KMGR: "The Fast and the Furious: Pink Slip 3D"

Firemint, developer of one of the best driving games out there "The Fast and the Furious: Fugitive", finally deigned to follow up with another game. This time, there is no backstory, just 4 types of racing: street racing, canyon drift, drag racing, and police escape. You deal directly with pink slips (i.e. car title paper) now... You win, or lose. There is no "draw". You have to play through 16 different events (some events can be repeated to win other opponent's cars) to get the two "secret" cars (namely, Dom's muscle car, and the police car).

You start with basic subcompact imports, and go onto performance, sports, and eventually into exotics and muscle cars. Very few cars are good in several areas, so you will need to win almost every car in order to have a chance at later races. Each car is rated in 3 areas: drift, race, and drag. And there are over 30 different cars in eight categories.

Street racing is same as before, but the nitro has been decreased somewhat. While it recharges slowly, some cars have more nitro than others, and some cars have no nitro at all. Could be interesting when you race against some really fast but nitro-less cars with a nitro-capable but slower car.

Drag racing is basically upshift at the right time, and use the nitro at the right time. Speeds are a bit slower than it really is to give you a bit more time, as some of these machines should be quite a bit faster than it looks here.

Cop Escape is basically stay ahead of the cops, who will seek to smash you, and trap you. If you lose cop escape, you lose the car (impounded) and higher level cop escapes are really tough, with up to 3 cops who can do maximum speed after you. Do not treat this event lightly.

Finally, the "canyon drift" is a new event inspired by Tokyo Drift... On narrow canyon roads, you must drift and earn scores by continuing to drift and not hit anything. If you hit nothing and do uninterrupted drifts, your score multiplier will go up, and you will accumulate score much faster. The multiplier goes up to x9, so it's a huge incentive to drift flawlessly but it won't be easy, as you still need to keep ahead of your competitors. As long as you get to the finish line before your opponents you can win their car(s), but if you don't accumulate enough points as the event requires you can't pass the event.

There are four "levels" with four events each, in different order, and you need to finish one level before you unlock the next level. Drifting is probably the hardest, where going fast means going with style, and bouncing off canyon walls is not the right way to go at all.

The cars all look great, and the 3D engine is improved to add reflections off paint and windshields, and so on. The world also looks a lot larger, with items like freeway on and offramps, under and overpasses, narrow alleys, shortcuts, chicanes, and more. And what's more, each of the cars really do drive somewhat differently, even with just the keypad to drive. However, the paths are "fixed", no freedom to drive here and there or 180 U-turns and such this time. Still, you'll be too busy driving to care.

One complaint I have about the cop chase is there is no rear-view mirror or a "radar" so I don't know where the cops are, esp. when the sirens don't always work, and engine sounds are pretty horrible.

All in all, TFTF:Pink Slip 3D is one of the best driving games ever MADE for mobile, even surpassing their old Fugitive, though they lost the "free-form driving tracks" this time around, but gained drifting and drag racing. I'd consider that a fair exchange, and with 32 cars to collect, you'll be playing this for a while.

Overall score: 9 out of 10 (!)
Pros: lots of cars, 4 distinct events, great graphics
Cons: drifting VERY difficult even with right car, events can be repetitious

KMGR: "Hollywood Hospital"

Player X Mobile came up with the perfect satire on Hollywood life, wrapped up in a Hospital management game. In between laughing at each new "illness" you discover, trying to get some of the staff "hitched" (i.e. wedded) with some incentives, and make sure you turn a profit to afford the higher level machinery and staff trained to operate more efficiently. Did I mention you also need to fight off the paparazzi by hiring security guards? Beware! Such is the life in the Hollywood Hospital!

As this is a satire, everything IS cartoony, and so are the diseases. Starlets can be afflicted by various diseases such as the Pammy (needs chest inflation, using "the inflator" treatment), the J. Low (needs buttock inflation, again, using the inflator), while male stars can be afflicted by Rambone (Rambo, cured by "Napalm Enema"), Friday Feeling (Jason, cured by "De-masker"), and more. There are a total of 32 different sicknesses for you to "discover".

