There are, unfortunately, very few real platformers on the Pocket PC (SuperTux, Gold Miner Joe, the free OpenJazz, Bayside Studios' Quigley's Quest 1.10, the not-sold-any-more Rayman Ultimate by Gameloft or the non-WM5-compliant, now-free Tommy Kombat come to mind as examples, in addition to N.I’s great Retro Games collection and the to-be-released Titus’ Prehistorik clone Prehistoric). This is why I gave this new platformer a test ride right after the release.
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(an in-game video; note the abundance of the different platform types!)
The game is a classic platform game and is pretty similar to, say, Manic Miner and (without that much a puzzle element) the puzzle platformer Toki Tori (also quickly reviewed in the Pocket PC Gaming Bible Part I). Unlike in “hop and bop” platformers like Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Bubsy, and Donkey Kong Country, you can’t eliminate your opponents by jumping on them, though.
The developer, B3Team, has been quite inactive for quite a long time – after their Locomotion clone Pocket Loco released back in 2002, they haven't released anything. This is why I find it really great they have released another Pocket PC title.
Excerpt from the blurb:
“You have been trapped in another dimension. In order to rescue yourself from the nightmare you have to collect multiple items and pass over thirty rooms until the happy ending.
You control your hero using arrows and the stylus for jumping. You must avoid dangerous creatures that live in the rooms. When you collect all the items the door will open. You must exit the room before the time passes. You shall get one point for every item collected. Every 100 points gives you an extra life. Falling from the large height makes you hurt a lot. ”
Availability, compatibility
The game is available on the official homepage of the title. There is a 3-level demo available; the commercial version contains 36 levels and costs $12.50.
It ran on all my WM2003+ (the game isn't compatible with earlier OS'es) test Pocket PC’s I've given it a try (WM2003 QVGA HP iPAQ 2210, WM2003SE VGA Pocket Loox 720, WM5 VGA Dell Axim x51v, WM5 QVGA HTC Wizard and even the WM5-upgraded (version 2.01) HP iPAQ hx4700).
Controls
By default, you can control your hero to the left and right and also make it run (by default, the touchscreen). The controls can be redefined.
Music
Great tracked scene music played back in stereo; different in-game and menu music. (The internal format is S3M and XM; the AtomicDreams.pak, which seems to be a ZIP file, is XOR encrypted and, therefore, it’s pretty hard to access the files inside by default.)
Verdict
Highly recommended if you like (retro) platformers with really nice, tracked, stereo music. Give it a try!
Related
Momentum Games, developers of well-known, high-quality titles like Pocket Mini Golf 2 (see review & comparison here), has just come up with a remarkable, new, platform-like game. Since there are very few really good platformer games for the Pocket PC (SuperTux, Gold Miner Joe, the free OpenJazz, Bayside Studios' Quigley's Quest 1.10, the not-sold-any-more Rayman Ultimate by Gameloft or the non-WM5-compliant, now-free Tommy Kombat come to mind as examples, in addition to N.I’s great Retro Games collection and the to-be-released Titus’ Prehistorik clone Prehistoric), I gave it a test ride right away.
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While the game isn’t exactly a traditional platform game (unlike the above-listed games) but more of a logic / puzzle game (in this respect it’s a bit like, for example, Lemmings, Cavemen, AIM productions’ Tmax or Astraware’s Mazera, reviewed in the Roundup of All Pocket PC Games Part I). It is also slightly similar to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Jet Pac (screenshot here), one of the favourite games of my childhood.
Availability
The game is available HERE, costs $15.95 and has a perfectly playable trial version.
Compatibility
I’ve tested it on my WM5 Dell Axim x51v (A12), WM2003SE VGA Pocket Loox 720 and 5-year-old (!) Pocket PC 2002 Compaq iPAQ 3660 (yes, Pocket PC 2002 compliance is VERY rare with new titles!). It worked flawlessly on all these devices. It’s also compatible with square-screen devices and also has MS Smartphone and desktop Windows versions.
Visuals
They’re pretty good: the game, just like the new version of Pocket Mini Golf, supports hi-res VGA. On these devices, it looks pretty cool. The “thrust” effects (see the screenshot above) are pretty cool too, a bit like those of 4Pockets (the most known, excellent Pocket PC game developer company to use movement effects like these.)
Music / sounds
While the music is pretty cool, it’s pretty repetitive (as with Momentum Games’ other titles in general – they should pay more attention to less repetitive in-game music with better quality) and played back at a low quality and in mono.
Verdict
If you’re looking for a “traditional” platform game, you may be disappointed with this title. Still, give it a try.
If you more like platformer-like games where thinking is more necessary (in the Tmax / Mazera / Lemmings / Cavemen way), definitely give this title a try.
Ever wanted to play platformers on your Pocket PC? So far, unfortunately, few REAL platformers have been released for the Pocket PC; they are as follows:
Atomic Dreams,
SuperTux,
Gold Miner Joe,
the free OpenJazz,
Bayside Studios' Quigley's Quest 1.10,
the not-sold-any-more Rayman Ultimate by Gameloft,
the non-WM5-compliant, now-free Tommy Kombat,
N.I’s great Retro Games collection,
Momentum Games’ pretty good platformer-alike, brand new Meltdown
and the to-be-released Titus’ Prehistorik clone Prehistoric(it, unfortunately, has just been delayed to March).
