Oh, and a quick preview of Everest Extreme

Someone asked me if I saw the game Everest Extreme on Verizon V.CAST. I did, and I did try to download it to give it a spin. However, what I got was the DEMO, not the actual game, even though I did click for the subscription. The "Buy Now" choice didn't work either. Clearly Verizon have some problems to work out with GLU Mobile, the publisher.

The game "sounds" cool... Do "rock climbing" in 3D up a vertical cliff, then once you made it, do a base jump and land back at the starting spot. Sounds like combination of "climbing puzzle" and "parachutist" game they had on Nokia phones. However, there's nothing to review at this time, unless Glu or Verizon provides me with a working copy.

Previews of some more mobile games

NASCAR 09 Mobile (EA Sports) -- how can a franchise go BACKWARDS? NASCAR 09 tries to be bigger and better, but ended up WORSE. Cars are LESS responsive, sound effects are WORSE (all the "crunch" sounds all the time), collision detection is MUCH worse (cars actually go THROUGH each other, I swear). They do seem to have more track, and they let you play the entire season instead of just "The chase". However, forget this turkey and stick with NASCAR 07 mobile. (See my review of NASCAR 07 earlier)

Afterworld: Global Contact -- sounds very cool, about the world after 99% of the humans disappeared and all high-energy devices went kaput, probably due to EMP or something. They call it "the Fall", and you are one of the survivors in one of the various cities around the world... But this is NOT a RPG. This is just the background for some relatively dumb action puzzles where you dodge AI pieces with dubious "AI". Sounds cool, plays dumb. Forget the game and watch the cool video chapters on Verizon VCAST video instead.

The Oregon Trail -- yes, the old classic makes its appearance on the mobile. In Easy mode, resting for a day or two can cure disease and mend broken bones. Else you can pay for medicine... if you have money. Earning money on the way is difficult and should be done at every opportunity... And every choice you make can affect the rest of the trip. Have fun!

Mobile Game Review of "Sega Columns Deluxe"

Sega's Columns Deluxe is basically two Tetris (tm) derivatives that deals with falling stuff. Are they any good? Well, that depends how you like the genre. I personally are a bit burned out by the genre as there's a point where it's pointless to play when the pieces are falling so fast it's humanly impossible to play. Same here, IMHO.

Columns Deluxe is called "deluxe" because it actually contains two games... Columns, and Puyo Puyo. I'll describe them separately, as they even keep separate high score tables.

Columns drops a vertical slab of 3 blocks of various colors. You can rotate the "gems", but they stay vertical. To remove the stuff, you need to form chains of 4 as diagonals, horizontals or verticals. Every once in a while you get a "bonus chain" that has 3 capabilities depending on which block you allow to hit first: either erase the color it drops on, or erases rows sent over by enemy, or sends extra rows over to the enemy. There are two modes: the "endless" mode is the traditional single-player where you play until you "die" when the blocks go over the top of the playing field. There's also the "campaign" where you play against 10 different AI, the objective is to survive longer than the AI (it helps if you send more rows his way, of course).

Puyo-Puyo (also known as Puyo-Pop, or Kirby's Avalanche) is a bit more like the traditional Tetris, but only 2 pieces are dropped, of various colors. The piece can be rotated, but only puyos of same color can form chain of 4. The chain of 4 can actually bend, as long as they are consecutive (see the Wikipedia entry for details). If you manage to form the chain, you send "garbage" to the opponent. The opponent can fight back by making their own chains, so you get a bit of back-and-forth. Garbage dropped will block off existing puyos, making it hard/impossible to finish what you intended. As in Columns, there's the endless mode as well as campaign mode against 10 increasingly more difficult AI.

While the colors are good, both games are just extremely... difficult in certain cases as they are more about ruining your opponent when winning. There's a bit of this... vicious streak that made you feel good when you sent a lot of garbage to the opponent that he'll never recover from. However, neither game is as simple to pick up as Tetris. Color matching can be a problem under bright areas or wearing shades as some colors look rather close (green and blue puyos, for example). And the music is extremely repetitive and I quickly turned them off.

All in all, I found Sega Columns Deluxe to be a Tetris-clone, okay, TWO Tetris-clones. They tried to be different with the combat, but these extra rules don't really improve the game, at least in my opinion. If you like Tetris variants, give them a try, as you may be playing them again and again every once in a while. However, they don't quite have this "play one more level" feel that Tetris has, at least for me. However, they do get extra 0.5 point for value.

