KMGR of "GT Racing: Motor Academy"

Image by ktpupp via Flickr

GT Racing: Motor Academy is another variation of GT Racing from Gameloft. This time, they decided to go for more of a Gran Turismo feel. The result is a pretty good driving sim that's more on the realistic side than most. Add a dozen cars, 6 tracks, 4 levels of "license", quite a few race types, and the result ain't bad!

Motor Academy gives you one car to start (a Citroen C4), and you're supposed to finish everything by buying cars and participate in multistage events. There are a lot of different race types, but some of which would be familiar to the Grand Turismo folks... The acceleration and brake test... Accelerate to top speed, then stop inside the end zone. How fast can you do it? There are even 3 levels of success... Gold, silver, and bronze. There are also "obstacle" (go through some openings in the walls, without hitting anything), curve challenge (go as fast as you can, but stay ON the track!) There's also race, duel, "tire test", and more.

KMGR of "Deer Hunter 3D"

Image by Crowhand via Flickr

Deer Hunter is one of those programs that you didn't know people would actually buy for the PC. It was cheap to develop (reputedly for less than 50000 USD) and at $20 it was far more palatable and mature than those kiddie games to adults. And thus it started a "hunting game" subgenre from the shooters. How does this version fare for the Mobile? Quite well, but in a way, it is even MORE limiting, so it's a tradeoff.

For those who don't know Deer Hunter, basically you go on a hunting expedition. In this case, there are three locations: American Midwest, Northern Europe, and Western Russia. Each offers different terrain. You can choose 4 different difficulty levels, which affects the game you can hunt, and how much aim time you have. Finally, you can choose from variety of weapons: bolt rifle, shotgun, single-shot rifle, compound bow, black powder rifle, and finally, just for fun, AK-47. Locations, weapons, and difficulty levels are unlocked as you finish hunts at certain difficult levels and achieve some minimum scores.

KMGR of "ESPN Homerun Derby"

ESPN Homerun Derby (just "Derby" from now on) is a fun little game that does manage to teach you a little bit about baseball, and the multiplayer mode really puts it over the top. Except for the occasional graphics glitches, it may be one of the best mobile games available, even though it looks very childish.

As the name suggest, in Derby you are participating in a homerun derby event similar to those in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game related events.

In single-player, the rules are relatively simple: the pitcher can pitch anything he wants, as long as it's a strike... (and there are 9 different choices: fastball, change-up, knuckle ball, slider...) and you can swing high, middle, or low. The objective is to hit homeruns, or at least don't hit foul or get struck out. You have 10 pitches to accumulate as many "points" as you can. The points are determined by the distance you hit the ball (foul does not count). Only strikes and fouls will decrease the pitch available count (in other words, if you hit the ball and it stays in, you get another chance). You get bonus if you hit consecutive homeruns, or hit a "cycle" (hit homeruns into three different sections beyond the fence), and so on. When you ran out of pitches, you are given a score and the maximum distance you achieved.

More Previews! More Previews!

And yes, SIX previews this time!!!!!

ESPN Homerun Derby -- is hitting homeruns fun? Are you good enough? Kinda comical, but it works online with most WAP enabled phones

Deer Hunter 3D -- is this Deer Hunter the best ever? Is that good enough?

GT Racing: Motor Academy -- will you play a 2D-ish clone of Grand Turismo, on a mobile phone?

Spore Creatures -- Original Spore Mobile is a bit passive. Is this any better?

Assassins's Creed II 3D -- play AC2 on a mobile... Kill people, and avenge your family. Is that fun, or just fancy/shmancy?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 -- is the mobile version any good? Or is it more of a marketing gimmick?

KMGR of "Addiction"

Image via Wikipedia

Addiction has a cute name, and is interspersed with a comic book story about some cliche alien invasion, but it is actually just a variation of Puyo Pop, which is itself a variation on Tetris. As such, this game is derivative, but can be challenging.

The concept behind addiction is that you drop 2 attached balls, maybe different, maybe same colors. You can rotate the balls so it's vertical, horizontal, in 90 degree increments. There are on the game field some "fixed" blocks of various colors. If you drop balls onto blocks to form a "quad" (4 pieces in a row or column, all same color, ball or block), they'll disappear, and anything held up by them will "collapse" to the bottom. If you can chain these together, or make even LONGER combos, even better. You can slide the pieces as you drop them before they "settle in", and there is a "next piece" indicator, a LOT like Tetris or Puyo Pop, isn't it?