25 March 2008

Next Generation mobile Gaming
Games From The N•Gage Platform

Returning from my previous article about the ngage 1st access review, where i talked about the client application, in this part i will talk about the games available and what i think about them.

For the past month or so, i have been playing around with 4 of the top ngage games currently available for download and purchase, still only available for nokia n81 and nokia n81 8gb owners on the 1st access public beta.

I have no idea when ngage will be released on more devices, or when the client will get a much needed update.

I first like to say that i am very much impressed with the games i was given to play. These are: Hooked On: Creatures Of The Deep, from infinite dreams, System Rush Evolution from ideaworks, Space Impact Kappa Base from method solutions and Block Breaker Deluxe from Gameloft. Some of the worlds leading game developers are creating some amazing games for the ngage platform, its very exciting to see what will come in the future.

Hooked On: Creatures Of The Deep

This game is just quite simply incredible, never in all my gaming life have i played such an addictive game on the mobile phone, and neither have i ever came across a more realistic fishing game before on any gaming console, and i am a very dedicated carp angler myself.

Main Menu and Cool Screensaver type screen

The left screenshot is where you come upon first starting the game, it is the main menu, from which your able to start the game from "instant play" view the ngage arena rankings, this is worldwide rankings for everyone that is playing the game.

You can switch back to the ngage client application which is really cool feature, you can even do this while playing your game anytime, so your able to go and chat with your friends, invite them to play or just simply check out your scores and what you need to do for your point pickups (more on pickups later).

You can change the options from here also, and check out the credits from the "about" options, and of course exit the game completely. The right screenshot is what happens after you leave it idle for a minute, it will turn into a really cool animated screensaver type screen with fishes and all objects you can catch within the game, also displaying your battery, signal and the date.

Choose A Name For Game Saves

When first starting the game "Instant Play" you will be asked to enter a user name, this can be anything you like up to 12 characters long, this is just primarily used for game saves, or profiles, and your allowed to have up to 4. This is so your whole family can play with there own user and enjoy the whole game experience from the start.

Screen Of First Starting The Game

Once you have selected your name to use for the game, you will be then be ready to do some fishing, this screenshot above is the very first thing you will see, and give you some basic idea of how the game works.

What you see above (behind the welcome poster) is the map of the starting fishing location, Crocodile Bay, Costa Rica. You will be in control of a small boat, which you can drive around the entire map and choose locations to do some fishing. Its really very cool actually, i just love it.

This game is actually the very first (that i know of) fishing game which is a RPG game (roll playing game) and of course your roll is the sea fisherman.

Here is the better view of part the map, the small white boat is yours, you can drive your little boat around the entire map using the phones dpad, and by pressing the select button will anchor your boat and you will start to fish.

There are several icons around the map which you interact with throughout the game, each one doing something different, and simply driving the boat near to one of these icons will take you to it.

There is many quests you can do which give you cool things as rewards when you complete them, just like a RPG game on the PC.

The quests are indicated by a flashing red circle somewhere within the map, and by driving the boat up to them and pressing select will bring you to a person who explains what he wants and what you will get as the reward upon completing the quest.

Quest Icon And Quest Instructions

You can see the Red flashing icon on the map in the screenshot above, this indicates that i am currently on a quest, and by pressing the select button near the icon, brings up the guy who tells you about the quest. In this case he wants me to catch him some sea turtles, but i cant find them for the life of me lol.. let me know where they are in the forum please. lol.

The quests at the start are much easier and get more tricky as you get deeper into the game. The first quests intel things like bringing the man back his life jacket, and a broken clock. The broken clock quest is useful as he will repair the clock and then you can see the time, which is very useful for tournaments. And the same with the fish finder quest, he repairs that and then you have a depth meter, which is again very useful tool.

Jokes And Fish Facts

Each time you load a different part of the game, you are presented with the cool facts, jokes and location facts. There are literally thousands of these, and the above screenshot's are just 2 samples of what kind of things you can expect to see. Really nice touch for the loading screens i think.

Airport to Fly To Other Place

The other really cool thing with this game, is that it has 4 other great fishing locations your able to travel to and fish. As you level up in the game, you can go to more advanced locations and fish for different species of fish. I'm still low level so i only have 2 available to me lol. Costa Rica (everyone starts here) and Alaska (unlocked level 9)

To level up in the game you need to gain xp, xp is short for experience, and you gain xp from each fish you catch, each species gives a different amount of xp depending on its size, the bigger the more xp you will get. And also complete quests will gain you xp and level you up quicker.

