Mobile games

[Kuokkanen]

Let's talk about wargames made for devices like GameBoy, PSP, Palm, N-Gage and what ever fits to pocket. I've got Pathway to Glory for N-Gage and played it few missions.

Time is World War 2 and game starts with invasion of Sicily. Player is in command of elite group of soldiers and can choose small number of them for mission (4-8). Missions are mostly special assignments, like destroying mortars and warehouses. Besides soldiers under player's control there might be other allied units operating in the area. Soldiers can take cover on trench and behind (sandbag) walls. If there are enough action points left on end of turn, soldiers can shoot enemies if they come too close. Changing stance (stand, crouch, prone) don't require action points. Soldiers are specialized to handle certain equipment, like radio, bazooka and sniper rifle, but everyone can use everything. Does this sound like Jagged Alliance? My thoughts exactly.

Graphics and interface are good looking and realistic for mobile game but bright daylight ruins screen's visibility. Status bar displays bare minimum: action points, health and two items. Other stuff, like overview map and full inventory, are accessed through game menus and number buttons. Sounds aren't that great and I don't understand much from speech while playing on bus. With decent earphones audio quality might be better. Hour of playing eats battery about day's worth of readiness time.

Multiplayer options include hotseat, bluetooth and GPRS. GPRS traffic is billed by amount of transferred data which isn't much for turn based game. There can be multiple players on same side. Players can communicate either with text or audio messages. In case of audio, message is first recorded and then transmitted to other players. I don't have personal experience about multiplayer yet.

There is bit of realism involved. Heavily loaded soldiers, bazookas and light machine guns for example, have less action points available. One bullet from any weapon can be deadly but for some reason tanks seem to take a lot of punishent and tracks don't break up. Soldiers can take unoccupied heavy weapons under control, like already mentioned tanks, cannons and heavy machine guns. For some reason in single player missions german 88 AA cannons seems to be always unoccupied just waiting for player to grab them and blow things up. And they hit even individual soldiers!

Overall Pathway to Glory is decent squad based wargame which don't get overshadowed by similar games of heavier computers like Laser Squad (Nemesis) and Jagged Alliance. N-Gage itself is decent mobile device to play games, it has more buttons than most mobile consoles, microphone and excellent readiness for wireless multiplayer. There aren't many good N-Gage specific games, but I guess most of other mobile phone games, like Age of Empires 2 and Worms, work on it.

Would you like to know more?

[jvgfanatic]

Daisenryaku Portable - Japan PSP - Long running hex-based strategy game, previous versions released in English are Iron Storm for Sega Saturn (not the PC game), and Dai Senryaku VII for Xbox. This edition takes place in SE Asia and uses modern equipment.

Daisenryaku DS - Japan DS - DS version of DP with a mid east campaign (instead of DP's SE Asia campaigns). Mission mode is the same as DP however.

Both of those are excellent titles.

Not so much strategy in other handheld gaming devices but turn-based/gridded combat is present in the following:

Advance Wars 1, 2, and DS - DS and GBA - Fun turn based games set in a future, comical kind of setting. Certainly this game is not for grognards but then no portable game lives up to grognard standards.

Super Robot Taisen - every system - The first English version of this game was just released on the GBA as Super Robot Taisen Original Generation. OG2 will be out soon however there are dozens of versions available on pretty much every other gaming platform. If you're into anime and big robots this series is for you. I happen to love it.

Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis - GBA - We're now into SRPG (Strategy Role Playing Game) territory but of all of them this is probably the hardest core. It's got an involved story, battles that can be quite challenging, and lots of depth in character customization.

ZOE Fist of Mars - GBA - Sort of Super Robot Taisen-like but pretty shallow when compared in detail. Long involved story (and inane as most console/handheld games are). Still, if you don't mind lack of depth (and you wouldn't be playing console/handheld games if you did) this game can be fun.

Fire Emblem and Fire Emblem Sacred Stones - GBA - Also SRPG games, these have good stories, likable characters, and somewhat fun rock, paper, scissors style strategy. When characters die in this game they die for good. Every move is saved as the game is played which discourages experimentation to some extent (though you can restart battles should you make a mistake mid-fight).

Napoleon - Japanese RTS for GBA - Kind of a yawner but it should be listed just because the genre needs all the help it can get.

Mech Platoon - GBA - RTS with mechs.

