Break it! Launched

Edit: The English is a little rough, but...

Hong Kong (23 February 2011) – SillyCube Technology Ltd has launched an Android game. User will shot the bricks with your stone ball. Each green brick will give you score. 3 stones to choose from, each take 5, 10 or 20 score per shoot. With 100 points it will proceed to the next level. On later stages there will be new challenges. In the Lite version 40 stages (4 episodes) will be available. 100 stages (10 episodes) will be available in Pro version.

Flight Control

Flight Control made it to the Android Market today. $4.99?????? What???????????????????? I'll be sticking with one of the substantially less expensive yet just as good clones already available like Air Control or Flight Director. Namco used to be my absolute favorite game company. Not any more with the ridiculously non-competitive pricing of their mobile games.

Letter Rip!

After posting the game's Press Release earlier this week I took the time to download and try out Letter Rip! That's interesting in and of itself because I generally run from word games as I'm far more of a numbers person. Yes, I stink at Scrabble and Word Jumbles. It's not that I want to be poor when it comes to rearranging letters in words... it just comes naturally.

Letter Rip! provides you with a grid of letter tiles much like in Scrabble. However, as you play new, new tiles randomly appears on the board and it's your job to drag them around to form words of three or more letters. Once you create a word you can then drag over it, clear those tiles off of the board, and score points based on the letters used. The game is that simple.

My criticism of the game comes in two forms: minor and major. My minor criticism is that the game start really slow with one tile on the board. Why not three if it takes at least three letters to make a word? My own reason would be that perhaps it gives me time to think of words using that first and second letter. Ok, but then why does the game ramp up so dang fast. Don't get me wrong... I LIKE fast, but only when it's an option. The game needs difficulty levels and the option for slower ramp up speeds. Generally I can get about 4 or 5 words before the board fills with Ys and Zs.

My major criticism is a big one. The game has a nasty, nasty crash bug that deperately needs to be fixed. I'll be playing and doing well and boom... back to the title screen. I'm not the only one either based on Market reviews. I don't know if the author can't reproduce the bug or what, but it's there and it's a major show stopper until it gets fixed. And I sympathize with being in that situation especially if the author can't reproduce the problem and doesn't have a giant budget to purchase all sorts of different Android devices for testing.

I sincerely hope the crash bug can be fixed as this game is good enough to warrant attention. This is a nice, clever little cross between Scrabble and Tetris. And it's a free, ad supported game. I'm going to withhold a review score, though, until the game stops choking right as I'm about the beat my high score.

Sony Xperia PLAY

With HandyGames' recent press release that I just posted, I figured I'd provide my take on the Xperia PLAY. I'm now at the point where I've had a cell phone for over a decade. My first phone was a Kyocera Palm based phone and the reason for getting it was so that I could be contacted 'on call'. Being a gamer I also liked the idea of being able to play where I wanted with a device that was already going to be coming along for the ride anyways. While my Palm phone had some decent games on it the experience was still worlds away from even that of a GameBoy. I then moved over to become a Windows CE adopter, but arcade games just weren't strong on mobile phones. The Nokia N-Gage was actually an interesting, but failed, attempt that I, fortunately, never purchased. Until recently it seemed that my perfect device just couldn't exist. And then the iPod Touch (and iPhone) changed that.

Actually another device called the Pandora caught my attention before the iPhone and I preordered in late 2008. The claim was that they were going to be shipping at the end of 2008. Dream device my a@@. These people, and I almost want to use the word crooks, had a 'problem' with the bank and they wanted to blame EVERYTHING regarding the device's many delays on the bank. In the end I got a refund, but only after exchange rates changed so in effect I lost money because they were grossly optimistic about when they would deliver product. In fact even today they are only barely starting to ship the device with specs from the year 2009. Now, with more recent devices, I'd say the Pandora is dead before it leaves the gates with the exception of a handful of groupies they seem to have brainwashed over at their website. Hey, I'm all for the little guy, but only if the little guy can honestly deliver what they promise.

One of the key features for the Pandora, though, was the control pad coupled with a keyboard. I'm a classic computer nut and I love the whole idea of emulating old video game consoles and computers so that I can play the games of my childhood. Yes, I'm very nostalgic. The Sony Xperia PLAY could actually be the first device to offer the kind of experience I'm looking for. It offers reasonably current hardware specs including a 1 GHz CPU and state of the art graphics along with quality gaming controls. On the down side I get nervous about further fragmentation of the Android Market. I know Sony claims to be planning on letting other phones get in on the whole Playstation Phone concept, but suppose it's really successful? Might Sony then tighten their grip on the platform? And I'm just not convinced that having a superset of games than only the elite Playstation Phone owners can access is the way to go and would much rather see more powerful, Android compatible hardware.

In the meantime Apple is doing all they can to help Android steal their market. First, it was the lack of Flash on Apple devices. Now Apple wants to ensure they get their 30% cut on all magazines, newspapers, ...etc that one subscribes to electronically. A closed platform will not be the consumer's best friend when all is said and done.

I've been wanting to upgrade phones (and jump ship from Verizon) for about a year now. The Epic 4G offered hope as I really want buttons for gaming (and a keyboard suffices), but poor support (i.e. no Froyo) has meant no sale to me. Now I may as well wait for something better and maybe the Xperia PLAY will be it.

HandyGames™ Announces Three Launch Titles for Sony Ericsson’s Xperia™ PLAY

Giebelstadt/Germany, 15th February 2010 - Sony Ericsson's long-awaited gaming smartphone Xperia PLAY was showcased on Sunday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. As an official Xperia PLAY launch partner, HandyGames™ are providing MWC visitors with a first look at three HandyGames™ titles for the Xperia PLAY at the Sony Ericsson exhibition booth.

In addition to the award-winning casual brain training game infeCCt™, HandyGames™ will present Super Dynamite Fishing, an acclaimed HandyGames™ classic, enhanced and optimised for the device. The third game, the immensely popular blockbuster title Guns'n'Glory, combines traditional Tower Defence gameplay with new, innovative gameplay elements in a fresh Wild Western setting. All three titles have been specifically adapted to fully support all Xperia PLAY features and will be available for free download.

"HandyGames™ is planning to release a strong portfolio of quality casual games for the Xperia PLAY in 2011.", comments Markus Kassulke, CEO of HandyGames™. "Free mobile games are more popular than ever before and we will continue our successful strategy ‘Mission FREE‘ on the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY."

“Great content is a crucial part of the ultimate smartphone gaming experience we're delivering with Xperia PLAY. We're delighted to welcome HandyGames as a partner from day one,“ said Jonas Berg, Partner Manager at Sony Ericsson. “Not only are they bringing great games to Xperia PLAY, they are also confirming their belief in the platform and its impact on smartphone gaming.“
Guns'n'Glory, infeCCt™ and Super Dynamite Fishing will be available for the Xperia PLAY immediately at launch, with more titles following in the coming months.