Your hospital has three parts: reception, diagnosis, and treatment. Reception must have enough high level receptionists to make sure the patients are getting through to the right diagnosis rooms. Each room, with its corresponding machine, must be attended by a physician and a nurse. After the patients are diagnosed, they are sent to the respective treatment rooms, where they will be treated by a surgeon and nurse using the latest in technology, or rehab'ed by a therapist. You will also need fixers to fix/upkeep the machines, janitors to clean up trash left behind by the celebs, and security guards to keep the paparazzis outside.

As mentioned before, if you match up the pairs by their taste in music (crunk, rave, opera, country, death metal... And you can do same-sex pairs as well) they will go on a "date" and have a good time. They will even work more efficiently at work. Ultimate goal is to get just one pair "hitched" (married) by strategically applying some "bonus gifts" like chocolate, flowers, plane tickets, and so on. Remember, too many gifts too soon will scare someone off!

Sometimes a specific staff member can run into a problem, like needs help with golf, or tennis, or dog, or so on. You must them match him/her up with someone who is an expert in that field off-work, even if you must break up an existing relationship.

In the meanwhile, you must streamline the hospital so patients are treated as fast as they come in, enough treatment and diagnosis machines and staff to keep them moving, enough trained staff to operate the machines... and doing so without going bankrupt. It's harder than it looks.

This game is most on charm, but the game itself isn't very deep or very good, as it's almost impossible to track just a SINGLE patient, no "accounting" to tell you how many people are waiting in each phase so you would know how to get through the tough parts. You're left guessing at almost every turn how many of what machine to build and when are those you sent training will be back. Thus, it's not among the best.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Cute sicknesses, true hospital management sim below the satire
Cons: no graphs or status reports to keep you truly informed

KMGR: "De Blob"

De Blob is an interesting twist... And it's actually a bit hard to describe, as it crosses many genres. Basically, you're a "blob" which can take on any color. You've been invited to help "liberate" this city that was taken over by INKT agents who wanted the whole city in drab gray. You can add some color to the landscape by running over some color cans, then bump into buildings. On the way, you'll grow in size, mix different colors, shrink in size (find a pool), flatten INKT agents, get "blacked" (INKT agents got you) so you need to go wash yourself off in water, run around the city, and generally, color the town red or whatever color you want. You can also fulfill some "quests" like "color X buildings in Y seconds", or "run this race course in X seconds", which will get you additional points. The object is to get enough points to open the exit to next level, and go through it before the time is up.

I know that is long, but it's impossible to make it any shorter, as life is exciting for de Blob. Running around finding more color combos and citizens and buildings to color is fun, as is figuring out how to get into other areas, some are narrow so you have to go on a diet to get through, others require smashing some barriers, and so on. The "races" and "dares" get you points faster, but the main activity is still painting the whole town without getting hit by INKT agents.

Time is your biggest enemy, as you need to get out before time's up, but you need to score points to open the door, and you need to FIND the door as well. So explore around the city and color the place as you explore.

It is undeniably fun and each level lasts less than 10 minutes. If you don't get it the first time just try again, though with limit lives to make it through 25 levels you may want to get them spare copies of the game to try on different phones. When you've colored the whole city and won the revolution, there's also free run mode and other modes for you to play.

All in all, de Blob is a fun little game that combines so many genres it's hard to name a direct predecessor. Nor would you need to. It's mostly non-violent, and fun for the entire family.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: easy to pickup, non-violent mostly, colorful exploration
Cons: size and color mixing not always obvious, time limit quite harsh

KMGR: "Deer Hunter 3"

Image via WikipediaDeer Hunter 3, a venerable franchise, has reached its third iteration on the mobile platform. Unfortunately, all it did was to make the game harder, instead of actually make the game more enjoyable to the max amount of users. The purpose of lure and deer food and scent was barely mentioned, and the gun shakes makes it nearly impossible to aim as you can't "spin" fast enough to keep the deer in your sights. You also have a play a LOT of hunts in order to raise your skills, with little to add to your "trophy room". Net result is more frustration than the previous version.