Rating: 7 out of 10 (includes +0.5 for value, 2 games in 1)
Pros: variations on Tetris / Dr. Mario, but more about offensive than defensive
Cons: feels... less puzzle and more action, lacks that "one more level" feel

Mobile Game Review of "Prehistoric Fun Park"

Image via WikipediaI can't find a link at THQ Wireless's own website, so I have to link to someone else.

Basically, it's Theme Park Tycoon / Rollercoaster Tycoon set in a cellphone. It seems to be a semi-sequel to "Prehistoric Tribe", also from THQ Wireless. It's done in an isometric view, and starts with your park completely empty, a few hundred "stones" in your account, a lot of imagination. You need to build rides (which, BTW, only have doors either to the "right", or "down". The "rotate" command only flips the doors between those two locations, not the ride itself. You need to build path to the rides so people can get to them. You need to build benches for people who get tired. You need to hire guards to maintain order and prevent fights. You need to hire maintainer to keep the rides running. You need to build food stands (and other stands) and hire salespersons to "man" them. You need to build cafes and hire cooks. You need to build toilets and fountains to satisfy other needs. You need to build a variety of rides to satisfy a variety of people. Don't be surprised if your rating 10 coaster sits idle while your rating 4 slide gets a queue 10 people long. And yes, you need to do it all under pressure of money, and ratings. Some rides are powered, so you need to build a dino motor and a dino rider to power the motor. But a motor only cover a certain amount of area... You get the idea.

I find it quite hard to figure out what the riders want, and how to raise the happiness rating overall. Building bigger and badder rides isn't always the answer. Too bad there isn't an "advisor" type function that helps you figure out what to build next. But I guess that'd be a bit too much for a wireless game.

You can go through the campaign in easy or hard difficulties. The hard difficulty have higher "happiness" requirements. Or you can do the custom missions, where you can do a "competition" as you try to run your park against some AI opponents, or you can do a pure free-play as you experiment with your rides and layouts and do a pure sandbox approach.

The graphics are 2D, but the animations are excellent. Each ride have their unique animations. Bungee jump (called banjo here) looks right, as are catapult, tower, and coasters. However, there doesn't seem to be many crowd control devices, other than paths, and the occasional signs.

While you can control the ride's prices, they don't seem to affect the peeps much on their desire to ride them. It's also very difficult to herd the riders into the furthest reaches of the park. A single loop may be the optimum path here.

All in all, Prehistoric Fun Park is a fun little tycoon title that could have commanded $10-15 in a bargain bin, and lost nothing when played on a cellphone. I admit I am a bit spoiled by the big screen I have on my LG VX9900 enV, but even when played in lower resolutions you should enjoy the activities occurring in the park. This game may stay on my phone a bit longer.

Overall: 8/10
Pros: full tycoon title in a phone, fun animations and rides
Cons: hard to judge what to build next, can't get riders into further parts of park

Mobile Game Review of "Wedding Dash"

Diner Dash clone gets a 7 for competent but unoriginal gameplay. See my review on IGN.

Previews of more upcoming games!

SEGA Columns Deluxe -- 2 variations on the Tetris (tm) theme... are they any good?

Prehistoric Fun Park -- Rollercoaster Tycoon, except set in prehistoric times!

Wedding Dash -- Diner Dash, except set during a wedding reception!

Mobile Game Review of "Marsho Madness"

Marsho Madness is actually a "sidegame" made into a mobile game. The original game stars Eets, a cute creature, who needs to complete a series of tasks and get food. It is best described as half Incredible Machine, half Lemmings. Eets likes to eat marshmallows and hates choco chips. Marsho Madness started as a bonus game for the main eets game, known as Eets: Chowdown for the PC. It has since been ported to X360 and released on XLA. Konami decided to make the bonus round into its own game. Is it any good? Well... Not that good.

Marsho Madness has the plot where Eets is defending against a horde of evil marshmallows. The problem is, if you don't play Eets:Chowdown or other games in the series, you don't really "get" the silly plot. That's one point down. The actual game itself is kinda cute, but not that well done. Basically, each "critter" has a lock-on sequence. Smallest have just 2 keypresses... out of four: up / down / left / right. Larger ones can have up to 4 (haven't seen a 5-key critter yet). You have to lock on to each marsho and zap them with the laser before they reach Eets. Different marshos move in different speed and patterns. Small lock-2 (2 buttons) critters just goes at you straight, slowly, while the lock-3 critters have random stops and moves, and lock-4 critters either circle or go straight in, and breaks into multiple lock-2's when zapped. The lock-3 critters that circle are like bombers that drop off more lock-2's. You get the idea.

