June 6, 2007 - In Nintendo DS terms, Ubisoft' s Gameloft division is best known for the Asphalt: Urban GT series as well as the port of Splinter Cell, games that aren' t really that noteworthy in the dual-screen handheld' s library. After playing the team' s Brothers in Arms DS, Gameloft could have their first massive hit on the portable. We' ll hold off any final thoughts for when we review this release in a few weeks, but so far this game is one impressive handheld experience.

Brothers in Arms DS is a third-person action game that takes place during World War II. Players run through several different missions based upon real life events, running through enemy territory and taking out German soldiers using the precision of the Nintendo DS touchscreen.

The Nintendo DS version of Brothers in Arms appears to be a conversion of the highly-rated mobile phone design, Brothers in Arms 3D. I' ve never played the cellphone version, but many of the screenshots shown for the mobile edition mirror what I' ve seen in the Nintendo DS game. Visually the game looks great even if the framerate has to be brought down just a tad -- luckily the game' s not as quick-paced as first-person shooters so it' s easy to overlook that the game' s not running quite at 30 frames per second. Environments are incredibly detailed, and there' s a lot of extensive effects going on, like destructible buildings and cool dirt explosions, to give that " you are there" feel.

But this is clearly no mere port as Gameloft has really taken its time to ensure that the Nintendo DS control elements are used as intuitively and ingeniously as possible. Most importantly, the game uses the D-pad and stylus combination to give the game a very PC-like feel. Your main character moves forward, back and strafes side to side with the D-pad. On the touch screen, you' ll move a reticule around like a mouse to look around with precise control as well as to aim your weapons. Firing is assigned to the shoulder button, and all sorts of weapon commands are on the touch screen -- reloading your pistol uses a very " Touch the Dead" mechanic of dragging bullets from one side of the screen to the gun icon, and switching weapons uses a rather cool pull-down menu where you' ll tap the gun to bring up the other weapons to tap. And then there' s the really slick grenade interface: tap-and-holding the grenade icon will set up the target, and sliding the stylus upwards will adjust how far the trajectory will go. Lifting up on the screen will send that pineapple off into the crowd. Nice.

A lot of the game' s control is context sensitive -- reach a bunker and your character will automatically duck for cover. Make your way to the side of a building and he' ll press his back up against it. Sidle over to a corner and you' ll be able to target enemies...then leap out to take ' em out with precise aim.

And it' s not just the visuals and gameplay that are impressive -- the DS game also has a top-notch presentation to match the console renditions. Allies call out mission objectives in recorded voice-over, and all missions have a structure where scripted events happen as players move complete tasks and reach certain points in the map. The final version of the game will have local multiplayer, but since we only have one copy of the game we couldn' t check it out.

Watch for a review when Brothers in Arms ships in late June. Hit the media link to check out the game in action.