Magic Beans from Pixelthis Mobile - Flash Lite Game Review

Magic Beans
Developed by Pixelthis Mobile
Released: 1st Quarter 2008
Availability: Verizon Wireless (via Smashing Games/Smashing Content), voeveo.com
Requirements: Flash Lite 1.1 and above

Note: I did the review on the Nokia E90 which runs Flash Lite 2.x. However, I have Flash Lite 3 with recent firmware update!

"... kind of like a fun take on a block Tetris, only in reverse, and with lot more imagination ... " - Scott Janousek







Review by Scott Janousek

Overview

Peter Vullings of Pixelthis Mobile sent us (frame27) a new game called "Magic Beans".

Given our review of Rune Mage earlier last year, we were glad to see yet another puzzle title from (Peter and his posse).

After playing for a bit, I think of Magic Beans as kind of like a fun spin on block Tetris, only in reverse, and with lot more imagination.

Here is a bit of narrative on the game:

"While experimenting with beans in his secret underground labratory, Dr. Blah creates out-of-control Magic Beans! Try to control Dr. Blah's creation before things get out of hand. A frantically addcitive game that turn your perspective on falling block games upside-down!"

Pixelthis Mobile
www.pixelthismobile.com

Ok. Let's roll up the sleeves and get into it. :)

Objective:
The objective is to get the highest score possible by forming groups of four or more (magic) beans of the same color within the "garden grid". Upon matching, the correctly colored beans will magically disappear and allow the beans that are stacked above to drop down.

You add beans to the screen by selecting a place in the ground (the lowest level of the garden grid). There are 6 positions to plant to. Planting in a spot where vine already exists pushes the vine up by one position and so forth.

You control where to plant your beans by using your devices up and down keys to rotate a "planter" (which always consists of 2 magic beans at a time). Moving left and right will adjust your position within the area where you must plant your beans.

Scoring Points:
Points are scored by the total beans you manage to match and how they are matched in groups (horizontally or vertically, not diagonally, but also not necessarily "in a row").

As time progresses, the game speed increases, adding a bit of challenge to the title. Every twenty turns will be a small increase, so you need to be quick on your foot and get your beans planted!

The game ends when a player allows one of the growing vines of magic beans to get to the very top of the screen where the falling carrots come from.

At the end, the beans all turn into carrots and your score is totaled and can be seen on the leader board (on a separate version it has been said, that there may be network submission if you are planning on competing against other player scores).

Carrots, anyone?:
Did I mention the falling carrots? Ah. Yes, the (very evil) falling carrots ... these get created when magic "acid drops" fit the ground when you run out of time, or at pivotal points in your game as you attain points.

Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out the best way to deal with carrots. They are kind of the bane of my existence when I play (right now). I won't be eating carrots this week. :)

Combos:
One more thing, there are "combos" in this game to attain. This happens if a group of beans is removed and thus consequently forms another group.

This is considered a combo, and when it happens you get a special pair of same colored beans which, when planted, all beans and carrots next to them (but not diagonally), will switch to be the same color.

This enables, you the player, to get some potential mega score!

Scoring:
Speaking of Score, it's broken up by the following:

A score of 100 is awarded by forming four beans, and every extra bean or carrot in the group adds more points (10 I believe). For example:

4 beans: 100 points
5 beans: 110 points
6 beans: 120 points ... and so on.

If two groups form at once then they are scored separately and then added. According to the documentation; in a combo the group score is also multiplied. The combo multiplier is x2 for a single, x3 for a double, etc. Additionally, a 2000 point "clear screen bonus" is awarded if a screen is completely cleared of all beans and carrots.

The Good

The MIDI soundtrack for the music is very cute and appropriate for the game setting. The game play is very addicting once you understand the rules and start to play.

The graphics are very appropriate and highly detailed (see screenshots above) and give the game a very "mystical sort of feeling" that is a trademark of the work that comes out of Pixelthis.

Attention to detail, such as the animated bird in the background is also a nice touch.

The Bad

The instructions are a bit lacking, so there is a bit of a learning curve. This is especially true of buttons and how they interact with the game.

Lots of rules for this game. A full on tutorial would probably be well suited for this game, or perhaps even a step-by-step level where a player "learns" as they play that level.