This means all new, decent platformer releases are a must for real Pocket PC game freaks.
Fortunately, Jadeware’s new game Grizzly Adventure is a pretty good platformer game – if and only if it flawlessly runs on your Pocket PC. Read on!
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Availability, compatibility
The homepage of the game is here. Alternatively, here’s the Handango page.
The title is supposed to the compatible with WM2003 and later operating systems (sorry, no-pre WM2003, contrary to what the official homepage states).
Unfortunately, it seems to have severe problems with VGA devices. As far my VGA test devices are concerned, I’ve tested the game on my Pocket Loox 720, WM5-upgraded HP iPAQ hx4700 and the A12 Dell Axim x51v. Of the three, it’s only the Axim that could run the game with an adequate speed and tolerable playability. The Loox was unbearably slow (even with Picard’s GAPI hack) and the iPAQ was only a tad faster (with stuttering music). It should be pointed out, however, that the x51v was still slower and less pleasing-to-play than the QVGA HTC Wizard.
As far as QVGA devices are concerned, I’ve tested it on my HP iPAQ h2210 and HTC Wizard overclocked to 240 MHz. The game had very annoying stuttering problems on the former (while it, basically, ran the game otherwise OK); the Wizard ran the game without any problems.
That is, before paying anything (fortunately, it’s pretty cheap - $7.95 only) for the game, make double-sure it does run on your Pocket PC without major problems!
Note that there also is a Mac and a desktop Windows version. Unlike the desktop version of MANY Pocket PC games (4Pockets and OmniGSoft titles, for example), it does make use of the increased screen estate – give it a try.
Installer
It should be pointed out that Grizzly Adventure uses a non-standard installer (screenshot here). This, as usual, presents a lot of problems: lack of user-deployable CAB files, lack of Mac / Linux compatibility, not possible to re/uninstall from ActiveSync, a current connection is needed to install and so on.
I really hope the developer switches to using standard CAB files.
Also note that the starting link it creates is linking an ogg music file in Programs. You must manually create a link to GrizzlyDemo.exe in the main directory of the title, which is \My Documents\Grizzly Demo when installed to the main storage.
Audio
There is pretty good in-game music in OGG format; this also means it can be freely copied / swapped. They’re played back in mono during the game. There are three different, pretty good in-game music tracks (also see the \audio subdirectory in the home directory of the game) and another menu music. There are sound effects too in the game.
All in all, the audio department is OK.
Verdict
It’s a pretty good and, what is even more important, cheap platformer IF it runs on your Pocket PC well. Give the trial a try to find it out - it's worth the trouble.
Lately, I’ve had absolutely no time to test new games because I’ve spent all my time in real-world projects (yeah, I need to do some work to make both ends meet and to be able to purchase all the new gadgets), the Windows Mobile Web Browsing Bible and, of course, the Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine’s Annual Best Software Awards I’ve become the Nominations Manager of. So, let me quickly review two of the titles; first,
A REAL Prince of Persia-clone!
You must have heard of Prince of Persia, which, back in 1990 (in addition to Indianapolis 500 and Legend Entertainment’s Spellcasting 101), was one of my favorite games on the IBM PC.
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So far, there was no real Prince clone of the game on Windows Mobile. Up until now, that is; now, well-known (see the review of their Billiard Master 2 and Bowling Master review & comparison in the Windows Mobile Multiplayer Bible) Russian Windows Mobile & Palm OS games developer Mobirate has just started reimplementing the game on Windows Mobile.
The demo can be downloaded HERE and is WM2003+ compatible.
The project is really at the alpha stage and a lot of stuff doesn’t work. The Options screen is completely messed up (the labels are not visible at all and you can only guess what a particular checkbox does) on both VGA and QVGA devices, there’s no Button 1 (I’ve tested this on all my three Pocket PC’s (Dell Axim x51v A12, HP iPAQ 2210, HTC Wizard with AKU3.3 ROM) I’ve deployed the game on). The on-screen controls seem to be non-existent (albeit, after switching some “Off” checkboxes to “On” in Options, the game started to use them – but not the D-pad any more). Furthermore, there are absolutely no sound effects / music. Finally, the game may be pretty slow on some devices: it was barely playable (17-18 fps) on my iPAQ 2210. The HTC Wizard running at 240 MHz fared better (24 fps); finally, the x51v was the best (about 26 fps).
While the lack of for example button support may render the game completely useless (for example, you won’t be able to even do basic stuff like drinking potions), you may still want to give it a try, particularly because the developer is giving away free copies of the final version to the best, most productive betatesters (see the last sentence in readme.txt).
I really hope a (more) playable version follows very soon.
Note that the developer’s homepage doesn’t contain any real information on the game. For example, the image’s link takes you to their game compilation Brain Master. I’ve tried to supply different URL’s (by increasing the document ID referenced by the URL) to find out whether there is a page dedicated to the game; there (still) isn’t. That is, you won’t get any additional info on the game.