The game was tested on LG enV, which has a large wide screen (at least compared to most mobile phones), and it is used fully. No black bands here. As usual, you can choose a variety of weapons, though most will choose bolt rifle as it doesn't quite shake as much. There are crossbows, and compound bow for those who prefer NOT to use guns, as well as a shotgun for those who don't want to be sporty. You can only carry two weapons though.

You can carry two accessories... could be scent stomper, deer scent, male call, female call, deer food, and so on. Deer have sensitive noses and they can smell you if you don't use scent stomper, but obviously they need to be downwind of you. Your lure skills also affect the effectiveness of these accessories. Use them too much and you'll scare the deer away.

You have to 'track' the deer (and bears, and whatnot) on the GPS screen. If you spot some tracks, you determine how far, then you enter into "actual location" to spot the actual animals. As there can be like 10 animals on this plot of land, and you can only bag 3 of them, you want the largest, and that means a lot of back and forth, as you must "tag" every one of these critters until you locate the largest ones, then go after them. You want the ones with the biggest rack, then you want the ones with the most weight. That's how the points are calculated. You get bonus points for one shot kills (preferably in the head or in the chest), and for using certain weapons. The higher the difficulty, the more the animals will move, and you have to engage at further distances. Again, you decide.

It's basically "fake 3D" with terrain generated by 360 spinning. You can't "move" except by quitting out to the GPS map and move your cursor to somewhere else. However, the terrain quality ain't bad, just not real 3D, as there are no "hills". It's all "flat", though some places have more trees than others.

As you score skills you'll be awarded points, and as you accumulate points you will earn higher "ranks", which will unlock additional skill points which you can apply to four areas: tracking, spotting, shooting, and lures. Pretty obvious stuff, but gives it a little bit of RPG flavor.

While the name is "deer hunter", you can actually hunt bears in this game as well, though that's optional. In fact, you can actually CHOOSE what you want to hunt: bears, deer, or both. Let's just say that bears coexist with deers here and they don't like human intruders.

Animation of the animals are somewhat lame and repetitive. Animals just go in straight lines, instead of actually doing animal moves. Bears act more like Yogi Bear (the cartoon bear) than real bear, as they occasionally sit down like they're enjoying some honey, and occasionally stand up for no apparent reason. At least the terrain looks quite decent.

There's supposed to be "shooting gallery mode" and "challenges mode" for those who need more challenges. Shooting gallery is basically shoot as many as you can, while challenges require you to accomplish certain 'missions', like "Shooting 5 deers in 5 minutes" (much harder than you think!).

All in all, Deer Hunter 3 is somewhat of a disappointment as it doesn't really add much to the series and genre, esp. when other hunting titles have gone far beyond that. Some even have full 3D terrain, and allow you to actually move around. If there was some sort of a tutor that teaches you how to stalk deer it's be much more of a title. As is, it's just revamped MOTS (more of the same).

Overall rating: 5.5 out of 10
Pros: It's the same game, with a few new twists
Cons: It's the same game, PERIOD

More Mobile Game Previews! (I know, long time coming)

Deer Hunter 3 -- venerable "Deer Hunter" franchise reached version 3 on the mobile platform. Has it gotten any better? Or is it just MOTS, with little variation?

De Blob -- locals need your help to paint the town red (or some other colors!) in a revolution against INKT Corp! Interesting gameplay, a mix of multiple action genres, a bit of Pac-man, a bit of Mario, even a bit of Qix and other games. Basically, you control this "blob" which can grow or shrink in size, be colored differently, and you need to score points in a city by coloring buildings, fulfill special "quests" like race or paint X buildings in 60 seconds, or flatten INKT agents.

