Razerwire: Nanowars is a retro (80's) action-arcade game that progression addicts are certain to love. The game reminds me of the games that I would play for countless hours as a child. It is the result of a lunchtime, 30-minute a day, project developed by a dev who works on much larger projects. That makes this a bit of a passion project that has been programmed with love.... and that love shines through.


When Razerwire: Nanowars went on sale the developer posted the deal to Reddit's r/Gamedeals and disclosed that the game was a part of an OtakuMaker bundle just as they went bankrupt. Unfortunately, he did not receive the ten thousand keys that he submitted back nor did he ever get paid for them. Other developers from the bundle who also never got paid had the keys revoked. However, knowing that legitimate purchases were made before the bundle was pulled, decided against revoking the keys. This resulted in a loss of hundreds of dollars from the loss of keys nor did he receive payment from OtakuMaker from the legitimate buyers.


Gameplay is simple. The player guides their monomolecular filament (the RazerWire) across the screen protecting its generator from the nanobugs whose sole purpose is to destroy it.

There is a lot of variety in the enemies each with their own intelligence, movement patterns, and level of aggressiveness. For example, some bugs will race towards your generator whilst the usually easier (sometimes not) bugs will hang out at the corner of the screen or go in multiple different ways with some of them just causing a distraction without necessarily heading to your generator. I personally found some of these bugs to be a greater challenge than those who are aggressive from the nanosecond they hit your screen.

Additionally, the further you play into the game the higher the types and total bugs are thrown at you. You're not just going to be seeing the same bugs on the screen at any one time. In order to be successful you're going to need to think on your feet and learn the movement of each bug.

I loved the upgrade system in the game. You can upgrade both your razerwire as well as your generator. You can upgrade these from both a defensive and offensive perspective. Each upgrade comes with a different cost. The player is awarded a unit of currency for every 1000 points that they score within the game. Upgrades cost between 1 and 3 units of currency at the beginning and scale up each time you upgrade.


As I grew up playing Commodore 64, Atari, arcade machines, and other early console games I was hoping for authenticity from the presentation. If a developer is going to bill their game as a 'modern revisitation of the 80s' arcades' then it can't be something super modern. Thankfully, the developer has delivered on this front in spades. It's everything that I could hope for from an 80's style presentation from a graphical perspective. Additional kudos needs to go to the musician, Ottavio Cambieri of Mashmachines[www.mashmachines.com].

The only downside I can see is that the lime green menu background comes off as dangerously garish. However, this is me being more pedantic than anything else.


For a low priced game there aren't many that possess higher levels of replayability. In fact, I would argue that the entirety of the game relies on it. There are multiple reasons for this.

First, at the end of every 'run' the player has the opportunity to start from the most recent checkpoint passed or to start from the beginning. This makes it so that there is never a point that you reach a wave that is too difficult for your ability level. Additionally, resetting to wave zero enables you to retain upgrades, nanopoints, and kills while only losing your score progress.

The downside to this replayability system and resetting scores is that the game gives you multiple (3) save slots. The replayability system almost makes having multiple save slots pointless. However, I'll readily admit that if you have family or friends who share your Steam account that would like to play they'll be able to do so without affecting your save. Simply give them their own slot.


High-Level Accessibility: The game can be played entirely through mouse (and trackpad for laptop users). It also has full controller support. As long as you can push the mouse/trackpad and use the left and right buttons then you can do everything that the game requires you to do.

• Steam Achievements
  
• Steam Leaderboards
  
• Steam Stats
  
• Steam Cloud

There are currently no trading cards available for players.


I purchased the game at its half-price discount thanks to the aforementioned sale. However, the game is cheap when it's not on sale at A$2.95. This makes the 'value for money' discussion kind of mute. At the price point you're not looking for several hundred hours of value.


I came with low expectations. I wanted to support a developer who did the right thing by gamers and to have a few minutes of low-value gaming fun. I thought I would then delete the game and it'd be +1 to my Steam game count. Anything more was gravy. I definitely have gravy. Razerwire: Nanowars is a game that I will keep installed on both my laptop and desktop. It's the perfect little throwback action arcade game that I will play for a few minutes during work hours when I need a quick pick me up. If you're looking for something similar in a game then you've come to the right place. An easy recommendation.


Personal Note: This is my first review since gaining a permanent disability. From now on my reviews will feature a disability accessibility component.

