6/03/2005
Cell Phone Games Are A Welcome Distraction
BY HAROLD GOLDBERG
FOR THE OLYMPIAN
Cell phones aren't just for calling anymore. You also can use them to play games.
First, let's take a look at the Nokia N-Gage QD, a phone made with gamers in mind. Admittedly, it's not the greatest phone in the world because of its clunky shape. But it sports a large screen and plays like a GameBoy. You play games with a plastic card that slips into a slot, just like a memory card for a digital camera. In addition to single-player modes, many of the games available for the N-Gage allow you to play with anyone around the world, wirelessly.
Take "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory," from Ubisoft. It's a 3D wonder with enemies that seem to have their own artificial intelligence programmed right in. Sure, it's sometimes old school in that the text pops up in a box as opposed to audio dialog. But the levels are brand- new. If you loved "Chaos Theory," you'll relish the new stuff in the N-Gage software, too.
More people have Sprint cell phones than N-Gage. These Sprint games cost $2 to $8 to download. That's not a bad price to pay for quick entertainment.
Recently, I played two games on the LG MM-535, the one with a 2-inch screen and a camera that shoots 1.3 megapixel photos. The first was Namco's "Pac-Man Pinball." Because I've been a pinball fan since childhood, I was looking forward to some fun flipper action. However, the makers of "Pac-Man Pinball" broke up the screen into a top and a bottom, which keeps the ball from moving between screens seamlessly.
That's the way PC pinball games worked when games first became a thing years ago. It didn't work then, and it doesn't work now. The game does offer good challenges, including a slot machine aspect. If you're a pinball fan, it's an addicting time killer, but that split screen makes about as much sense as cutting a laptop in half when two people need to use it.
Far more appealing for the Sprint service is "Beach Mini Golf" from Digital Chocolate. If you're searching for cutsie gimmicks, this game isn't it. Instead, it's a vexing challenge with maze-like holes giving you 10 strokes to make par. Sure, the aiming function is a little off and the physics feel like an alien made them for Saturn's gravity, but those things make "Beach Mini Golf" winsomely wilder and wackier. It's 18 holes of happy diversion that you can play again and again.
I don't trust it when market analysts say mobile gaming will be a multibillion- dollar business in three years. That's an exaggeration.
But if you simply need to play games almost everywhere you go, and a GameBoy or PSP isn't practical to carry around, try a cell phone game. It's a novelty that's probably here to stay.
FOR THE OLYMPIAN
Cell phones aren't just for calling anymore. You also can use them to play games.
First, let's take a look at the Nokia N-Gage QD, a phone made with gamers in mind. Admittedly, it's not the greatest phone in the world because of its clunky shape. But it sports a large screen and plays like a GameBoy. You play games with a plastic card that slips into a slot, just like a memory card for a digital camera. In addition to single-player modes, many of the games available for the N-Gage allow you to play with anyone around the world, wirelessly.
Take "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory," from Ubisoft. It's a 3D wonder with enemies that seem to have their own artificial intelligence programmed right in. Sure, it's sometimes old school in that the text pops up in a box as opposed to audio dialog. But the levels are brand- new. If you loved "Chaos Theory," you'll relish the new stuff in the N-Gage software, too.
More people have Sprint cell phones than N-Gage. These Sprint games cost $2 to $8 to download. That's not a bad price to pay for quick entertainment.
Recently, I played two games on the LG MM-535, the one with a 2-inch screen and a camera that shoots 1.3 megapixel photos. The first was Namco's "Pac-Man Pinball." Because I've been a pinball fan since childhood, I was looking forward to some fun flipper action. However, the makers of "Pac-Man Pinball" broke up the screen into a top and a bottom, which keeps the ball from moving between screens seamlessly.
That's the way PC pinball games worked when games first became a thing years ago. It didn't work then, and it doesn't work now. The game does offer good challenges, including a slot machine aspect. If you're a pinball fan, it's an addicting time killer, but that split screen makes about as much sense as cutting a laptop in half when two people need to use it.
Far more appealing for the Sprint service is "Beach Mini Golf" from Digital Chocolate. If you're searching for cutsie gimmicks, this game isn't it. Instead, it's a vexing challenge with maze-like holes giving you 10 strokes to make par. Sure, the aiming function is a little off and the physics feel like an alien made them for Saturn's gravity, but those things make "Beach Mini Golf" winsomely wilder and wackier. It's 18 holes of happy diversion that you can play again and again.
I don't trust it when market analysts say mobile gaming will be a multibillion- dollar business in three years. That's an exaggeration.
But if you simply need to play games almost everywhere you go, and a GameBoy or PSP isn't practical to carry around, try a cell phone game. It's a novelty that's probably here to stay.