Hollywood Hospital -- 50% Hollywood Satire, 25% Sims, and 25% Hospital management gets you this cute hospital management sim, where you need to help treat various ailments like TeeveeFace, Depptheria, and more. In the meanwhile, you must also pair up the doctors, surgeons, nurses, even the janitor, maintainance man and the security guard, plus the therapists and the receptionists. Good relationship means good working efficiency! Then there are occasional personal problems you must somehow also solve, and be sure the nail the paparazzi trying to follow the celebrities around!

The Fast and the Furious: Pink Slip 3D -- The Fast and Furious franchise returns to mobile with another entry. Last one was more of a retelling of the 2F2F movie with some gameplay, and was one of the better racers on mobile. This dispenses the story element altogether. Instead, you need to perform a variety of events: cop chase, street race, canyon drift, or drag race, and finish your collection of 32 cars by betting pink slips against your opponents. You win, you win his car. Else... you have one less ride in your garage.

Mobile Game Review of "Dungeon & Fighter: Gunner"

For those who don't know, Dungeon & Fighter is a free MMORPG available in Asia, and one of the classes available is "gunner" (yes, this fantasy RPG has firearms), AND magic and all that. I had to look that up as I did say this is one of the worst titles for a mobile game in recent years. I still say it is, but now I know why. But how does it fare as a game? Not too bad, actually.

First of all, D&F:G is a cut down version of the full MMORPG game. And it's fully single player. There's a fixed plot, and only ONE class to play... the gunner. (In the full game you have 5 classes, each with different skills). However, this one class is already complicated enough.

It is a typical "Asian" style RPG, with small almost comical sprites in the main screen, semi-isometric view, then in the bottom 1/4 of the screen you'll get the dialog with a portrait of the character speaking. Then when you do combat, you see the damage taking place with numbers and status and EXP racking up above the respective characters, like "3 Combo hit!" "-124 damage!" and so on. The game has a lot of "options" as there are FIVE types of firearms (revolver, automatic, bow gun, musket, hand cannon), and there are even plenty of martial arts skills and supplemental skills to back up your firearm prowess. Use your "skill points" to get training from the teacher in town to upgrade those skills.

When you get to level 18 or so (7th primary quest), you can chose a specialization, which allows you to pick the specialist skills that were previously locked up.

The town also has alchemy stores, weapons stores, armament stores, provision stores, and more (actually, they are just shopkeepers who stand in town, but you get the idea). Some will give you "fetch" quests, as they require certain items dropped by monsters as random loot. It is perfectly possible to go gather a lot of loot, then come back and take the specific quests that require them. Rewards vary from gold to various energy cube pieces to experience points and skill points.

Your avatar can equip up to six distinct items: weapon, grieves, necklace, ring, body armor, and shoes. Each of the items can be further enhanced by the alchemist with the proper amount of gold and ingredients. In fact, more items NOT available in markets can be synthesized if you gather enough ingredients (and/or do enough quests with the ones who give you energy cubes as rewards). You probably won't get to synthesize a very powerful weapon till near the very end.

The story is a very sad one... Ecole, who used to be co-leader of the Dark Army with Lord Arak, turned on Arak and defeated him, but the damage was done to the realm, and weakened to almost death, he wandered for a long time, blank, until he met Seria. Now all he had in mind was redemption, but there are those who remember his past, and he can sense something in the dark stirring yet again... threatening the peace and tranquility. You, of course, play Ecole, and you need to defeat Lord Arak's minions (and your former colleagues) in order to save the world and your love. However, you find out that it may not be as simple as that... As you are somehow linked to Arak...

The actual play style depends on your skill allocation. I specialized in revolver, so I basically do run and gun, as the bullets are pretty weak, but I can pump out six of them pretty quickly. If you have a more powerful but slower weapon like hand cannon or musket you can shoot at longer ranges or take down more enemies in one shot. However, the idea is you need to clear room to room, every dungeon, of enemies. You get to the boss room, and you kill him (or her) too. There's always several monsters in the room, and some are fast, some are slow, some can even cast spells (which can hit you from a distance).