Also, a tiny nit-pick, we found the "Quit" menu a bit hard to see on the opening screen (when highlighted), since it is green on green (just a switch to blue sky background should fix this).

Other than that, the game is well done, and I'm sure there will be folks attracted to it's initial game graphics, and hooked by the unique game play!

Review by Scott Janousek

Flash Lite game winners for playyoo.com mobile game contest!

Last year, as part of Playyoo.com's launch strategy, they introduced a game competition with prizes for those creating best of worlds casual game content for the launch of their new online social networking site for Flash Lite mobile games.

Last week the contest ended, and here are the winners ... including mention of Pasi's qTile game which we actually reviewed here on frame27 not too long ago!

Winners

• Match the Blocks a game by Samir won $10,000
  
• The Empty Space a game by Loomand won $7,000
  
• Panic Mechanic a game by marc won $3,000
  
• qTile a game by ptm won $1,500
  
• Ludo Cells a game by Samir (Samir generously declined his prize for this game)
  
• Mr. Shooti a game by Roozbeh won $1,000
  
• Think Fast a game by izam won $500
  
• Bog Frog a game by Ekleptica won $500
  
• Fill Board a game by Samir (Samir generously declined his prize for this game)
  
• SokoLite a game by ptm won $500
  
• Orang Bunian a game by Faisal Arbain won $500
  
• Sketch Mini a game by santoki won $500
  

Honorable Mentions

• Sushi Mushi Mania a game by marc
  
• Mondo Under a game by bitacora13
  
• The Bee Game a game by lfons
  
• UFO Catcher: Barnyard Abduction a game by Naz
  
• Sea Combat a game by Mariam Dholkawala
  
• Trop Tris a game by CreativeSource
  
• Mr. Cease Fire a game by HungamaMobile
  
• Shark-Thrasher a game by digitallamb
  

Also, just an FYI, but there some more winners to be announced soon for the 2007 Flash Lite game contest.

Congratulation to Samir Dash and the other playoo.com contest winners! There is some really entertaining content on playyoo!

P.S.

If any additional contest winners would like their mobile games reviewed here on frame27, let us know.

We'll be more than happy to review your Flash Lite game (as long as it meets the submission criteria).

- The Frame27 crew (Scott, Mariam, and Felipe)

qTile - a new Flash Lite game from Pasi Manninen

qTile
Developed by Pasi Manninen (ptm.fi)
Released: January 2008
Availability: http://ptm.fi/blog/, www.playyoo.com (contest entry)
Requirements: Targets Flash Lite 2.0 handsets. Built using the playyoo game framework.

Note: Review was conducted on a Nokia N95 running Flash Lite 2.0. Game played directly from the www.playyoo.com service.

"A Tetris like concept with a some twists that make it unique. It's fun and addictive to play .. a perfect fit to fill some dead time when you're on the go."

Review by Scott Janousek







Overview:
Straight out of Finland comes a casual mobile game called "qTile". The author is Pasi Manninen, the author of SokoLite; another addictive Flash Lite casual game title.

This addictive title is a puzzle game (Pasi credits Jaakko K*oskela for the original game idea). The concept is to attract colored tiles to your current configuration of existing tiles. You start with a base configuration of four (base) white tiles that form a square.

As time progresses, new single non-white colored tiles randomly advance across screen from the top, bottom, left and right directions. Your job is to move (using mobile phones arrow keys) and rotate (using mobile phones select key) your current configuration of colored of tiles on the screen such that tile color blocks form columns of 4. Once a column is formed, it is removed, and you accumulate points.

The total game area is a 15x15 matrix of tiles in which game play takes place. The game is over is the current configuration game tile cannot move within the game area of 15x15. Levels are advanced after every 1000 points are scored. Speed is added with each additional level advance.

Some additional rules include:

• a base tile (with collected tiles) cannot move away from the 15x15 game area
  
• a base tile (with collected tiles) cannot rotate if part of it goes out of game area
  
• a base tile (with collected tiles) cannot rotate if moving game tile is ahead
  
• a player cannot join game tile to base tile from behind
  

Scoring breaks down as the follows:

• join tiles to the base tile to get 10 points
  
• join 4 tiles with same color together like base to get 50 points
  
• tile moving out from game area = -5 points
  

The Good:

Game Concept
A++

Game Play
This game is a perfect fit for any self proclaimed puzzle gamer.