(News source: have run into the news upon routinely checking for a new, Microsoft Bluetooth stack-compliant version of Billiard Master 2 and Bowling Master on the developer’s homepage).
Many of you may know the color matching / Tetris clone Dr. Pocket from the author of for example Travel Collection (reviewed in the <code>Windows Mobile Multiplayer Bible</code>).
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While the previous version didn’t have much to write home about, the new one is MUCH better. First, it sports multiplayer capabilities and, second, no other than Jaybot7 (well-known musician; for example, most PDAMill games sport his music) himself has written some really cool music tracks for the game. (Note that, should you want to listen to Jaybot’s tracked music, it’s in the res/music subdirectory of the home directory of the game. Should you want to have a module player to play them, read my related roundup HERE)
Availability, price
It’s available here. Note that the new version is free for anyone who's ever purchased Dr. Pocket and only costs $9.95 if you want to purchase it.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer is lobby-based (screenshot). This means that, unlike with Travel Collection, it’s not possible to play Internet-less games (for example, over local Wi-Fi peer-to-peer or Bluetooth PAN connections). Hope the developer adds support for direct IP-based playing (it’s already there in Travel Collection), while, of course, keeping the central server (lobby)-based approach too. This would offer the advantages of both game types (lobby-based: no need for entering IP’s; works when both parties are behind firewalls / NAT’ed; easy to find opponents; direct: no Internet connection needed and works over even really local (pico)networks).
The game, when played in multiplayer, is simply parallel, as with the similar, comparable multiplayer Teris & color matching titles (for example, CanTris and Quartz 2). While you do see the other player’s current game on a minimap (in the lower right corner), along with his or her frags (three is needed to win the game), he has no direct effect on your playing – except for someone’s entirely filling in the entire playfield, that is.
A decent feature is that the two parties can agree upon the game type (there are three of them), the game speed (three), the number of colors (three or four) before starting the game using a GUI (screenshot). You can even select your favorite music in here.
There are, unfortunately, no in-game chatting features.
Compatibility
I’ve encountered no compatibility problems on any of my test Pocket PC’s (PPC2k2, WM2003, WM2003SE, WM5, WM6; some of them VGA). Note that the game is one of the VERY few titles that (still) support the Pocket PC 2002 OS; note that you may want to install GAPI before running the game (if it doesn’t find it, it’ll report so you don’t need to keep in mind whether it’s already installed). Note that, as can also be seen in the screenshots (taken on my VGA WM5 Dell Axim x51v), there is no hi-res mode.
Verdict
I really recommend the new game if you like Jaybot7’s music and/or just want to have a simple Tetris-alike game. As with Travel Collection, highly recommended if you don’t hate color matching titles.
The Redshift folks are back with an excellent title! Some months ago, they’ve announced they’d completely leave the Windows Mobile platform because of the rampant piracy. Now, they’ve returned with a remarkable action-puzzle mix, Dungeoned. If you like a combination of fast-paced action and puzzle games, you will really want to give it a try. It’s a bit similar to some maze games (for example, Astraware’s Mummy Maze, Monkeystone’s Hyperspace Delivery Boy! and AIM Productions’ TMax) quickly introduced in the Windows Mobile Bible of Games Part I, but is much more varied: in addition to having to find out Sokoban-like puzzles, you not only need to fight other (static) creatures, but, on some maps, also a second player, which is controlled by a pretty good AI (unlike the droid opponents in, say, the Commodore 64 classic Paradroid) and you must be very fast to attack him. This certainly makes a refreshing change to the gameplay.
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(more screenshots HERE; a mini-video HERE)
The title is Pocket PC-only; that is, as you MUST use the touchscreen, won’t work on touchscreen-less MS Smartphones.
The price has just been lowered to $9.95 (along with the release of a new build). The game is available HERE and is compatible with all Windows Mobile operating systems starting with WM2003. On VGA devices, it uses high-resolution sprites; in addition, as usual with Redshift’s all titles, it supports all the screen resolutions commonly used on Windows Mobile devices. What is more, it’s one of the VERY rare games that don’t use the CPU at 100%, resulting in the game quickly chewing through the battery. On my 624 MHz Marvel Xscale PXA-310-based VGA HP iPAQ 214, the CPU usage has never exceeded 35%, which is indeed very good news - few Windows Mobile game / emulator developers strive to lowering the CPU usage.
The problems of the title is the lack of in-game music (while the in-game sounds are without doubt good). There is only (very short and repetitive) music in the menus and the shop screen. Also, completely stylus-based control would be highly beneficial as in most, say, Bomberman clones; for example, PalmStorm’s excellent, free (!) Xplodus!. What I mean is tapping the close vicinity of your character to instruct it to go (attack) that way. This would really help players with devices with a, for gaming, sub-par (or plain non-existing – see the HTC Touch series, including the forthcoming Touch HD) D-pad. Yeah, the game does have on-screen arrows, but, in my opinion, they aren’t the best.
Verdict
Highly recommended, particularly now that the price has been dropped. Well worth at least a try.