Free mobile game

by Liam O’Connor

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that CSI: The Mobile Game is an enjoyable game that doesn’t rely on the strength of its license.The game itself revolves around solving crimes by searching crime scenes for evidence and then analysing that evidence for clues on how to proceed.

Interviews will need to be conducted, and a few basic minigames when analysing evidence help break the game’s point-and-click nature.
It feels very much like the old adventure games of yore and the slower pace works perfectly with a mobile phone interface. It doesn’t hurt that the game is gorgeous, either.

There’s probably some character and relationship development going on in there too, but since I didn’t have a clue who anyone was and what their histories were, it was all a bit over my head. However, with the exception of maybe playing Tetris, CSI: The Mobile Game is probably the perfect cell phone game.

It will serve you well on those hungover mornings when you find yourself on some random couch trying to find evidence to piece together the events of last night.

How? By inflating other rising puzzle pieces to form horizontal lines with the ones above, which then explode. If that sounds a bit like an upside-down Tetris to you, well, that’s what it sounds like to us, too.

A-ha, but does Tetris have fish onscreen, eh? It doesn’t, so that’s one area where SubMerged beats it hands-down. They aren’t just there for something to look at, either. They show how deep you are in the ocean.There are three difficulty levels, and more than 30 levels to play, plus an Endless mode that lets you play forever (well, until you lose).

Bear in mind, Namco Networks is the US mobile gaming arm of Namco, and is completely separate from Namco Bandai here in Europe. So although SubMerged is out now in the States, there’s no guarantee it’ll cross the Atlantic.

As the Symbian Guru blog explains, the innovative thing is it lets you use your photo to turn yourself into a virtual pet, which you can then look after, but can also be shared with your friends (if that’s not a disturbing thought).

Looking after it means keeping your little buddy’s love, intellect, social, looks, hunger and fame attributes as high as possible. Downloading it to your phone means you can keep track of its progress on the go, as well as through your PC.Meanwhile, having the Facebook version means even your mates who don’t have a Nokia phone with the WidSets application on can join the fun.

It’s certainly intriguing, and a sign that Nokia has caught onto the emerging blurring of the boundaries between mobile gaming and ’social’ gaming on Facebook and other social networks.

Aniboom, which has thousands of animators who post videos on its network, will make animations based on the popular mobile phone games made by I-play, owned by New York-based Oberon Media.

The first series under development through the partnership is based on I-play’s popular game, “Turbo Subs” (pictured above), which has achieved millions of downloads since it debuted at the beginning of 2008 as the sequel to the international casual game hit, “Turbo Pizza.”

Aniboom will tap its network of independent animators to create videos based on the game for mobile, online and television. The company is in the midst of closing a new round of funding.

Thankfully, the company’s having a second crack at it. At least, we assume it is. Click here to check out a photo on someone’s Flickr account, taken at the recent BotCon Transformers convention in Ohio.

It’s a flyer for a new Transformers game from Glu, called Transformers G1 Awakening. It promises turn-based strategic battles on Earth and Cybertron, with up to 23 playable characters.Oh, and full-screen battle scenes, and two game modes: Story and Skirmish. According to the flyer, it’s due out this autumn.

We’re quite excited because it’s a surprise to us. Presumably Glu wanted to build some buzz among hardcore Transformers fans before officially announcing the game, which sounds like a sensible strategy.Rest assured, we’ll have more details when more of the game, er, meets our robot-loving eyes.

SNAP Mobile SDK 2.0 is available for free, and has a big focus on accessibility for developers thanks to its object-oriented API and improved UI framework (we’re reliably told). Apparently its error-handling has been improved, too.What does it mean for mobile gamers, though? Well, SNAP Mobile enables features like online communities, full multiplayer and massively multiplayer gaming, rankings, buddy lists and in-game messaging.

So, in theory, making it easier to use and more efficient may mean more developers use the technology, which means more connected games for us gamers to play. One developer, Randolf Wu from PocketNet, is quoted in the announcement:

“The SNAP Mobile SDK 2.0 makes it easier for developers to write and debug a connected mobile Java game, and brings fun to development,” he reckons. “I had the SDK up and running on my desktop within minutes of downloading. It’s invaluable as it provides a realistic game play environment for a cellular network.”

The official SNAP Mobile website lists 13 SNAP-enabled games that are currently available (although it describes them as “some current casual favourites”, so there could be more). They include Puzzle Bobble, NitroSpin Racer (pictured) and 3D Pool Hall.Anyway, if you’re a developer, you can get your hands on the new SDK here.

Play Us is about a team of young female Counter-Strike professionals on a world tour during which they tackle challenges to beef up their gaming skills, tighten the team and build a brand. The Play Us format brings the gaming world closer to a wider audience and cleverly integrate TV, Internet and Mobile.

“The initial success of Play Us demonstrates the unique opportunity to blend gaming with television to provide the ultimate form of entertainment,” said Martin Gisselman, president of Bringiton, in a statement. “With Nokia and ShineReveille on board, we’ve formed a pioneering team for creating the next worldwide success in television programming.”

Bringiton is a Swedish media company whose activities focus on the creation of television formats as marketing vehicles for brands. These formats combine all media platforms including mobile, Internet and gaming. Through a dynamic, multi-platform approach, Bringiton reaches audiences of more than 500 million viewers including key territories such as China as well as media markets in Europe and beyond.

“With N-Gage we’re offering a seamless experience for people around the world to try and buy games that are engaging, accessible and have wide appeal,” said Nokia’s Senior Multimedia Marketing Manager, William Tepfenhardt, in a statement. “Play Us is a great step in the gaming industry and showcases its entertainment value to a wider casual gaming audience.”

N-Gage is a made-for-mobile games service available for compatible Nokia Nseries and other S60 3rd Edition devices from Nokia.

It’s launching this month through Gala’s mobile division (the logically named Gala Mobile). Besides the 16-player battles, the game will also offer a full rankings system, and what it describes as “persistent character growth”.

Oh, and a chat system, friend lists, player guilds, and a badge-based achievements system. It’s basically the principles of MMO games, applied to a shoot-’em-up. And then released for phones. Pretty cool, eh?

If you’re in Japan, you can try the game free for a month, although after that it’ll cost you 415 Yen a month (about £2) to play.

The game allows the player to step into the cricketer’s shoes and play as him where he bowls five overs to an opponent batsman. The game is set against the backdrop of a packed international cricket stadium with the crowd cheering him on.

According to Salil Bhargava, “Our Indo-Pak cricket game has been played by over 2.5 million unique users making it the most played cricket game. We have recorded more than 80,000 users playing cricket games on our website everyday.”

Jump Games will distribute the games through networks like Vodafone, M1, MTN, Dialog Telecom, Reliance Mobile World, Telstra, Tele2, TIM, O2, Virgin Mobile, KPN, Telia, 3, Telefonica, Optimus and Telenor.

According to industry estimates, the gaming market is close to $25 million in India while globally it is around $3.5 billion.