The simplicity of the game is what adds to its appeal. Anyone who loves a good'ole game of Tetris will most probably enjoy this uniquely addicting title.

We found overall, the game play to be quite entertaining for such a simple game.

The Bad:

Game Play
We wish there was some sort of indicator when a tile is added to the overall configuration. Often times during game play we would not wait long enough for a tile to become "attached" and miss our score points.

Graphics
We wished the look and feel of the game could be enhanced in future versions of the game, but the addictive play more than makes up for this puzzler.

Sound
It would add a lot to the overall game. We offer it up a suggestion for a newer version (if file size can be kept to a minimum).

More Info

Interested in playing qTile?

Check out the game for yourself over at playyoo! You can also contact Pasi at ptm.fi for more information.

Welcome to Mariam Dholkawala a new mobile game reviewer on frame27!

Welcome Mariam Dholkawala, our newest mobile game reviewer here on frame27! It's great to have Mariam on the review team!

She has a lot of hands on experience with designing, developing, and otherwise working with Flash Lite games, the Flash Platform, and games in general.

You can find more about Mariam on her blog.

Also, if you're not aware; in terms of Flash Mobile community, Mariam has been running IndiMaD; The Indian Adobe Mobile and Devices User Group for some time now (being a resident of Mumbai, India).

Looking forward to some reviews here on frame27 from Mariam.

-Scott Janousek

frame27 is now accepting Flash Mobile Game reviews for 2008!

Greetings from us here at frame27.

First, I want to welcome all of our fellow casual Flash Lite mobile game players, developers, professionals, and enthusiasts to 2008!

Hope everyone had a great holiday break, New Years, and is now looking forward to some great Flash Mobile game reviews here at frame27!

Speaking of which ... our last Flash Lite game review here on frame27 was last August 2007, so in 2008.

We have some reviews in our pending queue but we are always looking for more content to review here!

Yes, we are now officially accepting content to review for 2008. Send us your latest and greatest Flash Mobile games to review here.

Up until this point we've received mostly games for handsets. However, we DO NOT discriminate against other devices here on frame27! :) We only require that the mobile game be created using Flash Lite (or a Flash port if the device requires it).

Therefore, if you have a mobile Flash Lite game that is for a non-PC device such as a handset/mobile/cellphone, -OR- a Portable Media Player (such as an iRiver device), Portable Game console (such as a Flash enabled PSP) or even a consumer electronic device such as the Chumby; we'd love to hear about it.

We only ask that you send us that you follow the game submission requirements that we've laid out below. There are currently only 5 items, so it shouldn't be that hard to get a game to us for review. Once received, we'll take a look and if we like what we see, we'll schedule a review.

Check out the ones we've already done if you want to know what to expect. Basically, last year we dropped ratings and scores in favor of general feedback on games.

Anyways, that's about it for now. Send us some Flash Lite games to review!

Also, tell all your friends about frame27.blogspot.com, connect with us on twitter, post us in your blog roll, etc.

We'd appreciate it. Thanks.

- The frame27 Game Reviewers
(Felipe Andrade, Scott Janousek, Mariam Dholkawala, Luciano Ayres)

Flash Mobile Game Review: Chickn 2Go

Chickn 2Go
Developed by Milky Entertainment
Released: June 2007
Availability: www.milkyentertainment.com
Requirements: Nokia N73 was the target development device for the game. It is a Flash Lite 2 game for 2nd or 3rd Edition Series 60 devices (240x320). Note: Review was conducted on a Nokia N95.

"A set of 3 'Fing-R C-lick'N Good' Flash Lite Casual Mini-Games"

Review by Scott Janousek









Overview:
As part of a final student project at the Vancouver Film School, Chickn 2go is a set of three Flash Lite 2.0 mini-games that Melanie Genereux sent to me from their organization: Milky Entertainment.

The games were developed by a team of students over the course of 12 weeks, which is further empirical proof that with Flash Lite, a team can more easily prototype and build casual mobile games by utilizing Adobe's mobile design, development, and testing tools with little, to no experience.