Razerwire: Nanowars is a retro (80's) action-arcade game that progression addicts are certain to love. The game reminds me of the games that I would play for countless hours as a child. It is the result of a lunchtime, 30-minute a day, project developed by a dev who works on much larger projects. That makes this a bit of a passion project that has been programmed with love.... and that love shines through. [h1]A Genuinely Pro-Gamer Developer[/h1] When Razerwire: Nanowars went on sale the developer posted the deal to [url=https://www.reddit.com/r/GameDeals/comments/b7y5ld/steam_razerwirenanowars_09950_off/]Reddit's r/Gamedeals[/url] and disclosed that the game was a part of an OtakuMaker bundle just as they went bankrupt. Unfortunately, he did not receive the ten thousand keys that he submitted back nor did he ever get paid for them. Other developers from the bundle who also never got paid had the keys revoked. However, knowing that legitimate purchases were made before the bundle was pulled, decided against revoking the keys. This resulted in a loss of hundreds of dollars from the loss of keys nor did he receive payment from OtakuMaker from the legitimate buyers. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] Gameplay is simple. The player guides their monomolecular filament (the RazerWire) across the screen protecting its generator from the nanobugs whose sole purpose is to destroy it. There is a lot of variety in the enemies each with their own intelligence, movement patterns, and level of aggressiveness. For example, some bugs will race towards your generator whilst the usually easier (sometimes not) bugs will hang out at the corner of the screen or go in multiple different ways with some of them just causing a distraction without necessarily heading to your generator. I personally found some of these bugs to be a greater challenge than those who are aggressive from the nanosecond they hit your screen. Additionally, the further you play into the game the higher the types and total bugs are thrown at you. You're not just going to be seeing the same bugs on the screen at any one time. In order to be successful you're going to need to think on your feet and learn the movement of each bug. I loved the upgrade system in the game. You can upgrade both your razerwire as well as your generator. You can upgrade these from both a defensive and offensive perspective. Each upgrade comes with a different cost. The player is awarded a unit of currency for every 1000 points that they score within the game. Upgrades cost between 1 and 3 units of currency at the beginning and scale up each time you upgrade. [h1]Presentation[/h1] As I grew up playing Commodore 64, Atari, arcade machines, and other early console games I was hoping for authenticity from the presentation. If a developer is going to bill their game as a 'modern revisitation of the 80s' arcades' then it can't be something super modern. Thankfully, the developer has delivered on this front in spades. It's everything that I could hope for from an 80's style presentation from a graphical perspective. Additional kudos needs to go to the musician, Ottavio Cambieri of [url=http://www.mashmachines.com/]Mashmachines[/url]. The only downside I can see is that the lime green menu background comes off as dangerously garish. However, this is me being more pedantic than anything else. [h1]Replayability[/h1] For a low priced game there aren't many that possess higher levels of replayability. In fact, I would argue that the entirety of the game relies on it. There are multiple reasons for this. First, at the end of every 'run' the player has the opportunity to start from the most recent checkpoint passed or to start from the beginning. This makes it so that there is never a point that you reach a wave that is too difficult for your ability level. Additionally, resetting to wave zero enables you to retain upgrades, nanopoints, and kills while only losing your score progress. The downside to this replayability system and resetting scores is that the game gives you multiple (3) save slots. The replayability system almost makes having multiple save slots pointless. However, I'll readily admit that if you have family or friends who share your Steam account that would like to play they'll be able to do so without affecting your save. Simply give them their own slot. [h1]Disability Accessibility[/h1] High-Level Accessibility: The game can be played entirely through mouse (and trackpad for laptop users). It also has full controller support. As long as you can push the mouse/trackpad and use the left and right buttons then you can do everything that the game requires you to do. [h1]Steam Features[/h1] [list] [*] Steam Achievements [*] Steam Leaderboards [*] Steam Stats [*] Steam Cloud [/list] There are currently no trading cards available for players. [h1]Value for Money[/h1] I purchased the game at its half-price discount thanks to the aforementioned sale. However, the game is cheap when it's not on sale at A$2.95. This makes the 'value for money' discussion kind of mute. At the price point you're not looking for several hundred hours of value. [h1]Final Verdict[/h1] I came with low expectations. I wanted to support a developer who did the right thing by gamers and to have a few minutes of low-value gaming fun. I thought I would then delete the game and it'd be +1 to my Steam game count. Anything more was gravy. I definitely have gravy. Razerwire: Nanowars is a game that I will keep installed on both my laptop and desktop. It's the perfect little throwback action arcade game that I will play for a few minutes during work hours when I need a quick pick me up. If you're looking for something similar in a game then you've come to the right place. An easy recommendation. [b]Personal Note: This is my first review since gaining a permanent disability. From now on my reviews will feature a disability accessibility component.[/b]