Month: January 2009

NAME: Snoopy The Flying Ace VERSION: 0.6.1 COMPANY: Namco Network PLATFORM: JAVA GENRE: Action/Cartoon series SIZE: 272 KB TEST PHONE: Nokia 6500 RATING: 7/10 DEMO:

Welcome to the Snoopy The Flying Ace game review (JAVA Version).

It’s taken awhile for anyone to release a game based on the dog  from the popular Peanuts cartoon series created by Charles M Shulz.

The story of the game is for you to play as Snoopy to collect balloons in order to raise his friend Woodstock’s, the yellow bird’s nest from the ground.

The games graphics are replicated from the hand drawn cartoon they are essentially  replications of the cartoon strip which are perfectly suitable.  Fans of the cartoon will be very happy indeed.

The game’s sounds are typical MIDI based and acceptable.

Snoopy’s playability is very good since it requires only one button!  You could compare it to the Johnny Crash series in this regard but Snoopy is a little more technical.  As you progress through the levels it does get quite tricky.

You control Snoopy as he flies on his kennel though the air collecting balloons.  There are various obstacles like storm clouds and the Red Baron to avoid and powerups like Root beer to collect.  You even get to run over Charlie Brown and his friends for extra points.

Overall easy enough tasks to perfrom made more interesting by that addition of new obstacles with each new level.  Eg. Barn Storming

The game is targetted at a younger audience since is a lot of help on screen including a mini map at the top!  Nonetheless still challenging.

Conclusion: It is great little game that’s easy to play. It does not have the immediate addictiveness of  the Johnny Crash series but overall interesting enough for casual player and fans of the cartoon.

NAME: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed VERSION: 1.0.8 COMPANY: THQ & Universomo PLATFORM: JAVA GENRE: Action/Movie SIZE: 512 KB TEST PHONE: Nokia 6500 RATING: 7/10 DEMO:

Welcome to our Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Mobile game (Java version) review.

The game is a massive 512KB in size so we where expecting big things from this game!  Mind you 512kb on a PC is tiny but as cell phone games go 1/2 a meg should mean that it will be a reasonable game.

The Force Unleashed is clearly a Star Wars game released in conjunction with the Xbox, Wii, PS2 and even DS versions.  The mobile version is quite different from the others for obvious reasons. However the premise is essentially the same.

The story line set between Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith and Episode 4 – A New Hope is relatively simple you play as the Darth Vader’s secret apprentice who under various orders goes about the galaxy wiping out any remaining Jedi Knights.  Throughout the game you get various cut scenes and dialogue that progress the story and of course the game difficulty.

The quality of graphics in the game are quite good for a 2D game. The action sprites and backgrounds work very well and in keeping with most of the other Star Wars games made in 2D. Characters from the original series and some from the pre-queal series also make an appearance.  Including Liea and Wookies.

The quality of the sound is likewise good using higher quality MIDI and instruments.  The soundtrack is typical Star Wars which is perfectly acceptable.

In terms of playability Universomo have developed a new system of controlling the action.  So you don’t directly control the actual movement of the character rather you key in combinations (called Weaving) that appear on enemies the screen. Your character then attacks the character for the sequence you keyed in.  As a method it works very well!

However there is a problem and that is to do with the large amount of variance in the keypads on your mobile phone these days.  So if you have a Sony Ericsson K800i or a Nokia 6500 the keypads are quite stiff so you’ll have a hard time keying in the sequences fast enough and without error. If you have a small phone even worse because it can’t really be played one handed.  The method would probably work better on a touch screen.

Each level is paced for 2-3 minutes if you do the right tasks which makes it playable on a bus or train.  However the two handed controls, required for speed.  Getting used to the control system takes a little while but once learned its quite repetitive and easy enough.  However that still does nto solve the keypad problem.

Each level also reveals a new force power for you to use and various powerups available in the game.  Again you need to type the correct pattern to use it.  There is a free play mode along with 3 hardness levels AND unlimited lives which makes up for the novel control system.

Conclusion: It is a pure light saber/force game but the pressing so many buttons distracts you from actually watching the game rather  – you are looking at the keypad to find the right shape to make.  It is a game for the fans of the movies or those who want a bit of a physical challenge or one with a cell phone that has a soft touch keypad.  So overall a decent game that takes more time than usual to get used to but ultimately enjoyable.