Frying Frenzy
The first mini-game, "Frying Frenzy" is a good example of a very simple casual game. Situated in a kitchen setting modeled in "2.5D", you play the role of "Head Chicken Chef" where the objective is cook as many chickens as you can before time runs out.

To cook a chicken, you must first catch falling ingredients you need in a frying pan by moving your character left and right on the screen.

To successfully cook a chicken, you need 3 main items. These consist of an uncooked bird (of course!), some oil, and a bit of flame ("heat") to cook it up.

As you catch each of these particular items you must be careful to get each one of these ingredients while trying to avoid the extraneous ingredients that continue falling. After all, these will otherwise ruin your super famous chicken recipe!

Mixing Madness
The second game is the mini-game pack is "Mixing Madness". This is a puzzle type game where you must mix and match various ingredients (butter, salt, onion, honey, chicken) to complete the sequence given in the "red strip".

Also, to make it more challenging you can only move ingredients that are surrounded by buzzing flies only. Of course there is also an obligatory time left with this game as well, so you can't rest on your laurels while playing it!

Besides a few bugs here in there due to things not loading properly, this little game seemed to be fairly amusing, especially from a visual aspect.

The Other Game
Lastly, the 3rd title in the Chickn 2 go series is called, "The Other Game". Clever. The goal here is super-size all your chickens in the hen house.

How do you do that? Basically, you feed them seed. The more the better, and better move quick or your chickens will grow ill and then croak. If you feed them nicely, your stock become super sized, and then start pumping out eggs. You'll need to grab these before they go stale! ...

As you collect good eggs, you will, you guessed it, generate some much needed cash which can be used to buy more chickens, in case your flock (is that the right term for Chicken's? Doh.) depletes. A very good casual game concept!

The Good:

"World Creation"
Frying Frenzy was the best of the lot. It offered great graphics, amusing and simple game play, and performance was decent. It immerses the player into a world of "chicken lick'in goodness".

Uniqueness and Concept
This kind of ties in with the previous entry, but overall, I found the games unique enough due to the overall storyline and game series concept.

Sound Effects
I liked the overall sound effects for the series. Very simple and to the point. They added a much needed response to the gameplay, and without them I don't think the title would be quite as polished. Kudos to the team members who did the sound.

Graphics
The artwork accurately captures the look and feel the game is trying to go after. The games were a mix of 2.5D and 2D work. In Frying Frenzy, I found the 2.5D work very nice. More level graphics are always nice, but for sake of size, what is there is quite good. The feedback animations were entertaining, where "Cluckie" (yep, the chicken character's name) does a little dance when you do something right and achieve some point levels.

The Bad:

No Level Difficulty Setting
Unfortunately, there is no difficulty setting for the most challenging game of the bunch, "The Other Game". This made it extremely hard to play and win (or at least more diffcult on my Nokia N95).

Vibration
On the main screen of the games, there is a vibration "cue" on each menu item. Although this might seem like a good idea, and adds a unique touch, it does drain the battery. IMHO, it would be better to leave this out, especially on a menu selection page ... but it comes down to taste. No biggie.

Loading
I didn't have time to check with the team about some loading issues I was having in regards to instructions, but there were a few places where clips failed to load. (Note: I believe the team did mention, they did in fact, run into a few memory issues with some of the animated content they wanted to present).

Game Play Keys
Overall, the control of the game is pretty straightforward. The instructions are definitely a requirement for each of these titles, however. Changing the game logic to require or skip instructions to prior to playing each title, would probably be best, especially for newbie players who will be lost initially.

Story
I would have liked to know more about "Cluckie" and what he was all about! Why the heck is "Cluckie" cook'in up his fellow chicken brotheren? Is he a cannibal? Is Cluckie just a human in suit? Is he related to BucketHead? The world will never know. A shame. :)

Packaging
The game is currently deployed as a .zip which must be extracted and individual games SWF needs to be run.

A deploy using a .SIS file would probably be much more preferable. Using SWF2Go (a .SIS packaging tool for Flash Lite) to bundle the title would solve this problem for target Series 60 devices. Alternatively, a main SWF launcher might be appropriate for a series of mini-games ... a "Cluckie" launcher if you will. :)

I mentioned both of these to the development team, so I'm sure they will be using the tool in the next release!

Long live Cluckie!