This game should keep you busy for a couple days as you fight through a dozen or so dungeons, some multiple times, just to collect enough loot and items to assemble some uber-items. It's a bit too sentimental / melodramatic for me, but the ending is kinda cute with a twist.

Graphics are a bit on the low end, but it's exactly what you'd expect with a Japanese-style RPG like Zelda. And they are big enough to be quite playable. Music is tolerable. The good part is this game offers quite a bit of gameplay, the baddies are different enough, though the play does get a bit repetitive. Still, it's a lot of game for a few bucks. If you like this style of play, I'd give it a try.

Overall rating: 7.5 out of 10
Pros: Japanese style RPG on a phone, proven balanced system, guns!
Cons: melodramatic script, gameplay a bit TOO repetitive

Mobile Game Review of "Asphalt 4: Elite Racing"

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeGameloft has been doing the Asphalt series for the mobile phones for a while. The latest version just hit the phones, and features hot cars such as the Nissan GT-R and the Bugatti Veyron. Is the game any good? Or was an an also-ran? It's a bit of both.

Asphalt series has always relied a bit on those "nitro boosts", and this game seems more than ever to be reliant upon them. You'll be going so fast as to reach the realm of ridiculous. Do you believe that the Bugatti Veyron can reach 318 MPH when upgraded? Well, in this game it would, on a "public road", no less!

Asphalt Series has always offered a variety of game modes, but they are always spread across the world in various locations. Here's a summary of what the game offers:

Normal racing: race 8 cars and you must finish in the top 3. (HINT: save the nitro toward the end, and drift around corners as much as possible to get more boost)
Beat-em-all: crash your opponents, or police car chasing you, as many as possible (HINT: it's easier crashing the police cars that come along than chasing down your opponents)
Cop Chase: chase a specific opponent and crash him (HINT: watch the symbol closely, you may not need to go all the way to end of the line, two-wheeler may be easier)
Duel: Catch your opponent and pass him. The more you bet, the more police presence (HINT: bet maximum and take the cop girl with you, and save boost for final lap)
Time attack: Go as fast as you can, hitting barriers will get you time penalties (HINT: very difficult, play it a few times and remember the pattern, two-wheeler maybe easier)
Drift: Drift for as much and as long as possible (HINT: Use a slow car with NO upgrades, like the Mini Cooper, and hit the brakes. Mini will go up to 100+ if you let it, try to stay at about 80 or so and you'll drift longer and harder)

Each world location features 5 events, and not all events are available all the time. As you win, you gain 'reputation points', and as you accumulate those, you unlock "levels" and thus additional cars, upgrades, and more race venues. Those with untried venues are highlighted, but not those with "incomplete" venues (i.e. you've tried it, but you haven't succeeded finishing or in top 3). Thus, the display is messier than it could be.

The car selection is certainly eclectic. Your first vehicle is the Mini Cooper, then the Nissan GT-R, THEN the BMW M3, THEN the Corvette ZR-1. Then comes a Ducati M696, a two-wheeler. Then comes the Aston Martin DBS, the RUF RGT (an upgraded Porsche 911), The Ferrari F430 Spider, the Bugatti Veyron, and finally, the Ducati 1098, the other two-wheeler. And yes, you can "drift" in a two-wheeler as well.

The game never really featured true 3D, but rather, it's a very well-done 2.5D similar to Outrun series. However, the engine is very fast and the illusion of speed is good... at least until when you realize that you're car is drifting, going a bit sideways, but the nitro 'flame' out the back is still straight!

Asphalt series have also featured "girls", and this is no exception... Again, they fall into the three archetypes... mechanic (gives full nitro at beginning), cop (no 'busted' penalty if stopped by cops), and reporter (bonus 20% reputation points when you win).

