UNO
From: Gameloft

You just can’t beat a thrilling game of UNO. The popularity of the card game and the sheer numbers playing it on Xbox Live is testament to that. Now you can indulge your UNO addiction on your mobile too.

Presented in a very similar style to the XBLA version, UNO mobile can be played solo against the AI or with friends on the same handset (by passing it around). The game rules are fully customisable including two fairly recent additions to the standard ‘House Rules”. UNO Rush is not included however as it would be far too fiddly shifting cards around in your hand quickly.

All your favourite Action cards are present – Wild, Draw 4 Wild, Reverse, Skip and Draw 2. The points to win can be adjusted as can penalties, force-play and draw type.

The two new game modes ad an extra challenge to UNO – these are called ‘7-0′, in which players must swap hands when a certain card is played, and ‘Jump-In’, where if you play an identical card to the one on the discard pile then you take control of the game.

If you’re after a card game in which you can have some short-term excitement then UNO is a sure fire winner.

Score: 85%

Dakar Rally 2009
From: EA

Driving games on the mobile platform have often seemed like a bit of a waste of time to me. If you’re a driving game fan then it’s more than likely you’re used to the almost realistic graphics and accurate driving engines displayed on consoles or a PC, so playing on a mobile phone is always going to be an enormous letdown.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some genuine positives to be found in mobile driving “sims” such as EA’s Dakar Rally 2009. Here we are given three racing modes – Championship: where you can race the whole series through South America, Quick Race: which speaks for itself. Dive straight in and take on any of the stages, and Time Attack where you obviously race against the clock.

Using the navigation keys or 4 & 6 to steer, acceleration is done automatically which is a blessing. You can brake, but realistically it’s only in the tighter stages that you really need to. Usually you can just turn hard and send your car into a bit of a power-slide to get around corners. If you run off the road then you do slow down, and the opposition is never too far behind, but it’s never a big deal to pass them again if you need to.

The major fault in Dakar Rally 2009 is the lack of drawing distance with the road itself. If you’re negotiating a hairpin then you can only see just in front of your car which makes it difficult to know where you’re at. Loading times, especially in Championship mode are quite lengthy too.

So if you’re keen enough to want to play a driving game on your mobile then Dakar Rally 2009 isn’t a bad option. Just don’t expect miracles.

Score 65%

FIFA 10
From: EA

With FIFA 10 on the large consoles being perhaps the pinnacle of football sims, if even a fraction of the realism and playability rubbed off on the mobile version of the game, it’d be a good thing. Thankfully it has.

FIFA 10 mobile isn’t much of a cut-down version of its big brothers – you have the full roster of players and teams at your disposal as well as a comprehensive Be A Pro mode in which you can nurture your player from nervous beginnings right through to international stardom.

The graphics are surprisingly good considering the scale of things and you can easily make out individual players from their physical attributes. The small screen does become a hindrance however as you try to play long probing balls through to your forwards guided only by an arrow on the edge of the screen. You need to have your formation well and truly sorted if you’re to succeed with this tactic. Of course if you’re playing on the likes of an iPhone then this isn’t so much of a problem.

Attacking often comes down to running it down the wing, crossing the ball in and hoping that one of your players connects with a decent volley. Taking on the defence by running at them is difficult due to the up/down, left/right nature of the player movement. Sure, you can move diagonally but how easily depends on your particular phone. If you have a nub in the middle of your direction keys then this would make 8-way movement much easier.

Overall I was surprised just how playable and addictive FIFA 10 was on the mobile format. Any fans of the classic Sensible Soccer should definitely give it a go.

Score 80%

World Poker Tour Texas Hold ‘Em 2
From: Hands-On

It’d be fair to say that Texas Hold ‘Em is one game that any mobile gamer should have in their collection and if you’re going to own one then the wise choice is the game licensed by the World Poker Tour itself.

World Poker Tour Texas Hold ‘Em 2 (or WPT2 as I’ll refer it as from here on in) at face value is just another poker game – it looks as good as it needs to, with players that have very differing characteristics and playing styles. You have a range of options for a single game whether it be a full table of players or just a heads-up showdown. The commentary is excellent, with regular sound bites advising of where the game stands.

Personally I found the game a little too fast to begin with and had trouble keeping up with who was betting what and when. But after a few games I came to grips with the pace of things. I would still have preferred my own cards to be enlarged more on screen as they’re quite small and there is plenty of room.