Flash Mobile Game Review: Rune Mage

Rune Mage
Developed by Pixelthis Mobile
Released: February 2007
Availability: OTI (over the internet)
Requirements: Flash Lite 1.1 enabled device
(176x208, 176x220, 240x320 native resolutions are supported)

"If you’re like me, and you enjoy games like Sudoku, or Tetris, you’ll most likely eat this little ditty right up."

Review by Scott Janousek









Overview:

So, I had a chance a few evenings ago to play a new Flash Lite puzzle based game released by Pixelthis Mobile; a New Zealand based Flash Mobile game company.

What can I say about Rune Mage? First off, it’s addictive (for me anyways). I’m always up for a good puzzle, and this game delivers. If you’re like me, and you enjoy games like Sudoku, or Tetris, you’ll most likely eat this little ditty right up! Fair warning though … it’s equivalent to cocaine for your run-of-the-mill puzzle junky out there. No joke, consider yourself forewarned!

The overall objective of the game is pretty simple. In the role of a “spell caster” you move around various ancient (magic) rune symbols set on a square grid until they complete a “magic spell” (they solve the puzzle for a particular stage). If you’re correct and runes match, then the spell starts to take shape (pieces start to glow in their respective places in the grid). Think of a traditional rainy day puzzle and you’ll get the picture here. Things fit or they don’t, until the puzzle is solved.

Unlike a traditional puzzle, however, moving the symbols involves selecting a position (or rune) in the grid with the select key and then using the up, down, left, and right keys to shift entire columns or rows of the overall puzzle. In a way it is very similar to some of the slider puzzles you see where you push around puzzle pieces until they complete a visual picture. Close, but this is much more satisfying …

But, herein lays one of the particular challenges of this game. In moving a particular row or column, you can sometimes unintentionally move pieces you’ve already placed, making it a requirement to think ahead. This kind of thought process is much in line with what you do when playing a game of chess, or sudoku. You need to give some thought about what your current move so you can complete the overall spell given. On lesser stages it’s not a requirement, but some of the later stages it’s imperative! Not to fret, as you move from being a “Neophyte” rune caster to being a “Master Rune Mage”, you’ll have to learn how to visualize the spell based on the level title hints. Fun!

To make everything even more challenging, each stage in the various levels (did we mention the game has 25 levels which contain multiple stages!?) has a predetermined time limit. If the time runs out, you lose the level and have to play it again. Luckily, there is your handy dandy “enter a code” feature to allow you to skip right to where you left off.

All in all, we found Rune Mage to a be a true classic in the Flash Lite puzzle genre category, worthy of very high praise due to both its addictive game play and unique theme. For a Flash Lite 1.1 game, this one rocks in my book.

The good:

Graphics – the game really shines here. The actual runes, stones, and overall game screens are laid out quite nicely. Other areas of the game, add a little pizzazz to the title. I think some might have been held back on because of overall file size, but some areas such as the splash screen could be a bit more engaging. After all, this is the first thing a user sees and is very important to captivate them there.

Sound - another bonus is the sound. I found the overall soundtrack to fit nicely with the game. There’s also a lovely option to toggle off sound. Although we wish we could do this throughout the game instead of at the very beginning, it’s still a valuable feature as you’ll end up playing this everywhere.

Game Play – I'll just came out and say it. The game play in this game is superb. The stage and level creation were given quite a bit of thought and it shows. The game is reminiscent of Tetris on a few levels. But the game play is unique enough to classify this title into its own genre. It's a shame we don't still do ratings here at Frame 27. This game is nearly perfect in terms of overall game play and experience, IMHO.

Multiplayer or a high score mechanism would be a nice have, but overall the title works best a standalone solo game. Overall, I enjoyed the atmosphere of the game. Frankly, it brought a tear to my eye, as the quaint memories of role playing games danced about in my head. If you like fantasy, or puzzles you’ll love this particular title!

The bad:

Minor User Interface Aesthetics: Level codes entries (sorry my battery just died so I don’t know the exact terminology used in the game) took some time to figure out based on the existing graphical assets. This could be easily fixed by swapping some graphical assets and changing the color coding to be more dramatic. The idea is there, we just found the existing method a bit unobvious at first try with what “grey” versus “brown” was. Although we are not colorblind, we might sympathize with someone who may suffer. Entering codes shouldn’t require any learning at all, and with some minor changes, this area of the game would be perfect! Adding a Flash Lite 1.1 save state style feature would be a bonus, but as is it works fine.

