They say the camera never lies, but sometimes screenshots do. It's not often that people say that, but they should, especially when they see Brother In Arms DS in action. If you look at the screenshots, you're going to notice the blocky textures, boxy buildings and popup-covering fog. But when you see it moving, and moving on the DS at that, you won't see these things. You'll be impressed. Trust me: this is a good-looking game and It really does showcase what Nintendo's little system is capable of. Although there's only going to be one winner in the handheld power awards - and, let's be honest, the DS isn't it - this game proves that the flip-open handheld isn't just about cutesy graphics and simple games.

The graphics are great, then, and what's more everything is animated believably; when you score a headshot your enemies collapse like puppets with the strings cut, or they dance jerkily if you go for the body with your submachine gun. Bullets zip and whiz past you and clouds of dust are thrown up when they hit the ground. When you're shot - and you will be, a lot - blood splatters and smears the screen. Aeroplanes perform strafing runs, tanks trundle into and over the landscape, armoured cars skid and spin past you, explosions light up the screen and feel genuinely exciting, enemy soldiers pour in like ants defending a hill, grenades fly and - most impressively of all perhaps - everything moves at a pretty solid frame rate.

But, at the end of the day is Brothers In Arms just another WWII shooter? Well, yes, but don't let that put you off, because this is one of the most immersing games I've played on the DS. The level design is so good that although you're actually pretty much on rails, you won't care. You'll be far too busy gunning down the enemy with a big grin on your face. Or driving a tank, or a jeep, or manning a stationary machine gun, or running while explosions crater the ground all around you, or sniping at the guy up on the tower who's trying to kill your comrades.

There are thirteen levels in total, spread over three locations - Normandy, Tunis and Ardennes. Each location has its own unique geography; Normandy has small villages in wooded countryside, Tunis has sandy wide-open spaces and Ardennes has smashed up buildings covered with snow. Each mission lasts for around ten to twenty minutes - perfect for a handheld game - and regular checkpoints ensure that you won't have too much ground to make up when you die. You won't often get stuck either; every mission has regularly placed objective indicators for you to move towards, with well-defined goals that are set out as you play. So, for example, let's say an enemy tank is spotted in the distance and our bazooka-toting ally is shot down. Instantly, a target is set on the fallen soldier and we're told to move, pick up the gun and kill the tank. This might sound like it's holding your hand too much, but it does work well and makes it a lot easier to keep up with the frantic action.

The controls let you keep up, too. Movement and strafing is on the d-pad (or face buttons if you're left handed), the shoulder button fires your weapon, and everything else - looking, weapon selection, reloading, grenades - is dealt with via the touch screen. The bulk of the bottom screen is filled with a metallic-looking surface for you to drag the stylus around on, controlling your view up above. Essentially, the touch screen becomes a mouse mat and this is definitely one of the few areas where the developers haven't used the system to its best advantage. In Metroid Prime: Hunters - a game with a very similar control system - the bottom screen also contains a scanner to show the locations of enemies. It's a shame that Gameloft couldn't have put something similar in here, or maybe even a proper map of each location to help you find ways of flanking the enemy.

However, the controls do work well. Changing your weapon is as simple as selecting it from a drop down list, reloading is accomplished by dragging a picture of your clip into the centre of the screen and lobbing a grenade is both simple and intuitive; you drag the grenade up a sliding scale, which also moves a cursor around the ground on the top screen, showing you where it will land. It's elegant and it works well, even in the heat of battle when you're going to die if that grenade doesn't hit perfectly.

The sound really adds to the sense of immersion. When you fire up the game, you're greeted by the kind of rousing music you'd expect - sweeping melodies and snare drums. There's similar music between missions too, but during the game itself there's no music at all. To be honest, though, this is a good thing, as it gives more prominence to the sound effects, which are pretty good. Guns fire with convincing bite, tanks and half-tracks rumble and the big cannons boom, enemy soldiers cry out when they're dying and your squad leader barks commands occasionally to direct you. The only noticeable problem is that a lot of the banter occurs in text rather than voiceover. This may be a technical limitation - after all, those little cartridges can only hold so much - but it's very noticeable and it breaks the sense of immersion that this game is otherwise very good at creating. This happens especially during the longer bits of dialogue; it really slows things down. In fairness though, these pauses are normally well placed and follow natural breaks in the action, so you might not notice them too much.

Brothers In Arms' real problem is that things are just so easy and so short. It'll probably take you between four and six hours to run through all of the missions first time round, and it would be quicker if it weren't for the many occasions where you will die over and over again. Most of the game is easy - far too easy, even in the so-called 'elite' mode, which is unlocked by completing missions in normal and then veteran difficulties - but certain scenes are shockingly hard. Until, that is, you work out which order to kill things in, and then it's simply a memory test while you run through the scripted sequence.

These sections, and the fact that you do have to play the game through a few times to get your money's worth, uncover the heavily scripted nature of the AI. The first time through a mission, you'll be overwhelmed by the numbers of enemy soldiers and vehicles coming at you, and the sounds and sights of all their firepower. But on the second, or third, or fourth time through you'll find yourself aiming for the right bit of scenery before an enemy pops up, or you'll be running to the wall that's about to collapse under the tracks of a tank, or you'll be halfway up the tower before the order comes, or you'll be... well, you get the idea.

It's a real shame that, given the brevity of the solo campaign, there isn't a decent multiplayer game underneath all this. Instead, there's a simple deathmatch mode, which isn't online and which needs all of the contenders (up to four of you) to have their own copy of the game. Metroid Prime has already proven that the DS can do online shooters, and do them well, so it seems really strange that Brothers In Arms doesn't have an online mode. It could do with one: either that, or more single player missions.

Many single player games are plot-heavy, but the storyline here is pretty much non-existent. It doesn't really matter though, because for all its technical complexity, this is an old-fashioned and simple shooter. Brothers in Arms DS isn't strategic in the way that, say, Road to Hill 30 was. You don't command a squad, so you don't get attached to the men, there's no map to examine and you can't issue orders. There is a squad of men with you, but they're nameless and unimportant, cannon fodder for the enemy while you get on with the real work. Your comrades have a tendency to stand around, shooting vaguely in the direction of the Germans, but missing them altogether. It's up to you to actually hit them. Occasionally one of your fellow soldiers dies, but there's no sense of loss; you know another will appear in a minute. Your brothers in arms are perhaps only there to make everything more exciting, louder and more epic in scale, but essentially you work on your own.

Unlike its more strategic predecessors, Brothers In Arms DS is an out-and-out shooter, and the fast action, the usefully wide-angled over-the-shoulder camera, the intuitive controls and the short missions all combine to make this a brilliant handheld game. Make no mistake - shortcomings aside, this is fantastic. It's technically impressive, sounds great, looks amazing, immerses you in the missions, and, best of all, is awesome fun to play. I just wish it took a little bit longer before it was all over.

Reviewed by Dom Turner for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).