Thomas Boys draws the curtains and gets personal with the iTech Bluetooth Virtual Keyboard, with keys drawn by lasers. Don your dark glasses now and read the review.
Ewan gives Jewelrumble a good workout in his review and finds a Bejewelled clone that's well implemented, has some bonus features and is compatible with a large number of Symbian smartphones.
Nokia's latest N-Gage game, One, is more than a simple beat 'em up. It's got connectivity galore, and is a massive connected prize fight. But can it take the punishment of an All About review?
Nokia are continuing what can only be seen as a successful strategy of releasing demo versions of the big MMC Game Card titles - following the System Rush demo, fans of Rifts: Promise of Power can now download the first few levels of the full game from the N-Gage Arena. Rifts is expected to be released to the world in the next few weeks.
The Series60.com web site, run by all the Series 60 licensees, has been revamped and relaunched. See what you think. And, if you fill in their questionnaire, you might like to request acknowledgement of your favourite Symbian news and reviews site(!)
Chris Heathcote describes it as "The Future of Mobile Gaming," and who are we to argue? Series 60 Conkers has to be one of the greatest game ideas yet, and turns any device (in Chris case a 6630) into the gaming platform for the season... "the next generation of tangible physical locative mobile play" is here. And when all the conkers are finished, the extreme mode kicks in. Nice one Chris, but I need to check my insurance first for the latter.
High Seize, the pirate based strategy adventure has set sail from Finalnd and should be in retail stores early this week. Can you find the treasure, save the girl and rescue your father? And what will you do as you travel between islands? Well you could nudge your memories with Asteroids, Battlezone, Black Widow, Millipede, Missile Command, Red Baron, Lunar Lander and Super Breakout. They're all part of Atari Masterpieces (vol 1) - both titles should now be available for purchase in your local N-Gage Emporium. If not, make them walk the plank.
N-Gage users in Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the UK can take advantage of Nokia's new online N-Gage Store to purchase the accessories announced at E3. The range includes the N-Gage QD Dual Sim pack, Bluetooth handsfree unit and the Snap-on Speaker. We'll review the accessories in the near future.
It's finally here. Sure it's a beat em up, but the fact that this one looks so absolutely gorgeous, plays as smooth as it does (30 frames per second) and it's running on a mobile... One is pretty much a flagship title, and deservedly so. And that's before you consider global rankings, arena functionality, a massive customisation of your characters looks, and the sheer scale of combos makes it a perfect genre title that is exactly what you'd expect on a full sized console.
One clear message from Nokia's 'N-Gage in Barcelona' is that there will be no new N-Gage hardware in the near future (ie first half of 2006). The continuing push on mobile gaming, and driving the N-Gage brand onto other Series 60 devices in the next few years means that any new unit development would drain too many resources. Given some of the titles that have broken cover for 2006, and the plans laid out by Gerard Weiner and Nokia, I think it's a good decision. More news and commentary from Barcelona is going to be forthcoming.
Although exact information from the Barcelona N-Gage & Next Gen gaming event is scarce right now, a few facts have filtered through, including the announcement by Nokia of two new games developed exclusively for N-Gage: Habbo Islands (which will allow existing and new members of the extremely popular Habbo Hotel community to interact in an N-gage-exclusive area of the Habbo world filled with tasks and mini-games), and Shadow-Born (a very very bizarre-sounding game which uses all aspects of your N-Gage or smartphone, including text messages, the to-do list, the calendar etc).
Symbian in conjunction with Forum Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and UIQ has announced the Symbian Signed Freeware Route to Market, sponsored and paid for by Symbian and the supporting companies.
Chris Heathcote describes it as "The Future of Mobile Gaming," and who are we to argue? Series 60 Conkers has to be one of the greatest game ideas yet, and turns any device (in Chris case a 6630) into the gaming platform for the season... "the next generation of tangible physical locative mobile play" is here. And when all the conkers are finished, the extreme mode kicks in. Nice one Chris, but I need to check my insurance first for the latter.