The Official Mobile Game Review Thread

Duke Nukem 3D Arena Review

Carrier: Verizon
Mobile Device: Motorola RAZR V3m

Duke Nukem 3D Arena is a pretty fun game. You play as Duke Nukem, who is trying to take back alien infested areas. The full 3D graphics are pretty good (not quite as good as Brothers in Arms 3D, but very close), and the sound is good enough. It has three different modes of play, single player, single player with online leaderboard, and online multiplayer. In single player you have to play through 31 short - but fun - levels. 21 of the levels are from the orignial DN3D, and ten of them are new for 3D Arena (please don't buy the original version of DN3D when you can pay the same price and get a ton more features in this one, lol). There are five different difficulty settings for single player (I've done it on normal; haven't tried it on anything harder). It took me a couple hours to get through all of the levels the first time (now when I'm doing it my fastest I could probably do it in about 30-40 minutes). Each level (after you get the hang of it) takes anywhere from 45 seconds to 2-5 mintues. There is a feature in the options you can enable (I did, and it helps a lot) that alerts you when an enemy is close to you, and you can press left or right twice and you will automatically aim at the enemy (it will ignore up/down aiming though).

There are a total of seven different types of enemies you will encounter, as well as several "boss" units. The weapons available are: boot (unlimited ammo, extremly short range and weak attack), pistol (holds up to 99 shots, long range, and weaker attack), shotgun (you can hold up to 48 shots, medium range, and attack varies depending on distance from target), pipe bomb (carry 10 max, medium range, bomb travels slowly in the air, fairly powerful if you can hit your target), and RPGs (you can hold 24 max, long range, shot travels slowly, about as powerful as the pipe bomb).

For the other single player mode (where you upload your high scores to the leaderboard), there are only 21 levels (the ten new ones aren't there). Your score is based on how many enemies you killed, how fast you make it through the levels, and how many levels you make it through. One thing that is fairly common in this mode though is that there are way less health and ammo pickups available, which forces you to be more accurate.

In the online multiplayer mode, you can either wait for a game to be hosted so you can join, or you can host a game (only the ten new levels are allowed). You get to choose the level, game time, and number of total kills before the game ends. Once you are actually in a game (with up to two other players), you begin going around shooting your opponents. Battles usually end with both people getting killed at the same time (it takes five shots to kill someone, and the only weapons available are the boot and pistol. I have NO idea why you weren't allowed to use RPGs, shotguns etc). It isn't too laggy, but the frame rate is a bit lower when playing online than it is in single player. You can also upload your scores to a leaderboard once the game is over. Some people however (I remember one person in particular, a player with the name "eyeball") are sore loosers and will quit a game when they aren't doing well, so it won't record their stats for that round. But over all, multiplayer can be a fun experience. My main complaints for the multiplayer mode are that you can only use two weapons and that some people leave games early so it won't ruin their stats.

The controls for DN3DA aren't too bad, and with some practice they are fine for a mobile game. 2 and 8 are forwards and backwards, 4 and 6 are for turning left and right, 5 is for firing your weapon, 1 and 3 are for looking up and down, 7 and 9 are to strafe left and right. [*] and [#] are for switching weapons. You can also use the five-way navigational keypad too, but you will not have easy access to the looking up/down and strafe features.

Overall, I liked Duke Nukem 3D Arena. I've played through it several times, and at several points have had scores on the top ten lists (I have the name thermn; I meant to do thermo but messed up and before I knew it I had pressed OK), which is always cool. Although the lists reset every month or so (and the multiplayer leaderboard resets every week), which isn't cool. One other thing that I didn't like was that every five or six levels into the game you have to delete and download the next set of levels. I have plenty of memory left on my phone, and I wish I could just use five MB so I wouldn't have to download new levels every few minutes.

Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 6/10
Gameplay/Fun: 8/10
Replay Value: 9/10
Overall: 8/10

If you want a fun FPS game that will give you a lot of replay value, consider Duke Nukem 3D Arena.

Brothers in Arms 3D Mobile Review

Carrier: Verizon
Mobile Device: Motorola RAZR V3m

This is going to be a shorter review cause I'm feeling lazy. :P

Anyway, BIA 3D is a mobile FPS game, set during World War II. Out of all of the ones that are available for Verizon users I'd say it is one of the best mobile FPS games out there. It's got good graphics, sound effects, and the gameplay is very fun.

There are eight missions in BIA 3D (you play as an Allied soldier); the first five are in Europe; the last three are in North Africa (desert). The first mission is a tutorial of sorts, but the prompts and hints end after a bit and it plays just like a regular mission after that. The missions are fairly long (since there are only eight of them) and they have a good deal of variety in terrain/scenery, but for the most part the missions are just “kill the enemies and you win”. Much more fun than it sounds. :lol: You will find yourself going around on foot most of the time (from an over-the-shoulder third person view which isn’t common in FPS games, but is fine here), but you will be able to drive jeeps (and even tanks!) in some missions. The weapons available in the game are: Tommy gun, scoped sniper rifle, bazooka, hand grenades, and if you have beaten the game, a grenade launcher. You can also use emplaced MG42s if they are available. If you are driving a tank, you can fire the main gun (or run people/trees over if you feel like it).