Rebel Star Tactical Command - This is a great little gem of a game made by the makers of X-Com: UFO Defense. The battles play out like X-Com battles. The most tactical game on the GBA.

Field Commander - USPSP - Fun Advance Wars clone for the PSP with 3D graphics. You can make your own maps and it has a PBM feature over wifi/infrastructure.

Generation of Chaos - USPSP - Crappy interface mars a likable Dragon Force/Romance of the Three Kingdoms clone set in a fantasy world. It's playable but they really mucked up the menus.

Spectral Soul - USPSP - Soon to be released SRPG that is quite deep with tons of item customization and an involved story that changes as you play both sides of a war. I've played the Japanese version with it's gawdawful load times and I hope the US version loads faster.

That's just a few but it's a good start.

[Marc von Martial]

I would be pretty interested in Pathway to Glory if it werent only for N-Gage, the game itself allways sounded very interesting to me and the art is certainly appealling for a mobile device.

[jvgfanatic]

AI Go - Japan PSP - Uses the "Many Faces of Go" engine for a solid game of go against the computer. Only supports ad hoc however xlink kai works for over the internet play. The game is very bare bones but if one already plays the game one doesn't need a plethora of features. It has rewind, suggested play, and recorded game features.

Daikokou Jidai Rota Nova - Japan PSP - A gem of a game called Uncharted Waters was released on the SNES back in the day. This is a sequel of sorts. Some would argue it's not quite as good as its predecessors however it is righteously fun. Lots of Japanese though so if you don't read the language I suggest a faq...there should be faq in the next couple of months anyway as I'm working on it.

Metal Gear Acid (and MGA 2) - US PSP - Some call these strategy games and I guess to some extent they are. Card-based Metal Gear...make of that what you will. It works, really, it does. I'm not that thrilled by the game but the formula is solid.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Giren no Yabou - Japan PSP - This is a very expansive strategy game set in the Gundam universe. Hundreds of unit types across dozens of maps in space and on planet make for a huge game. Peppered with anime cutscenes if you're a fan of big robots there's no reason not to pick this title up. The faq for the PSX version works for this version (for translation purposes). This version has all the extras that came on an expansion disc for the PSX and Saturn versions.

[Kuokkanen]

ORIGINAL: Marc Schwanebeck

I would be pretty interested in Pathway to Glory if it werent only for N-Gage

Yeah, it's pretty hard to find in Finland too. I made visits to four shops (one game, others phone/operator stores) until I found one I have now: old model, used, ~75 €.

There could be some on eBay and similar sites.

[jvgfanatic]

Well, I think I've covered the bulk of it between the GBA/PSP games. Here are a few interesting upcoming titles:

Steel Horizon - PSP and DS - WWII naval combat. Looks really good, but then so many games do these days...

http://uk.gamespot.com/psp/strategy/ste ... e=previews

Yggdra Union - GBA - SRPG goodness with cards. Programming by Sting, Published by Atlus.

http://uk.gamespot.com/gba/rpg/yggdraunion/news.html

Dungeons & Dragons Tactics - PSP - Supposed to use the 3rd ed. ruleset. Battles play much like old school D&D fights. I like the idea, I hope the game lives up to Paper & Pencil battling as much as the hype says it will.

http://uk.gamespot.com/psp/strategy/dun ... /news.html

Star Trek Tactical Assault - DS and PSP - Don't know what to make of it. I find it hard to get excited about any Star Trek video game as thrilling as it might sound. Perhaps it's just the SFB lover in me that doesn't want to be let down by another shallow sim.

http://uk.gamespot.com/psp/strategy/sta ... /news.html


Oh, and here's one I left off the list that is available now:

Battles of Prince of Persia - DS - Much better than I expected. This TBS game uses cards to good effect. Somewhat easy on the brain but most of the portable games are. I find the system in this game very enjoyable, somewhat highly recommended. Suggest the reader check out some reviews before taking the plunge (www.gamefaqs.com)

[Kuokkanen]

Putting a grenade in your hands and a smile on your face, Codemasters today confirms plans for the return of Cannon Fodder, the classic and hilarious combat gaming franchise, in spring 2007.

That's for PSP
Would you like to know more?

[jvgfanatic]

Disgaea is coming out for the PSP in Japan. No US release has been announced yet but I'm sure it will get an English release at some point.