Web-based 3d games are really starting to take off thanks to the power and stability of Shockwave. Nanoquest is a cool 3d adventure came that was developed in ireland of all places. This game uses mission based platforming, but also has a lot of incentive to play as a collection game. You play as one of 2 characters, and the premise is that you are somehow shrunk to a sub-atomic scale. You need to build yourself a ride so you can get where you need to go in order to be brought back to normal size.
The art is pretty decent, a similar quality to what you would find in many high-end n64 games. The actual design of the levels kind of gives them a Tron type look.

The music and sound effects are well produced and work really well with the game. It’s just too bad there was no voice work, you will end up doing a lot of reading.

The gameplay is pretty basic run-and-jump platforming stuff, very easy to pick up. The controls are a tiny bit slow to respond at times, and the character takes a few seconds to get up to speed when running. Still, it’s not so bad that it’s terribly frustrating, and it’s kind of fun hauling ass at full speed and jumping from platform to platform.

Apparently collecting items can really pay off, as users with the highest scores are eligible for some great prizes, so if you are ambitious you can get a lot of replay value from this game.

I did find the sheer number of loading screens at the beginning of the game to be annoying, especially since I just wanted to play the damn game, but if you have a decent net connection, it’s not so bad at all.

All things considered, Nanoquest is a fun game, and is worth the initial wait… but you may find yourself skipping all the text-narration.

[ Play Nanoquest ]