26 March 2008

Next Generation mobile Gaming
Games From The N•Gage Platform

Block Breaker Deluxe from The very well known mobile game development team, Gameloft. This is another really great addictive game.

It reminds me of a game that i used to play on the PC as a young man some many years ago with my father, we would often be playing it together to try and beat each others scores, so this game really brought back some great memories for me.

The general idea of the game, is to control a small paddle at the bottom of the screen and to hit the ball up to knock out the blocks, hence the name: Block Breaker Deluxe.

But just like the creatures of the deep, there is much more to this game, with a whole load of added features and mini games. It is again a kind of RPG (role playing game) only this time your playing the role of a famous wall breaker champion.

The game begins in a town called Palm Ocean, a town known for its wild nightlife. And an eccentric billionaire is orginising a block breaker contest for the 10 best players on the planet.

Only there is one small problem, the entry fee for the contest is set no less than 1 million dollars and you start the game with just $100 in your pocket. So your object of the game is to hit all the city's game halls and accept the challenges given to you by all the varios different characters you meet along the way.

Starting Options And City Map

The game starts with this options screen above, where you can start your new campaine, one thing i did notice, was this game takes an awfull long time to load for some reason.

Neon Rose. The Start

When you start the new game, you start at Neon Rose where you are greeted by the girl who tells you the block breaker tables are out the back. Then the game will start.

Each round has a challenge for you to complete, which if completed offers you a reward of cash, and the more cash the better, as your trying to raise $1 million, and not only this, there is a shop from where you can purchase upgrades.

Complete The Challenges For Bonus's

The very first round is very easy, as is expected to be for the gamer to get a feel for what is what. The general idea of the game is to smash all the blocks with your ball, without letting your ball fall through the bottom, so you cant miss it with the paddle as this would cost you one of your lives.

As you can see at the top, the hearts with 10 next to it, is your life's, and then your cash in the top middle, and then there is a time limit, which if you complete the round within the giving time, you will get bonus's.

There are many things that help you along the way, for example, some of the blocks you smash hold upgrades for your paddle. These can range from just simply slowing down the ball (it does get very fast at times, so this is a very helpfull upgrade) to lazer guns fitted onto your paddle which are a huge help as you can then shoot all the blocks to break them.

Collect The Upgrades And Cash That Comes From Certain Blocks

As well as the paddle upgrades that come down from certain blocks, you also get cash and gifts. You offer gifts to the city's key characters and they will open some usefull doors for you to help you.

Also you will get pink hearts fall from some blocks, this are of course extra lifes, the more of these you can get, the better off you are, as when the game goes on it gets very tricky some levels, and you will be losing lifes. Get 99 lifes and you get the point pickup for extra ngage arena points.

Unlike Hooked On: Creatures Of The Deep game, this one i think is much better to be played in landscape mode, the only reason i playing portrait mode here, is for the screenshot's fit better on the site.

Now i have not played this game a great deal, but there are also many mini games within the game itself. There is cool games like poker, and fruit machine type games, where you collect cards from the blocks which makes up your dealt hand for a game of poker. And the card blocks are placed around so you have to think and try to aim your ball towards the cards for yourself, like to get a full house or another good hand. If you win, you will get the cool bonus cash too.

Goto The Shop To Spend Some Cash On Upgrades.

You can decide what you would like to do with the cash you have raised so far, you can purchase more lifes at 10k each, or you can purchase upgrades for your paddle which will indeed help you a great deal throughout the game to raise even more money, and even reach the target of $1million dollars for the contest.

You can get to shop to buy your upgrades from the map, just look for the shop on the map as you can see in above screenshot.

Give Your Gifts To The Characters.

That is about as far as i have got with this game, i need to spend some more time with it, as it is a really great game, i would also love to try this game out on 2 player mode over bluetooth, but as this new ngage platform is still in beta, i dont have the any other players to challenge.

I just cant wait for the ngage to be launched properly on all supporting devices, i am really very excited about getting these games on my nokia n95, and Block Breaker Deluxe will definetly be one of my first game purchases, along with Creatures Of The Deep of course, which is my upmost favoroute mobile game of all time.

My Score For This Game