As you play longer (you get 1 free life for surviving every 3 minutes) your "laser" gets extra power, like being able to "chain" through multiple enemies, and so on. However, you're given no indication of this other then the effects once fired.

Also, the game does not proper take advantage of my LG VX9900's normal aspect screen. In fact, the "life bar" covers the top, making enemies approaching from that side almost invisible.

Somehow this game doesn't have that "play again" factor, as it's more frustrating than challenging, at least in my opinion. The later marshmellows come too fast, esp. when they break into multiple pieces which still must be targeted.

All in all, I can only give this game a 6 / 10. There are better distractions out there.

Mobile Game Review of "Prison Break: The TV Game"

Fox TV's Prison Break was once thought "impossible for an on-going series". After all, what story is there once you've broken out? But it was interesting enough that it's now in a FOURTH season (okay, technically three seasons, due to the WGA strike). So... what if you can join the brothers and help them in the escape? You get this game.

The game, from VU, basically has you retrace the steps of Prison Break's Season 1, as Lincoln got into prison to get his brother OUT, and must form alliances (temporary or otherwise) with various prisoners in order to secure various items needed for the escape. Lincoln must also somehow lead the inmates through the maze of underground tunnels, without caught by the guards, and get to safety. The exploration of the tunnels is tied to the performance of how well you can reassemble a puzzle made out of pieces of a picture of the Taj Mahal. The faster and fewer mistakes, the more time you have to explore the caves.

The game itself is a standard 2D game with sprites. Most of the time, you walk around the prison groups during the "free activity times". You can find all the players, like Sucre, Abuzzi, T-Bag, and more. Each have something to contribute. You are never lost as to where to go as that's stated very specifically in your "goal book". However, sometimes what you do once you get to that location isn't that obvious.

For example, one of the items is by combining the recorder and watch, you can time the guard's movements. However, you need to plant that near a guard. You are given the general location, but not the specific location, and you basically have to walk around that area until you stumble onto it.

The puzzle / explore link is way too specious and arbitrary. Even if you are so bad with the puzzle that you ran out of time, you have 90 seconds to explores the tunnels. And if you well with the puzzle, you get a bit more. You can back against the wall to dodge a guard, but that doesn't always work, so your best defense is speed... run AWAY from the guard, and find a way to go around him.

Every once in a while you are given an oddball job. Like when you mess with the ventilation to cause a riot in order to cover up the breakthru you engineered, the riot then force you to embark on a free-run, as you jump over chairs, slide under tables, through guards, in order to reach the other side of the prison (for something, I forgot).

Overall, if you are a fan of the series, you should get a kick out of playing Scofield. It's classified as action, so most of the action is in dodging the patrols in the tunnels. The rest, technically an adventure, is WAY too simple to be much of a game. I have to give this a 7 out of 10... Even if they have to stick to the script, they could have done a better job with the various minigames to make it more entertaining. Their other game, 24: Special Ops was okay, so what went wrong here?

Mobile Game Review of "WANTED: The Movie Game (mobile)"

Yes, this is an adaptation of a movie which is an adaptation of a graphic novel, which is more of an adaptation of someone's teenage fantasy. I mean, let's face it... which male teenager who doesn't dream of a Matrix-like revelation that one's dead father was really a super-bad***, and one was told by a femme fatale named Fox that one can be just as bad***, pop people left and right like Chow Yun Fat, gut people like Rambo, do somersaults and flips and wall-walks like Prince of Persia, and "avenge" your dead father by going after people just because Fox said so?

Oh, and there's this neat trick about bullets traveling in a CURVE. He-he-he.

The game is is a simple 2D sprite platformer with some attempt at isometric-look. You jump here and there and hold on the ledges and do flips and shoots people and guts people if close enough. Objective is get to the next exit. You may have to kill guards, and flip a few switches here and there. You can also crouch and roll under obstacles. Here it's a little like Bourne Conspiracy. It's straight-forward except for the occasional "autopilot" segments and the occasional "curve the bullet" segments they throw in.

