YACOB is a favourite Ewan term, meaning Yet Another Clone Of Bejewelled. And he gets to use it quite a lot! However, despite being YACOB, Fruitz is done well enough that it still gets Ewan's Ovi Gaming seal of approval - he just wishes they'd got a sound engineer in to help with the production.
Digital Chocolate, a well known mobile and web games developer, has announced that its products have been downloaded from the Ovi Store more than 4 million times. To celebrate the announcement Digital Chocolate is, in a limited number of European countries, making five of its game titles available for free via the Ovi Store during April and May (variants of Tower Bloxx, Rollercoaster Rush, Crazy Penguin Party and Dictator Defense). Read on for further details and links.
In his latest Ovi Gaming review, Ewan takes to the skies in Polarbit's strangely realistic WW2 aviation shoot 'em up. With Armageddon Squadron often being sighted in the Ovi Store for free, this is definitely one to snap up, even if you'll need decent flying skills and plenty of patience to progress all the way to the end.
What's super-simple to understand, super-addictive to play and available right now in the Ovi Store? Phit Droid is the answer and has been giving Ewan some serious puzzling fun on his recent travels. The only negative is the unpolished opening menu, but otherwise it's positives all the way in this 80%-scored review here on AAS's Ovi Gaming.
New from SPB Software, arriving both fully formed and touch-only from day one, Quadronica clone 'SPB Quads' sees you trying to reveal and mark rectangle corners of the same colors in a field filled with color bricks. Sounds predictable, but there are six different types of bonuses, from Atom Bomb to Dynamite... Which sounds somewhat more fun! Screenshots and link below.
Over on our Ovi Gaming site, Ewan goes hunting through the Ovi Store to find a free little game to while away part of his long trans-Atlantic flight - and finds the Bejewelled clone 'Cube Touch: Match' - which fits the bill perfectly. Describing the game as more "Zen" than challenge, this is an interesting title that's worth keeping in a (purple) corner of your mass memory or memory card, it seems.
Here on our Ovi Gaming sister site, Ewan tries out Columns with a Twist - Explode sees you rotating the world around you in order to direct gravity itself to lining up balls in the playing area. Don't worry, the screenshots will give you more of an idea. Ultimately, Explode is rather spoilt by unnecessarily amateurish touchscreen controls - we're hoping the developers perservere and tune the game a little more.
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.
Over on our Ovi Gaming site, Ewan takes "Edge", a S60 5th Edition part-action, part-strategy game that should have been a slam dunk success and discovers that, ultimately, it's not challenging enough or as much fun as it should have been. One for waiting at the bus stop, perhaps, rather than a living room addiction?
Tackling a cross-genre game title, Ewan finds that Mini Golf Challenge 99 Holes provides just what it claims. Despite a degree of Java-kludginess, there's enough thought in the levels holes here to keep you casually entertained for many hours. Just don't expect Tiger Woods! Here's our Ovi Gaming review.
Published by Nokia and developed by Rovio, Space Impact Meteor Shield is a Star-Wars-style 360 degree gun turret game, for real. Using the Nokia N97's digital compass the virtual world spins with you - play it in a swivel chair for best effect. The game is a great demo of what's possible and is currently free in the Ovi Store. Links and screens below.
In All About Symbian Insight 106 (AAS Podcast 170), Rafe, Ewan and Steve look back on Mobile World Congress 2010. Rafe shares his views on a number of subjects including the Symbian Foundation news, Nokia's software strategy (Symbian and MeeGo) and the Qt developer story, Windows Phone 7 Series and more. Steve and Ewan manage to communicate some of their views too and fire a few rapid fire questions at Rafe. You can listen to AAS Insight 106 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Tower Defense games are popular on Flash web sites, but can Digital Chocolate, in the Nokia Ovi Store, use their Java programming wizardry to bring a tiny battle to your smartphone screen? Ewan dons his peaked cap to find out, in our Ovi Gaming Dictator Defense review.
A slightly cheeky Friday link of interest, but I noticed that the most excellent Sky Force Reloaded (reviewed by Ewan here) is now only a quid (£1) in the Nokia Ovi Store, which has to be the gaming bargain of the century. Oh, apart from four even bigger bargains, in that they're all still free in the Ovi Store: Raging Thunder (reviewed here), ToonWarz, Wave Blazer and Armageddon Squadron.
The Par 3 Golf marque has been established in first the Java and Windows Mobile worlds, and then the iPhone world, for some time, but the ante has been upped by this latest revamp/rename, with more holes, more courses and, in theory, more fun. It's value for money, but it's strictly a bare-bones golf game, with few frills or frolics. And judging from this, my Ovi Gaming review, Par 72 Golf II isn't going to challenge the serious golf games of the handheld world.