S.O.S. … Help Me: The help screen could be a bit more detailed (aka visual). If you’re into puzzle games, you’ll figure the game out on the 1st stage of the 1st level. It would be cool if this area could be spruced up a bit a graphic here and there, but the game is easy enough to pick up, so perhaps the overall file size isn’t warranted. No biggie!

Sadistic Level: “Carpet Snake” level was a particularly challenging and perhaps belongs with the later, more intricate levels. We found it very out of place on the very 1st level where some users may still be learning the game play. I see a lot of potential hair loss on this level … for your average casual gamer.

Performance: We wished there was an option to toggle on and off the motion effects when moving a puzzle piece. The “Rubix cube” effect is cool, but gets tiresome after a while. Plus it just tacks on more time when you’re trying to complete a particularly difficult stage where time is of the essence. Also, I did have one freak occurrence (1 time only instance) of the game freezing while seemingly idle, but otherwise the overall stability was quite good for the amount of game time we’ve put in this far.

Review by Scott Janousek

Flash Mobile Game Review: In the Crib with Rob and Big

In the Crib with Rob and Big
Developed by Zodal
Released: February 2007
Availability: OTI (Over The Internet)
Requirements: a Flash Enabled PSP

"This game is not to be missed as it represents perhaps one of the first Flash games created for the PSP platform for a major entertainment company!"

Review by Scott Janousek










Overview:

"In the Crib with Rob and Big", developed by Zodal (a New Zealand based Flash Mobile development company) has released a PSP Flash game loosely based on the MTV Networks reality TV show characters of the same name.

The game is a “sidescroller” with both old school 80's arcade style play and retro pixel graphics. The objective of the game is to earn points as Rob performs various skating moves, avoids obstacles/enemies, all while grabbing various "goodies" along the way.

At the end of each stage with Rob, the other character, "Big" then contends with various bosses, in which he must fight to help send Rob to the next level (of which there are currently three we know of). The object of the goal score as many points as you can on three unique levels of game play.

The game starts with a splash screen on which the pixelized representations of the Rob and Big characters are displayed. The graphics here set the tone for what you are to expect from this casual, yet rather challenging game. On the main menu screen, the user can select play the game, check out the scoreboard, toggle sound, or get the game credits. Clicking on the "Play Now" screen, leads the user into a rudimentary "How To" (Play) screen that explains the basic PSP keys to be used in the game. Clicking continue here bring the user directly into Level 1, "Beverly Hills".

The game play consists on using the left and right arrow keys to control Rob's skating speed as he moves from left to right in each scene presented. Using the "X" key makes Rob jump over obstacles. Using the "X" key in conjunction with arrow keys, such as when jumping off onscreen objects makes Rob perform skating tricks that earns him points. If you fail to clear an obstacle or mess-up you lose energy from your health bar. Lose enough energy and it wipes out one of your 3 total lives for game.

After each stage is cleared with Rob, Big is faced to fight some baddie. The controls here consist of various key combos that must be performed in exact precise order and within a quick elapse of time, otherwise Big looses health. If the user executes enough moves, Big defeats the enemy and Rob is able to go to the next level. As you progress throughout the game the levels do get harder, and are quite challenging given this is a casual game.

This game is not to be missed as it represents perhaps one of the first Flash games created for the PSP platform for a major entertainment company! It’s a fun, yet simple to play game with pixel based graphics reminiscent of early Sierra games. If you're expecting a nice casual and fun game, then you won’t be disappointed. If you're seeking a Tony Hawk like experience with 3-D graphics galore … well, look elsewhere!

Also, for those without a PSP, there is an alternative web version that you can play directly from your desktop at:

http://www.dcrobandbig.com/home.html

Here are some highlights of the PSP game:

The good:

Graphics: The quality bitmap graphics really set the tone for this game, and really make it one of the first high quality PSP Flash game created for a big name in the entertainment industry (MTV Networks) … that we know of, that is. We love the graphics and style!

