detail and solid animation. The game also throws in four-way free-for-all and team deathmatches, but requires all players to have a copy of the game.

Unfortunately, the controls just feel flawed and the mission design is remarkably uninspired. Still, if you want a WWII kick on your DS, this is the only game in town. While it’s not as good as it could be, it’s not horrible either.

Article by: Jason D’Aprile