What makes WPT2 stand out from the crowd is the web-to-wireless mode. Not only can you play against other mobile poker players but you can also go up against people playing on their PC’s too. This feature is worth the cover price alone. You can even take your avatar to and from your mobile to your PC if you wish.

WPT2 is excellent for newcomers and poker veterans alike and should be your number 1 choice when looking to download a poker sim for your mobile.

Score 88%

When it comes to mobile games, I firmly believe that the mark of a successful title is whether it can be played in short bursts or at least be able to save anywhere for continuation at a later date. It’s got to be addictive, with simple controls and you must be able to follow what’s happening on screen, even with the sound turned off.

Each month I’ll are take a look at 4 of the latest downloadable mobile games from Telecom’s TNZ Games service. Most are priced at $6.90 and are around 300-500kb in size.

Hasbro Battleship/Connect 4

With the recent release of Hasbro Family Game Night on larger consoles, Electronic Arts have released two of the individual games from this series that are ideal for the mobile platform. Connect 4 has you playing against the ‘computer’ AI, or against a friend by passing the phone back and forth. There are two modes of play: Classic – I’m pretty sure I don’t need to describe how to play Connect 4 to anyone, do I? And Power Chips, a score-based game in which you have a time limit and several types of chips to drop that will change rows to your colour, explode lines or block your opponent for example. I find myself coming back to this mode quite often due to the added excitement of the time factor.

Battleship plays out exactly like the board game. Place your ships on your board, or use the auto placement feature (which does use some conservative placements), then take turns with the AI or a friend to take shots at coordinates chosen by moving the cursor around. Hits and misses are marked by a small animation and then a red or white peg respectively. If playing against another human, then a screen comes up telling you to pass it to the other player, so that neither player can see each others’ ship placement. Play modes are: Classic, Fire & Reload (in which you get to fire off a small salvo) and Fire Again on Hit (score a hit and fire again until you miss). This is a great little time waster as the games are short, but still long enough to keep it interesting.

Score 80%

The Sims 3

While I’m admittedly not a huge Sims fan myself, mainly due to the fact I don’t have the spare time to invest in the game to do it any real justice. So I was curious as to how the Sims format would fit into my ideal definition of a mobile game. The answer is – not that well. Obviously the range of options are cut down dramatically to incorporate the format, which is perfectly understandable. But I found being unable to flick between menus to keep up to play with all the important issues going on behind the scenes (which are what Sims games are all about) a nightmare. Several times my Sim died of starvation when I had eaten fairly recently and also lost her job due to it being hard to keep track of time. All things that are easier to track on a bigger screen and with a mouse/cursor. Asking whether I wanted to Save the game upon entry to any buildings soon became annoying too.

Dedicated fans might enjoy it, if purely to get a “fix” when away from their PC, but this mobile version of the highly successful series just didn’t win me over.

Score 50%

The Price is Right

I know a couple of people who are absolutely hooked on The Price is Right game show, but even they would struggle to find any value whatsoever in this silly and pointless mobile version of the famous TV show.

You are presented with several rounds of gameplay, which vary as you progress. It can all be over in the first round if you don’t guess the closest price to match the item presented – and straight away we hit the first fatal hurdle. The item might be a 50” LCD Television – no brand – it could be a Transonic worth $1800 or the latest Sony Bravia worth $5000. How are we to guess with any accuracy? Not only that, but are we guessing in Australian dollars or NZ? This is an underlying fatal flaw throughout the game.

Even if you do manage to fluke it through to the end, the feeling of success is a hollow one due to the fact that you’ve not won anything, but instead blown $6.90 on a load of rubbish.

Score 20%

Bejewelled Twist

Bejewelled is exactly the genre of game that suits the mobile platform. Addictive, challenging, time-dependant and void of any need for complicated controls or graphics. In Bejewelled you are given a screen full of coloured gems, by moving the cursor and pressing the action button you can rotate any square of four gems in a clockwise direction with the aim of lining three or more up – at which point they disappear and more drop down. The more points you score, the faster your meter rises and you can move onto the next level.

There are several types of special gems, usually helpful but also deadly like the bomb gem which you need to dispatch quickly before it counts down to zero.

Aside from the highly addictive Classic mode above, you can play Zen mode – which just goes on forever with no stress whatsoever, Challenge mode – basically a puzzle mode which assigns various goals, and Blitz mode – in which you aim for the highest score possible in a time limit.

All in all, Bejewelled Twist epitomises everything that you’d want in a mobile game and is $6.90 well spent.

Score 90%