New Fishing Locations As You Level Up

This is how the Waterfall Map looks like in alaska, and the cool animated graphic screen of the plane that fly's you there. Each map you unlock and go to fish on, is like starting all over again, which is one thing i didn't like to much about the game. Your xp is set to zero and you are a level 1 again with no fish finder, no clock or any thing else.

But you do still have all these unlocks and your xp and level stays the same for each location (map) you go to fish on. And each map, or location has all its own unlocks and various different quests to complete for cool rewards. I do think it would of been good to keep your level throughout the whole game, but this is just me.

Try Casting For Max Power For xp Bonus's

Right, onto the fishing. Everywhere you go with your little boat and fish will bring you to an amazingly beautiful fishing scene. What you see in the images above is what you will see on the game when you start, exept at first starting, you wont have the depth finder, you have to complete a quest for this.

The multi-colored bar in the bottom right is your casting power, you press the select key once to start it, and then your trying to aim it for the very top, as seen on the right image, you will gain an extra 10xp for the maximum cast, and if you cast it again the next time at maximum, you will get 20xp and keep on going up in 10xp intervals.

40xp Is The Best I Got, 4 In A Row.

Best i have done from casting is just 4 in a row, but this earned me an extra 100xp which i would not of got if i didnt cast full power for 4 times in a row, so it all adds up.

Shark and Image. Click To Open Original In New Window.

Once your lure is cast out, and you then need start to retrieve it slowly, just like if you were fishing in real life. To retrieve, or to jerk your lure through the water, just press, or keep tapping the select key, or the action key (there is only one button for this game which does pretty much everything) if you have the depth meter from the fish finder quest, this is a huge help. What i do, is i wind the lure in untill about half way deep, and then let it slowly rise up.

You will get a bite, and you know you have a bite from the sound of the reel taking line, and you will also see your rod bending, and then you see the blue button on the middle of the game screen (as seen above screenshot) this is when you strike, or just start to real in again by pressing the action key to set the hook.

The game will alert you "Hooked On" and the fight begins. This is where the skill comes in. You can see the bar at the top of the screen, this is what you need to keep an eye on during the fight, this and the bend in the rod, i prefer to play this game on portrait mode, as you have the better view of the rod tip. The phone also vibrates if too much tension is on the line.

This is a small diagram to help understand what is going on. The green bar will move up and down during the fight, the more the fish pulls, the more the rod will bend (better to play this game on portrait mode) and the green bar will move to the left, to far left the phone will vibrate and you will hear the rod creaking, if the green turns red, your in huge danger of the line breaking.

Shark and Image. Click To Open Original In New Window.

When you catch the large fish, you will sometimes have your picture on the front of the local magazine which is cool.

End Of A Tournament.

Tournaments are another great feature of the game, every so often, there will be a tournament starting, no matter where you are on the game, you will be alerted of its start. You can also check the times of when they start by going to the Resort Information icon on the map (it is the orange one looking like a small house) also from here you can get different tackle items from the tackle shop (depending on your level, depends on what you can have) and also check the leader boards and tips.

There is also the resort Info next to the anglers store, as all the places on this game are in fact based on real life top class fishing resorts around the world.

Get New Tackle, And Check Your Scores.

You also have a whole load of options available to you whilst your out there fishing, to many for me to expain everyone of them, but from here you can check all the fish you have caught, view them in the live well, check out the beastiary to see how many of the species of fish you have caught for the area your fishing.

You can go into your tackle box and change your line from braid, ordinary monofiliment or the flurocarbon (fluro is invisible under water by the way ;) real life fish fact for you there, i use in carp fishing a lot) you can also change your lure, change your rods to cast further, and even check out your statistics. And of course change the settings for the game, key settings and view settings, volume controls etc etc...

Options Page And My Stats. I Know, I Suck lol

Well, i think i have got a bit carried away talking about this game, but this just tells you what i think about it. It really is the greatest mobile game i have EVER played in my entire symbian life, and belive me, i have played a hell of a lot.

The only 2 bad things i found was, the fact your xp and back to level 1 when you travel to different locations, as this would not happen in real life, you would keep all your experiance in real life.

And the other i found was that during a competition, or tournament, if it was coming to the end of the tournament and you still had a fish fighting on the line, it would not be counted and the match will finish.. Now in real life, if you hooked the fish before the whistle, and you succesfully land that fish, it is counted in the competition. These are the only 2 things i have with this great game.

My Score For This Game