As you race, you start to accumulate police attention, as you've been speeding a lot, or crashing civilian cars. Your "wanted" meter will go up and up. When it's full, Police start to chase you. Police cars are VERY fast and will catch up to you, and they even have helicopters that can keep up with these super cars (think about how fast most choppers go), and they will run roadblocks. If you crash, they've got you and will fine you big unless you have the cop lady along for the ride. However, you are allowed to just get back on the road and keep going. Just remember, you still have to finish the race.

The game does get a bit repetitive, but there are on-track bonus items like extra boost, extra cash, police stars (resets your WANTED meter), and so on as well as light poles, traffic signal posts, other cars, barriers, and so on in your way. Some can be bulled through with extra amount of boost. You can stack 3 boosts at a time (i.e. use 3 nitro charges, giving your car red, then blue, then purple "nitro flame" out the exhaust) and get extra amount of speed, respectively. At the triple boost speed, you can even crash into stationary police cars and not be stopped. But that uses up a LOT of boost. So it manages to give you both a bit of the "chase" adrenaline as well as the "race" urgency.

All vehicle can be upgraded in terms of tires, brakes, engine, nitro package, transmission, suspension, and so on and so forth. It's a long list, and each has 3 upgrade stages (total of 4 items) of different costs. Money is NEVER a subject as your winnings VASTLY outpace your expenditures, even when you acquire new cars. Unfortunately, there are only 4 colors for each car available.

All in all, Asphalt Racing 4 is a pretty good addition to the family, but it doesn't really bring much 'new'. The variety of game modes should keep you entertained, but the "twitch gaming" may leave you yearning for something more... precise, like WRC driving of WRC3D. Though if you want to "drive" exotic cars on a mobile phone, Asphalt 4 does deliver.

Overall rating: 7.5 out of 10
Pros: exotic cars, lots of nitro, exotic locations, girls
Cons: nothing really new, some modes EXTREMELY hard, some ridiculous speeds

Mobile Game Review of "Super Jewel Quest"

Image via WikipediaBejeweled, the classic "match 3 by shifting a gem" game, with the addition of a backstory about playing these gem games in Africa, becomes an adventure game that's advanced through puzzles. As the progress is linear, if you lose, just restart that specific stage, and you get another chance. The end result is slightly better than the plain version, but not that much better.

You are this adventurer who's been summoned to the tribe... the tribal leader's son was kidnapped by another tribe! You will have to play games with a variety of enemies and opponents to reach your goal: return safely with the leader's son. And you'll play a LOT of games on the board. To aid you, you will learn how to use the "magic hammer". When powered with coins (you can earn those during regular play) you can smash one or more tiles, and thus perhaps break an impossible situation, turn the tide, or beat the clock.

There are basically three variations to the game... the "solo" game, where you need to beat the clock (but there's usually plenty of time) as you complete the triples and quads and quints, and basically turn ALL the playing tiles into "gold" color by completing a combo over them. There is the "versus / accumulate" game, where you are playing against someone else, and first to accumulate X number of Y gems wins (example, get 30 purple gems). No other color counts, alternate turns until one has achieved objective. Finally, the third variant is the "versus 70% control". Similar to the solo game, you complete combos to turn the board to your color. However, your opponent can do the same, and a tile can change color many times. First to reach 70% is the winner, and that means you have to make cascading combos.

The story is stretched in a few places, and the ending has you playing an opponent that is almost impossible to beat. Save your coins for those special moments when you need them most.

All in all, with almost no innovation and a story that barely works, Super Jewel Quest is better, but not much better than original Bejeweled, and that's not much.

Overall rating: 6 out of 10
Pros: It's still Bejeweled gameplay, easy to pick up
Cons: Not enough variations, plot has too many matches squeezed in

Mobile Game Review: Speed Texting 2.0

Speed Texting 2.0 claims to be the first game that aims at helping you text more accurately and faster, as well as compete against the world. When you peel away the glitzy layers, it's actually just a typing test under the skin. However, it will help you text faster.

