What a great time to be a handheld shoot-em-up fan! On the commercial front, Nanostray 2 just hit store shelves and Ketsui DS is still on the way. Homebrew gamers had their lives changes by Super Wings's release last week, and now they have two more titles to play with -- OpenTyrian DS and World Reborn.
OpenTyrian DS (v0.2) is a port of vertical-scrolling shooter Tyrian, originally a PC title. Players pick up cash while blasting their way through stages which they can then spend on ship modifications in between levels. There's a huge variety of upgrades available for purchase -- primary and secondary weapons (with 11 levels), "sidekicks," shields, energy generators, and even alternate ships. If you have a flaschart handy, you definitely need to try this one out.
As for World Reborn, this horizontal-scrolling SHMUP (with an RPG leveling system) was originally intended as a commercial GBA release and even had a DS sequel planned for a minute, but the game never made it to the retail market. Though developer NeoPong (now defunct) had plans to publish World Reborn with DSI Games, that deal fell through, and the studio has decided to put up the ROM for free rather than pack it away in a warehouse, Indiana Jones-style. Jump past the post break for a trailer of the game.
Read - Download OpenTyrian DS
Read - Download World Reborn
Despite the legal quandaries that often follow these unsanctioned projects, progress continues on 
The average DS owner is quite pleased with the games available on their dual-screened wonder. As a result, the need and desire for emulation software is a bit less than...ahem...some other portable systems out there. To even begin loading homebrew apps on a DS, one has to have a bit of technical knowledge, a rather expensive flash cart, and some unwieldy hardware/software setups. Till now.
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