Nanda, the panda of
Nanda's Island, is something of a shaman in training. The only skill he's learned is the rain dance, and he's determined to use it to bring his dry world back to life.
Nanda's Island is, as mentioned, a physics-based puzzle game. Each level begins with a rain cloud that is ready to start pouring water. You'll need to guide that precious water to a seed in order to make Nanda's dry world bloom again.
Unlike other games in the genre, Nanda's Island gives you a bit more of a feeling of control. To guide the water to where it needs to go, you simply draw lines for it to give it a ramp, or a wall where needed. You can also control the pace of the game by drawing little reservoirs to stop the water. This feeling of control is perhaps, just a feeling, as the water doesn't always behave like you'd think it should.
A few different types of plants add challenge to the game. The Target Plant is your main goal, the place you want to ultimately send all the water. Along the way, you might encounter the Fountain Plant, which will launch water in a high arc across the map. The Watering Plant is one that will supply you with more water when it is watered, helping you reach your watering goal for the Target Plant. You also need to control your ink usage along the way. You can erase your previous lines when they aren't needed in order to recover ink for use in the rest of the map.
There are a couple of ways to play the game. You can do the traditional Puzzle Mode, which lets you beat each level in order of difficulty. In this mode, you can earn little things to liven up the map view of the island like birds or elephants. Or you can play Arcade Mode, which lets you play any level from the start, but places restrictions like limited lives on the gameplay. You can earn more by scoring well on each level, and you can compete for a high score with, well, whomever else is playing the game on your DS.
