The original escapeVektor came out on WiiWare in September of last year, with the intention of the game continuing in future episodic releases. The first chapter, the only one released, included five worlds of action in which the aim was to fill in all the lines on a grid by moving your ship over them and avoiding enemies. Nnooo has since dropped the episodic angle and is bringing the game to the 3DS eShop, with all the planned content for the WiiWare episodes and then some, totaling 27 worlds.

escapeVektor has a relatively simple concept: fill in all the lines. Like most simple games with a simple concept, the interesting part of the game comes through in the details of how you get there. You face a number of different enemy types, and use several different types of power-ups to maneuver yourself away from, around, or straight through them. I played levels from multiple parts of the game, and some of the later stages pack a real challenge.

The enemies you face have different behavior types, and must be handled accordingly. The simplest type merely follows a set pattern, and can be avoided by just staying out of their way. Other types, however, will chase after you relentlessly, and even erase your progress along the lines, creating a mad dash to build up your power-up meters to take them out.

The first power-up I ran into in my time with the game was the boost. Using it depleted a meter built up by covering lines, and allowed me to get away from enemies and cover ground faster. Other levels required using this power-up to get from a switch to the gate it opened before the system reset, creating a frantic and fun rush through the level.

Another power-up lets you detonate a bomb, taking out any nearby enemies in the process. You acquire these bombs by filling in all sides of a box. This requirement created the central mechanic in my favorite level of the demo: I had to build up the boost meter enough to outrun an enemy in the process of erasing my progress, and I had to find a way to fill in a box before he could erase any of it in order to get a bomb I could detonate to destroy him.

The most fun power-up I experienced in the game, though, was what they called “Boostinate,” a combination of the two previously mentioned power-ups that allows you to kill enemies by plowing straight through them.

In my short time with escapeVektor, I experienced a variety of interesting uses of the simple concept the game is built around. This game has a good amount of depth, at least based on what I’ve seen, and a lot of content, and looks like it’ll a strong addition to the eShop when it comes out later this year.