OddMoon :: Fast Future Race :: News :: Letters

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The game I played most this week:

Astraware Sudoku

Invaded Again: OddMoon

Odd Moon is a good example of why I think people need to be really careful about remaking games like Space Invaders. Personally, I don't think these reworkings really need to be made unless some effort has been made to capture the nostalgia or improve upon the original concept. Apart from being unplayably slow if you use the directional pad to control your ship, there's really nothing bad about the game as such. Graphically, it looks OK, although the ships and aliens look a little goofy and overdesigned (explosions are handled with nice particle effects). Sound effects and music are adequate, but not exceptional. No real plot exists in the game. You do get several weapons in the game, which is more than what they had in the original game way back in 1978.

Aside from that, there's not much you can say about OddMoon that you can't say about Space Invaders. If this game had come out in, say, 2001, it would've been ahead of the curve in terms of the other games out there trying to copy the Space Invaders concept. To be fair, I did enjoy playing the game, and there were a few moments that took me back to playing the Atari 2600 version on an old black and white TV in 1983 or so (this will always be the definitive Space Invaders experience for me).

Overall, OddMoon is neither terrible nor fantastic; it's just another competent entry in an already overcrowded category.

 Like Floating on Air: Fast Future Race

The good people at the magazine were nice enough to send me a Smartphone a few weeks ago. Specifically, they sent me the Audiovox SMT5600. Smartphones aren't too bad as basic phones, although you definitely lose a lot by giving up the touch screen, and the smaller screen size makes any kind of software involving manipulation of graphical objects a little hard to use. While I won't be using the device as a phone per se (I don't have any connectivity on the device), I'll look at Smartphone titles from time to time. Since I still believe Pocket PCs are a much better platform for running games, I'll probably whip out the Smartphone for games that are either unavailable on the Pocket PC or seem particularly suited for the simpler phone platform.

Fast Future Race (FFR) is a game I've known about for a while; it's a racing game based on the old PlayStation hovering race game known as Wipeout. I never really liked Wipeout because I felt the physics weren't very good. I also felt that floating craft meant giving up the physical interaction between your vehicle and a solid track (be it land or water), which is critical in racing.

FFR looks good enough, and the physics of the vehicles actually isn't that bad. With the 80s techno soundtrack, it feels a bit like a cross between the aforementioned Wipeout and a much older Sega racing game called Outrun. The vehicles seem well behaved, and I thankfully don't get the impression that the road is just something that pops up every now and then to get in the way.

The handling is pretty good, but the game's major problem is the viewing angle and perspective. While many modern racing games with a third-person perspective move the car rather than have the track shift to the left or right, FFR does a combination of both. While this approach is workable, it definitely needs some tweaking in FFR. The track itself (which is wider than the display's viewing area) slides around very sloppily, and during hard cornering the opposite side will drop off the edge of the screen. This translates into a lack of control and makes me feel like I'm fighting the track rather than interacting with it.

The game does show some good design, with several game modes and a very clean-looking information panel showing a linear map, your position, and current speed. While the game does have some good moments, the viewing perspective and controls need some work so they are a little less spastic and easier to deal with.

News: Mennie-Player Games

Menneisyys (I just call him "Mennie") has come up with the Bible of Pocket PC Multiplayer Games. And I capitalized it for good reason: it's about as definitive as anything can get for the Pocket PC. The multiplayer aspect of Pocket PC gaming is one of my blind spots since I don't have Internet capability on my device, nor do I have any friends with Pocket PCs to try out anything via a local peer-to-peer connection. The article covers every type of game and every type of connection, ranging from Wi-Fi to direct cable connection (I didn't even know that was possible). I haven't read through it all and haven't done any fact-checking or anything, but believe me, it's almost insanely thorough. I kind of feel bad that the author isn't making any money on it. My only (minor) complaint is that it might be a little hard to navigate if you're looking for a certain type of game because of how it's organized (card games, action games, etc.), but Control-F will probably help you find what you're looking for.

If you plan to do any multiplayer gaming or if you already do, then you definitely need to read this article. Actually, it's a pretty good read for developers, too, both as a way to see the various pros and cons of the different protocols and to see what's out there in a given category. Mennie has some evaluative comments on each game, as well. You can read the whole thing here.

Free!
Omnytex Technologies has announced that their three game titles (K&G Arcade, Eliminator, and Invasion: Trivia!) have all been declared freeware. The reason is that sales of all the games have been very poor (K&G Arcade and Invasion: Trivia! have, to date, sold fewer than 150 copies combined). I reviewed both Invasion and Eliminator, and they were both decent games that weren't exorbitantly priced. This is a good reminder of how hard it is to sell these games and make any money. That's why there are so few companies dedicated to producing games for mobile devices and why individual developers tend to come and go. Remember to support developers by buying the games your like and don't pirate the stuff. The games may seem pricey, but they really aren't considering all the work and effort involved. You can download the Omnytex games here.

Discuss...

Letters: Anyone remember this Web site?

Tari writes:
Tari from PocketRocketFX.com and HandheldUnderground.com here. A few days ago, I discovered a little site that was reviewing Pocket PC games. It had its own domain, but it was a blog, and for the life of me, i can't find it again. I had thought I bookmarked it, but apparently not. It's not pocketgamer.org or that ppcgems.blogspot.com site. i think there was a lot of orange going down one side.
Kind regards.

Tari- Not sure which site you mean. The only one I know of like that is SmartPhone Thoughts. I'm not as up on all the various Web sites as I used to be. Can someone help Tari out?

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Allen Gall’s The Week in Games is a free service of Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine and Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine ONLINE: in-depth articles, tips, an Encyclopedia of Software and Accessories, and links to the best Windows Mobile PDA and Smartphone Web sites. It is edited by Duncan H. Brown.

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