Sound: The sound effects are excellent and the custom soundtrack created by Sam Trevethic and Nick Robinson, who form part of the well known New Zealand drum and base band Shapeshifter, really makes the game experience fun. We can’t imagine this game being quite as good without the sound! Kudos to the sound engineers on this project!

Performance: Truly, we can tell that this game has been greatly optimized for the PSP. “In the Crib” is more in lines of a Flash Lite game, than a true desktop game … but for good reason, the PSP has quite a few device constraints and limitations that Zodal has addressed quite nicely here. Once you start playing you won’t notice much performance lag at all!

Challenge: There are 3 fairly unique levels which will challenge you and keep you from getting immediately bored with game. The magic number 3 also makes it an ideal casual game for the train, or other places where you have a few minutes to kill.

The bad:

Instructions: The game instructions are not very encompassing. The game help is unfortunately not available on-the-fly, but rather served up before each game sequence begins. There is no pause during game either. There is no way to save or load your game. But is there a need? There are only 3 levels game play so perhaps not.

Game Play: In regards to game play, we did find it to be particularly challenging on the various "boss" levels with the Big versus baddy duels. You must be quick with key combos, or get your $ss handed to you! Perhaps this is intended ... as Big may not be “fast” but he sure packs a mean punch? We do not know. However, the key combos could be a bit larger here and the difficulty begs to ask the need for easy, medium, and hard settings, particularly in this area one area of this otherwise great game.

We also had one instance of the game freezing during a critical point in the game. We are not sure if this was a genuine bug, or perhaps some flakiness with either the Flash Player or PSP browser. It was not a regular occurence, so we believe it the later.

Installation: First time users to Flash based PSP gaming will have to do some digging in order to get the game installed and running within the PSP browser (but to no fault to Zodal). Unfortunately, at this time, no standalone and self executing Flash content is supported on the PSP. However, for those who are stuck, Zodal has graciously provided some help instructions which can be found here:

How to install "Rob and Big" (PDF)

In regards to the Rob and Big website ... we would have also liked this site to cater to the PSP, but currently it does not. Hopefully this is something that can be addressed in the near future, as it would perhaps allow another method for players to easily download as well as access the game online. We don’t blame Zodal here, as distribution is handled via another party.

Review by Scott Janousek

Flash Mobile Game Review: SokoLite

SokoLite
Developed by PTM

"Challenging game with inifite levels!"














Overview: SokoLite, developed by PTM, a finnish Flash Lite Dev company, is a Flash Lite 1.1 remake of "Sokoban", a classic puzzle game, and really impresses for the large amount of levels (100). It also features an useful level saving system (you wouldn´t want to go through all the levels again if you reached level 50 or so) and the possibility to dynamically load levels from the web, which grants additional hours of fun. The "undo" and "restart" function are unlimited available during the game, so be prepared to play the same level over and over until you find the correct solution. An online hi-scores system is also planned in further versions.

The game is addictive and gets really challenging after the first levels, producing an excellent brain exercise.

The good: The multiple levels and challenging puzzles are the stronger points. The sound was used very well and the battery/signal meter inside the game are a nice idea.

The bad: The background graphic is quite distracting and the vision gets "tired" after a few minutes playing.

Flash Mobile Game Review: Log Jam

Log Jam
Developed by Blue Sky North

"Blue Sky North pushed the bar on Flash Lite game development and created the perfect mobile game."














Overview: This must be one of the most interesting mobile game cases around. Developed by Blue Sky North, Log Jam was released in two versions: 01 for the iRiver U10 portable device and 01 for S60 phones. In both platforms they succeeded to provide the best Flash Lite game to date. When you play it on the iRiver, there´s a feeling that the device itself was specially designed for the game, due the fact the game controls fit exactly the U10 navigation system.

The main objective of the game is to keep the lumberjack buddy spinning on the log as long as possible. When the player reaches 40-45 seconds, the game speed is increased and it turns a bit harder to control.

There are slightly minor differences in the available versions (due to hardware limitations and input methods aspects), considering the score is not persistent on S60 phones, but works well on the U10, and, on the phone, it looks like to be a little easier to achieve better times.

The good: The game is just perfect. Original concept, professional graphics and really FUN gameplay. Everyone around always want to give it a try, so the experience can turn into a huge group activity.

The bad: No sound at all.