To be honest, the N-Gage had a lot going for it just before it was retired. The game catalogue was pretty impressive (Rifts, Mile High Pinball, and Pathway to Glory’s Ikusa Islands spring to mind), but the standout title for me was the first mobile version of Catan. This German boardgame has continued to live on in electronic form as well as continuing to gather fans in its physical form. Rather selfishly, it’s one of the few N-Gage games that I’ve been hoping would make the jump to the next-gen platform (which it didn’t). Licences Exozet have done the next best thing though, with a J2ME version. And it's rather good.
Gameloft have put a lot of adjectives in the title of their latest Symbian^3 game, and for once, it’s well deserved. Not because Gameloft have done something new and innovative (this is yet another 3d-esque beat-em-up, with the same UI mechanics as Hero of Sparta and Assassins Creed), and not because the graphics look like they’ve been worked especially for this screen resolution (even though that’s true). It's deserved as there seems to be a bit more love and attention paid to this Spiderman incarnation than any of the other current crop of games.
The latest in our series of reviews of the new batch of GPU-aware, high octane driving games, I take a spin in Raging Thunder 2 (or II, as the title screen proclaims it). With everything, including the kitchen sink and full Internet multi-player gaming, bundled into the new graphics engine, RT2 should be a huge hit. And yet, I can't help but feel that there's just too much going on, leaving the player high on console bling and short on raw driving satisfaction.
Making its HD debut on Symbian is one of Gameloft’s franchise games, Assassin’s Creed. For those of you who’ve played this on consoles and handhelds, you know exactly what to expect - running around the ancient middle east, jumping a fair bit, and swinging your sword around as you seek out ancient relics. You'll be glad to know that you’re going to get the full experience on Symbian. Here's what else is on offer in our review of the latest HD game for Symbian^3.
It looks like the Nokia N8 and C7 are turning into petrol heads. Not happy with having the Top Gear Christmas specials downloaded via iPlayer (or from the dark corners of the internet) it’s now time for me to look at another racing game for the Symbian^3 platform. It's the turn of.... Asphalt 5... [Jeremy Clarkson voice ON] HD!
Appropriate for Christmas-tide, this all-time family classic board game is revived in graphics-accelerated, super-swish form for Symbian^3 phones. It's a port from the iPhone version, or at least from common code, but that's not enough to put much of a dent in a stellar title that impresses in almost every way. Monopoly Classic HD is faithful to the 'proper' rules (but you can 'tweak' them if your family is used to your own 'variant'!) and you can play against up to three computer or human opponents. Read on for my review.
This weekend I finally managed to see Tron Legacy in 2D (sorry, but the 3D hurts my eyes and I’m Scottish so why would I spend more money to watch something that causes me pain?). Anyway, as the film opens, Sam Flynn is pimping the Nokia N8 as a virus-uploading magic door-opening tool. That’s product placement for you (all Psion managed was the Series 3a as the bomb timer in Executive Decision). To go along with all the advertising, Nokia has rolled out a bundle of Tron goodies on the Ovi Store, and one of them caught my eye: Tron Tanks.
Licensed by Nokia, initially just for its N8 flagship, RealGolf 2011 HD would have been well worth snapping up even if not already free. Though not perfect (putting is fiddly, too much help in shot power, and loading screens are slow), it's still one of the best phone or handheld-based golf games I've ever played and, as you might expect, I've taken great delight in playing through it in considerable detail below, while writing my review, here on AAS and Ovi Gaming.
Air Hockey might not be the first thing you think of when someone suggests a fast paced physics-based video game running on your phone. However, that's just what you get with Air Hockey Touch. Available for S60 5th Edition and Symbian^3 on the Ovi Store, either for £3 or in an ad-supported free version. I review this game to see how well it reproduces the real world experience of playing air hockey, all apart from the whoosh of air, of course!
Anyone spotting the name Polarbit know to expect great graphics, coupled with an absorbing game, and I’m glad to say that Iron Sight HD continues that trend. This artillery-based game is not without the occasional quirk, and has a steep learning curve, but for those gamers who stick with it and learn the game, it’s very rewarding. As I've found out.
