There's a nice piece over on the Nokia Developer blog highlighting the story of ZingMagic, a long time favourite developer here at AAS for polished native Symbian games. The piece covers how the company got started, how its games are built and recent success with advertisement-sponsored versions of its games.
ZingMagic just 'zinged' their most popular board game conversions, with 'V' (as in five) versions of Chess Pro, Chinese Chess Pro and Checkers Pro, all also available in free ad-supported and paid for versions, for touch and non-touch Symbian-powered smartphones. There are extra variants, graphics and skill levels all round. Details, background info, links and some screens below.
Read on For Four Fabulous Friday links of interest, for perusal over your morning coffee or orange juice. Firstly, over at the somewhat prolific Ovi Daily App blog, you may have noticed a few AAS writers guesting in recent months? It's my turn now with my comprehensive review of Sparkle. You'll recognise it - shooting coloured balls from a cannon - but don't switch off, as it's also one of the best implemented games I've ever played. Yes, EVER.
Botond.FM's 'instant' games have a definite appeal for quick gaming sessions. This is the latest incarnation of MicroPinball Casino, for S60 5th Edition phones, now with 'multitouch' even on resistive-screened devices - no, really. Here's my review of MicroPinball, tested on both the Nokia 5530 and the Samsung i8910, over on our Ovi Gaming site. Also posted this morning is my review of the free Color Master, which you'll know better under its classic board game title of 'Mastermind'. Hey, there goes your afternoon's productivity!
In All About Symbian Insight 133, we start with news of the Nokia 5250, Nokia's cheapest ever smartphone, following which, Steve shares some more detail from his recent reviews of Let's Golf and Mommax's Mains Battery Charger. Rafe talks about Nokia and Intel's new joint laboratory for 3D mobile user experiences. Finally Ewan gives us his commentary on the the re-branding of Nokia Music to Ovi Music. You can listen to AAS Insight 133 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
In All About Symbian Insight 129, we start with a number of short items: Angry Birds as a favourite game, Qt on Samsung and Sony Ericsson, Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition. In the second half of the podcast we respond to number of listener questions, from a discussion of how quality impacts on user experience, to how Nokia should market the N8 and the possibility of an Android Nokia device. You can listen to AAS Insight 129 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
"No..." "No..." "There he is!". Yes, for some Friday fun it's Capcom Europe's port of the popular children's book series, Where's Wally! How well does an artwork based book translate to the gaming world on your smartphone? Ewan decides to risk a pun and takes a look.
In All About Symbian Insight 127, we open with a discussion of Nokia's Terminal Mode, which is seeking to create an industry standard for the next generation of integration between cars and mobile phones. We follow this up with news of the Opera 10.1 beta, a sale of games in the Ovi Store, the announcement of furtiv's support for DropBox, the addition of Maps Reporter to Ovi Maps, and the opening of the Qt Developer Network. There's also a brief discussion of the number of software releases for S60 3rd Edition phones versus S60 5th Edition phones. You can listen to AAS Insight 127 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
In All About Symbian Insight 125, we welcome David Gilson to the podcast for the first time. This week we round up a lot of news including a rallying cry from Nokia's Anssi Vanjoki, details on SEE 2010, firmware updates for the E71, E66, N97 and N97 mini, SkyFire's market retreat, Nokia 5230 pricing and more. In the main part of the podcast David tell us about his experiences with the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro, Ewan talks about The Big Roll in Paradise and Rafe reports back from a 3UK briefing. You can listen to AAS Insight 125 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Steve Litchfield tries to use his golf game skills in 3D Nine Hole Golf for S60 3rd Edition, gets seriously impressed by the graphics and physics engine, but then finds himself frustrated by a poor interface and general gameplay. The title gets a 65% score and a 'must try harder' summary on its term report. Here's the full Ovi Gaming review.
David Gilson reviews a retro title from the Ovi Store in our Ovi Gaming review of Treasure Arm. With all the bells, whistles and game modes of a modern title, Treasure Arm only really disappoints because of a lazy display and control system. Still arcade puzzlers might still want to give this a try.
Breakout clones have been a computing staple since the earliest days of TV consoles. So it's not surprising to see yet another variant hit the Ovi Store. In this case it's 3D Brick Breaker Revolution 2, featuring psychedelic effects and more power-ups than you can imagine. But is it any good as a game? Steve Litchfield investigates in this first part of a double-review here on our very own Ovi Gaming site. In the second part, Ewan Spence looks at World Series of Poker 3: Hold Em Legend, admiring both its ambitious UI and gameplay but having reservations about the quality of its graphics.
Five Digital Chocolate games are free for a few days in Nokia's Ovi Store: Tower Bloxx New York, Crazy Penguin Party, Nightclub Fever, Rollercoaster Revolution and Dictator Defense are all free as part of a rolling promotional campaign that Nokia seems to be running with some of its Ovi Store publishers. Grab 'em while you can?
A java game that's essentially a cross-platform port. Doesn't sound promising, does it? Yet UniWar confounds the sceptics by being, in Ewan's words, 'faultless'. Whether playing alone or in online multi-player mode, the game looks great and has all the options and gameplay mechanics needed. Now available in the Ovi Store for both S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition phones, here's the full UniWar review here on our Ovi Gaming site .
The Symbian world's answer to 'Brain Training', SPB Brain Evolution has received a major update, bringing support for S60 5th Edition touchscreen-based devices with OS Symbian S60 v5. The title includes a set of "addictive mini-games which have to be played in sequence: only good results in a game unlock the next one". The game allows you to "improve your mental awareness and maintain your newly achieved brain fitness". Or you could just read a good book. Only joking - more details below.