The base game have 25 levels that tests you in single letters, two letters, all the way up to five or even six letter words and full sentences, complete with net lingo like U (You), 4 (for), TIA (thanks in advance), and so on. Basically, the faster you enter the letters, the faster you go through the level, and you want to finish the level before the time limit. You don't need to score 100% accurate (i.e. finish all the words given) but it helps you earn more "stars", which improves your "title", which enables more "taunts" that you can unleash in competition mode. It could be against yourself, against other players, or against speed records in your area code, the nation, or the world.

Despite what you think, having a full qwerty keyboard does NOT really help you go faster, though this game is fast enough as is. Some of these levels are extremely hard and one mistake will doom your entire attempt, and you finish with just milliseconds on the clock. Others are extremely easy with plenty of time available. The balancing isn't done quite right.

The actual game goes like this... "words" (and just combination of characters, like CH, LA, and so on) fall from top of the screen like "blocks", and you need to type them to clear them. As soon as you wipe out one, the next block appears. Thus, the faster you go, the faster you finish the level. The more words you let thru, the more time is added back on to the clock.

Periodically the creator will release additional level packs that challenge you to special word collections and you are to guess the theme. During the time I was on I didn't see any other players, as the servers seems to be down, so that part can't be tested.

All in all, this is basically texting tutor like TyperShark, but with a bit of glitz, and International rankings (supposedly). If you like a bit of competition I guess this could be up your alley. Otherwise, it's a great way to get "texting thumbs". :D

Overall rating: 6.0 out of 10
Pros: easy to pick up, well polished
Cons: didn't really try for anything special either, MP not working when tested

More Mobile Game Previews!

Speed Texting 2.0 -- How fast can you text? Think TyperShark, but more toward text messaging, complete with 4 and U and that sort of shorthand. Earn higher ranks as you progress through the levels and beat the clock! They also have weekly special puzzles that features a "theme" to guess, and your scores are supposedly rated against other players, and you can challenge other players to a "live duel".

Super Jewel Quest -- Bejeweled meets Puzzle Quest... you must play the game to beat various opponents in various objectives, and rescue a tribe leader's son from an opposing tribe. In between, you need to turn the entire board "gold" to progress in the quest. The "combat" can be "first to gather X number of Y-color gems", or "first to turn board to 70% own color". As colors can be recaptured, this is a lot harder than it sounds. But the normal gameplay is the same as original Bejeweled.

Asphalt 4: Elite Racing -- Gameloft's Asphalt series of racing games reaches #4, and it's basically MOTS, but this time they've toned down the lawlessless and turned up the racing, if a bit too much "nitro" is needed. Latest cars like Nissan GT-R, Bugatti Veyron, and some elite 2-wheelers are now available for races around the world. A variety of events, from races to drifting to time trials to police chases in a variety of tracks around the world should keep you busy for a while.

Dungeon and Fighter Gunner -- this game with one of the worst titles in years is actually not that bad. It's actually a Japanese style RPG with action combat. As Ecole, former XO of the dark lord, you had rebelled and took down the dark lord, and as a result, lost all your power and became human, and you found love with a woman called Seria. However, you felt that someone is wrong, and as you explore the town and its surroundings, you will discover that the ancient evil, and your past, is now back to haunt you... It's basically Japanese-style RPG with guns instead of swords and spells.

A bit of an update

I know I've been quiet on this site. The truth is, there isn't much happening on the Verizon wireless games for the past week. Only last night did some new games show up. Some are good, some are bad, and some are... surprising.

I've been playing a lot of Spore. Perhaps "playing" is the wrong word... I've been watching my spores fighting in the Arena mode of Spore:Origins. Basically, you create a spore and you sent them out to fight in random arenas against random opponents. It's surprisingly addictive as you attempt to build the "ultimate" spore... and the struggle to stay on top is eternal. I am pretty blessed to have two different spores to spend significant amount of time in the top ten, and both have spent a bit of time on the #1 spot.



In short, Spore Origins is unbalanced, and fluctuates way too much in the top. Enough said. :)