Well I think I’ve said enough. It is a very cool game, and worth the $7.49 it cost now. If you don’t like the game then there must be something wrong with you. :lol:

Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 8.5/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Replay Value: 7/10
Overall: 8/10

Gangstar: Crime City Review
Carrier: Verizon
Mobile Device: Motorola RAZR V3m

Based on what I've read elsewhere, Gangstar: Crime City is supposed to be something like GTA on mobile. I've not played GTA, but Gangstar sure is pretty cool. You start the game as a no-name character that was recently released from prison. You have a $50,000 debt you have to pay to the ruling gangster in the city, and to earn money you go around doing various missions for various people (you can also shoot bystanders and police officers to get cash or weapons or illegal drugs that you can sell at "candy shops" around town).

There are about 50 different missions, varying from "go take out this guy over there" to "steal the other guy's car and bring it back to me" to drive-by shootings, assasinations, even illegal street racing and other less-than-legal activities. There are five different weapons you can find or buy. A pistol (it has unlimited ammo but is rather weak), shotgun (powerful point-blank, but very weak at range), uzi (shoots very fast, but isn't super powerful. It can also be used in drive by shootings), AK-47 (powerful, shoots fast, but expensive to buy), and the bazooka (very powerful, hard to use, and very expensive). You can also hire up to three bodygaurds, but they aren't really worth what they cost.

There are two districts in Crime City; the downtown area, and the richer beach-front residential area. You can car-jack any vehicle you want to, and there are six different types of vehicles (a plain every-day car, a sport compact car, an old classic, a Hummer, two Lamborghinis; fast and very fast, and police cruisers) for transportation. Of course you can walk on foot. But with the ease of car-jackings, who wants to walk (although be careful when you try to take over a manned police car, cause the officer inside will step out and start shooting)? The districts are fairly large and are free roaming (meaning you can go just about anywhere you want to, whenever you want to), and every so often there is a gun shop or a candy shop.

One thing that I found cool was that the game has daytime and nighttime graphics. Every few minutes it suddenly gets dark, and vehicle headlights come on. It doesn't really affect gameplay, but it looks cool. Plus sometimes it starts raining out of the blue (no pun intended), and occaisionally you will see a bright flash of lightning (with no sound to follow though, which was dissapointing). Once again, the rain and stuff didn't affect the way the game played, but they added some variation to the graphics. Once you clear your $50k debt, you can buy restaurants and manage a recording studio. If you know how to operate them correctly, you can start raking in big bucks (I got to $2,000,000 once before I decided that day to start a new game). The game never really ends either. You will run out of missions, but you can keep playing to earn more cash.

So, my ratings for Gangstar: Crime City are:

Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 6/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Replay Value: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

It's a fun game (so long as you don't mind the violence; although there isn't any blood like some screenshots show), and has considerable replay value. Get it if you want GTA for your phone.

Midnight Pool

Carrier: Movilnet (Venezuela)
Mobile Device: Motorola RAZR V3m

Main Review:

This is a pretty neat pool game. Yes, old-fashioned pool, the same game that you can play in the nearest tavern of your neighborhood. Midnight Pool, from Gameloft, have the following game modes:

- Quick game: Here you play a standard US 8-ball game, facing computer-controlled oponents. For each round that you win, you will be unlocking more oponents, and colors for your cue and your table. Nothing else, nothing more.

- Tournament: Combine a 8-ball (US and UK variants available) or 9-ball game with some gambling: place your bet, and try to win the round. Here is a twist: if you lose a round, you will not lose your money right there, instead you will have up to two extra rounds to try to win aganist that opponent. If you win, you will also get a optional challenge (see below for description): if you accept and pass it, you will win more money. You can save your game for resuming it later, but only after defeating each opponent.

- Versus: Turn-based 2-player game: two people, one phone. Do the math ;) Again, you can choose your game (8 and 9-ball)

- Challenges: Have you ever seen those skill pool championships on TV? Midnight Pool also have some of these, for those people wanting to try something different, from the simple "pocket two balls with a single shot" to very complex (and difficult) challenges.

- Tutorial: Learn how to handle the controls in this game, and the distinct kinds of shots that you can perform.

Graphics: 7/10 - Clean graphics, very simple scenarios, bright colors... It does not have too much eye-candy, but at least the game looks nice.

Sound: 7/10 - You have a single BG music track, and it only works in the menus. On the other hand, the sound effects on the pool table are quite realistic, improving the game experience.

Gameplay/Fun: 8/10 - Billiards are cool, and this game is it too. The physics are properly done (you can even, in extreme cases, to kick balls out of the table, so watch out!). The difficulty is random, so you can sometimes being facing n00b opponents (doing quite stupid shots), while other times you will have a hard time trying to clear the table... Unlike some other pool games, you can't set the friction of the table, so for those wanting more realism, you will be pretty much limited to the stock table properties.

Replay Value: 8/10 - This game requires a lot of practice. A LOT. And if you pick challenges... In short, you will be playing this game by a few hours, polishing your skills. Don't worry, it's very easy to learn, just pay attention!

Overall: 8/10 - Excellent game, one of the cheapest BREW games available out there. It may look very simple, but once you advance in depth, you will see that it is everything BUT easy. Just an advice for n00bs: watch a few tournaments on ESPN before trying the tournament and challenge modes. Heck, watch them even before purchasing the game if it's your first time playing pool! (virtual or not)