Published by Steve Litchfield at 12:58 GMT, November 15th 2007
Steve Litchfield explores what's available for gamers in Nokia's Download! system, is impressed by some of the titles but sounds a note of caution.
If you're anything like me, you've noted the 'Games' section of your S60 smartphone's Download! application in passing but never felt confident enough to press ahead and try buying any of the content. In an insane moment this week, I decided this ought to change - in the interests of experimentation!
So here's my walkthrough of the browsing, buying and playing process:
So here's the Download! section on my Nokia N95 'Classic'. Note that Snakes is a full game, while Sonic and System Rush are demos. The other four icons represent game catalogues.
Clicking on a publisher icon gives a splash screen and then...
Around a dozen games are available, split into various categories. Here I'm heading straight for Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 07, as I'm a golf game nut....
Almost all games in the Download! system are set at 5 UK pounds. This is a standard price for J2ME (Java) games across the industry, I think. The low price reflects the slightly lower game quality (though see the last game below) and the fact that they're an ad-hoc purchase - if you wipe your device in a firmware upgrade or replace it, you have to buy any games all over again - although at only £5 each you probably won't be too upset at replacing a particular favourite.
Most games in Download! have a 'preview', although this turns out to just be the screenshot above and not a trial version - sadly!
The buying process happens immediately and online, with a premium SMS sent invisibly behind the scenes and your phone credit deducted by £5. It's quick and easy.
Once bought, the download is very quick over 3.5G, I'd say each game is quite a bit less than a Megabyte, although I couldn't see where they were unpacked and stored on my smartphone's file system. Scrolling down into the installation details confirms the fact that, although the games are listed for an S60 smartphone, they're plain Java games at the end of the day.
Some of Tiger Woods' startup screens, quite a few courses modelled in there....
Now we're getting somewhere... and hey, digital music too! All quite classy for a Java game...
A lovely graphical way to show the main controls! And then into the main gameplay.
In use, Tiger Woods 07 is a pretty good golf sim, with reasonable physics, just-about-acceptable animation rates and 3D effects, excellent controls, good-enough scenery and a great putting system (the white dots above animate to show gradients)
Time to forget the phone bill and make a play for another title - hey, a pinball game, this time under the 'glu' publisher brand. Same £5 deal, of course.
High quality graphics for a Java game again - I'm guessing that the versions here are purpose built for QVGA screens...
Poor Jerry, being bounced around like this. It's a quality pinball game too, although the screen is scrolled around so fast at times that it's easy to get a bit motion sick!
Ah yes, another top brand, this time Need For Speed: Pro Street. Although I love arcade racing games, this was just too easy and despite numerous errors, I found myself in the lead after lap 1 and there was just no sense of challenge. And the frame rate wasn't brilliant, if I'm honest. One to stay away from?
Last but definitely not least, Medal Of Honour: Airborne, with high budget digital soundtrack, silky smooth 3D texture-mapped animation, professional cut scenes. I have to admit, if I'd been handed this to play I just would NOT have believed it was a J2ME over-the-air game. There's obviously a high budget coming into play here, plus maturity from the fact that the title has been ported from other platforms. From the learn-while-you-play style to the action itself, Medal Of Honour is a terrific game and worth £5 of anyone's money, if only to see how well J2ME games can be implemented.
The only snag is that the game's tight control of the pone got in the way of doing screen captures, so I was limited to just the one, as you see above. Ah well.
From my experiments above, I'd say that I was pleasantly surprised by some of the titles - at only £5 many of them are an absolute steal, although I remain a little uneasy that something as simple as a firmware upgrade would mean having to buy my favourite games again.
If you have any comments on the download and purchasing process, or if you can contribute reviews or opinions on any other games currently available through Download!, please share them!
Steve Litchfield, AllAboutSymbian, 15 Nov 2007
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Categories: How To, Comment, Software
Platforms: General, S60 3rd Edition
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