The autopilot segments are named so because you are automatically moving. You can't stop. If you don't jump or crouch in time, you miss your move and you'll die. If you mis-time your jump, you fall to your death. If you mis-time your crouch, you do a flip-jump instead as you bounce off the wall and changes direction, and jump off the wrong ledge (and again, fall to your death). You have to contend with the guards in your way as well, while preserving your health, as your health does NOT regenerate during "autopilot". (It does regenerate in normal segment if you can stop at a quiet place, but you lose your kill-chain bonus.)

Curve-the-bullet segments are even more boring. Basically, it's very similar to autopilot segment, except you have to press keys in specific sequence to deal with various enemies that will appear (or already on) the level.

The 2D graphics look below average, when compared to other games like even the recent Get Smart: The Movie Game. And I don't really feel like playing Mario, instead of a bad*** assassin. Music is forgettable.

It does have "awards", or achievements, by accomplishing certain goals like get ten henchmen to shoot each other, or stuff like that. But once through the game is really enough for everyone, even teenage boys with glorious fantasies.

All in all, I'll have to give this a 6.5. It's an average game, enough said.

Need a second opinion? IGN's review agrees, as we came to the same score: 6.5!

Mobile Game Review of "Monopoly Tycoon (mobile)"

Monopoly Tycoon is an adaptation of the existing PC game. There are still four players, and they use the old play pieces: locomotive, ship, shoe, and so on. Each turn has four phases: auction phase, build phase, manage phase, and resolution phase. Instead of moving each player's avatar around a board, one randomly chosen piece of property (or utility, or railroad) is auctioned off per turn, until the victory condition is reached. Victory condition can be one of the four: first to 100K, first to 1 million, most monopolies (up to all properties auctioned), or simply most money when last property auctioned.

Auction phase is similar to "Price is Right" is played: order is random, but it's a single pass ONLY. In other words, the later you are in the queue, the more advantage you have, as you can outbid the earlier guy by just $1, and he'd have no chance. So overbidding pressure is enormous, even against AI. Assuming you have enough $$$, of course.

In the build phase, you can build on the properties you own, or if there's an existing building, either raze it (and leave it empty) or remodel it into some OTHER type of business, and there are quite a few to choose from. Restaurant, cafe, movie theater, toy store, department store, night club, and more. The monopoly city has needs, and you have to fulfill them. You must study the supply and demand chart, to see which market segment is growing (or shrinking), and redo your current investments if needed. You also have to decide how big of a business (small, medium, or large), and what grade of a business (1 star, 2 stars, or 3 stars) to fit the neighborhood. You wouldn't put a dime store in Hollywood, right?

In the manage phase, you set prices on those businesses that you have. If you have monopoly in the segment, you can pretty much set the price to maximum ($99) and rake in the money. If you don't, then you better see what the other folks are doing and perhaps, undercut them in price in order to draw in more business...

In the resolution phase, you see if you have made the right decision, and you have made a net gain, or a net loss (money spent during building and auction phases are counted as well in the cash movement).

Railroads and utilities automatically generate money. The more of one type you own, the more money they generate (geometrically). They don't need to be managed.

Just as Monopoly (tm), you do get random events, such as "all theaters generate oly 50% revenue this turn" or such.

As the supply and demand situation changes from turn to turn the situation is very fluid, and you can't expect to bid for a property every turn and still have enough money to build something. It's really up to you to manage the businesses to generate enough cash for you to expand, and that's why it's more of a tycoon game than just Monopoly.

Unfortunately, you can't "trade" properties in this game, which means you HAVE to outbid other people when it comes to creating monopolies. However, when you DO get a monopoly, you get to build hotels on those properties, and that generates a LOT of revenue, esp. on 3-star properties.

The graphics are good though not as nicely animated as Monopoly Here and Now (also reviewed here earlier), but that's because there's an actual game board. The actual stores and such are animated when zoomed in with mothers pushing strollers, businessmen in suits, and occasional cars going by. Different grade of business look different. And so on. Graphics are good without being overly ornamental. The main problem is it's very hard to spot similar businesses on the board when the individual business squares are so small, and alwasy "color coded" by owner, not type. You have to go by their actual shrunken pictures, and they cover each other in the isometric view.

Other than that, the game is a hoot, esp. in the earlier phases when the AI is actually competitive. However, even a pretty lousy player should be able to trounce the AI in the longer games, as computer can't seem to consistently make good decisions.

All in all, Monopoly Tycoon is a successful update of the old classic, and a good port. You'll be playing it again, and again, and again, as every game will be somewhat different. I give this game an 8 as I wish for better music and animations.