I love games that come from a very simple concept, games that add in a little something devious from the author, and then get stuck on my smartphone. Word Find, from Grovr, joins that list. Presenting you with a 4x4 grid of single letters, you are challenged to find all the words you can make. The only twist is that you need to trace an uninterrupted path from letter to letter.
Sometimes you want a game with depth, complexity and a story that will last for hours (in which case head over to David’s review of Crusade of Destiny). Other times you just need a quick blast of reflex testing, putting aside any idea of a over-arching plot, acres of help files and a dedicated corner of the brain reserved to remembering all the commands. Tez Ball is the latter.
Following on from my mental note that “Uno is a bit like Mau Mau” in my review of the Gameloft HD game, here comes Lonely Cat Games with Mau Mau for Symbian! The gameplay is similar (by design) but does Mau Mau have a trump card to help it stand out against the colourful competitor? [editor's note: this was one of my favourite S60 games back in the day - give it a chance!]
Now this I like. It’s a huge number of little jigsaws, all gathered under just one application. And rather than use actual jigsaw pieces (which to be honest could look a bit twee) you get nothing more than pieces made up of smaller squares (think the leftover pieces of a game of Tetris) and a shape to fit them into. Here's my All About Symbian and Ovi Gaming review...
Polarbit have delivered another HD game into the Ovi Store, and Fuzzies is going to appeal to the smartphone holding puzzle lover, and especially those who prize quick reactions and planning under pressure. Can you capture the red flags and not kill any of the Fuzzies as they explore each level under your guidance?
Now this is fun. This is addictive. And I can see myself losing a lot of time to this game in the future. Coming from Marko Brockman, who gave us a little email pointing out his new game, he describes it as a “strategy game of capturing and surrounding enemy territory.” Motti may be a Finnish military tactic, but is it a great tactial smartphone game? You can count on it.
They might be a touch late to the party, but Zombies are still cool enough to feature in their own games. The reanimated corpses of the dead are attacking once more under cover of night in Breakdesign's 10pm, and it’s your job to keep them contained in one area. Let too many escape and it’s game over. But there’s a twist. Just like Zombies in real life (err...) these inferni only come out at night.
Bounce It! is an interesting title. Coming from Hyperkani Games, it’s one of the new breed of games that relies on advertising to make the developers some money. That makes it free and initially appealing to people browsing the Ovi Store. And while the game itself, while not an out and out success, is nicely diverting, you’re going to get frustrated with the adverts long before you finish the game (or you could switch to the paid version).
I know that Cubix has elements from a bundle of other games. I know that I can spot the callback to the minor arcade classic Plotting in this title. I know that there are elements of Dr Mario in here. And I know that the structure of having a collection of levels acting as a mission is lifted from the how to extend your game guidebook. But there’s no need to forgive developers Herocraft for this approach, because all those ingredients have been mixed together and work really well! Here's my illustrated review.
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.
