If you're old school enough, just old enough, you may guess this game from the title. Being close, but not quite the same as 'Galaxian', the breakout arcade classic that followed on from Space Invaders back in the mists of time. At the time, a whole raft of arcade copies sprung up, all with slightly different names and slightly different gameplay, but the heritage was obvious. As it is here, with plenty of swooping alien spaceships to blast out of the sky in a blaze of colour and sound. And - what do you know - it runs on every Symbian device from the last four years and in fact plays better on the E71/E72/E6 than on the larger screened Symbian devices - who'd have thought it?
As games go, they don't come much simpler than this - Copter It 2! - part of the 'one button' genre where it's all in the timing of a single tap (or, at least, a tap and hold). As you might guess from the title and from the screenshots below, it's all about keeping a helicopter flying through a never-ending sequence of caverns and general obstacles. With average game time being around a minute, Copter It 2! is definitely in casual game territory, but there's something charming about a game that's this simple and yet this hard...
Pipe Mania was all the rage when I was young, with the player assembling randomly presented pieces of pipe into a plumbing layout through which water/goo can flow, all against the clock. The time pressure, and the way you never seemed to be given the corner piece you actually needed, combined to make Pipe Mania addictive and frustrating in equal measures. BR Pipes Qt Free is the latest implementation of the idea for Symbian and it's nicely done. And very, very hard. We're talking blood vessel popping hard.
If you’re the sort who likes to sneak up on your enemies then a submarine simulator is probably the game for you. The Silent Hunter series of games has come to Symbian – in more of an arcade style than a simulator, but that doesn’t lessen the fun. This game lets you try your luck as a German U-Boat captain in World War 2, taking on the British fleet. You’ll have to be aware of the limitations of your boat and use all your cunning though.
Keeping up their very high standard, the programmers at Arctica have produced something quite different to their normal (excellent) arcade fare. This one combines Sokoban with Labyrinth, with a touch of Doom-style 3D. Sprinkle in ice monsters and flighty rabbits, plus some mind mangling variations and you've got yourself a 3D treat for puzzle fans.
We're all too familiar with the 'huge-production-budget game that plays like a turkey' - Air Strike is just the opposite, a labour of love by the developers that's clearly produced on limited resources yet has gameplay that's both insistent and addictive. Ultimately, it just falls short of mass recommendation, but that doesn't mean I didn't have a blast during my review period, blowing up enemy fighters and warships.
Although I'm a fan of casual games, there does come a point where a casual title can be just a little... too casual. Drop It!, with a total game time as short as a few seconds and as long as you can keep the main gameplay going (around a minute or so in my case), runs very close to this boundary but redeems itself with several physics options, a dash of strategy and a little genuine excitement.
Arctica has got me sussed. Throw in 3D action with plenty of particle physics and a sci-fi theme and I'm basically putty in its hands. In this case detailing a review of the latest particle experience, SpeedFest. If you're into seat-of-the-pants action games then I think you too will love it. Read on for a wealth of screenshots and a video that will give you a great idea of the gameplay on offer.
Cricket remains, I contend, a sport that's extremely tricky to simulate in any enjoyable way on a phone screen. The sport timings, complexity, atmosphere - you name it - are all just... wrong. Which hasn't stopped a number of publishers writing a cricket game anyway and Ashes Cricket is, like the othersI've tried, ultimately doomed to disappoint. Here's my full review.
One of the simplest and most addictive games I've seen yet on Symbian, a combined puzzler/arcader that works absolutely superbly as a 'one more go' casual title. On your own, or against a friend, you guide your car towards refuelling points and service centres, and away from hazards. The further you get, the higher you score. A game for one or more players (via Bluetooth), it's an insanely good way to while away a few minutes here and there during your day.
