Casual review roundup

To try to make up (I hope) for the lack of updates I will review some of the "smaller" casual games games on N-Gage now. Sorry for the absence of images. Will add them later if I can bother to.

Block Breaker Deluxe
It's a pretty mediocore arcade brick breaking game. The 80's theme is flashy and the graphics are pretty standard 2D. The sounds have the old skool arcade feel in it. There isn't much music in the game, which is a shame, as even 8/16-Bit music can be good as Reset Generation and a few old classic games (Sonic 2) prove.
The gameplay works good in landscape, with left and right to move and Button A (Top game key) as the action button for launching the ball and powerups like the LAZOR! (Sorry, could not resist!)
The gameplay is simple. The ball gets faster the longer you play too.
The boss battles are a nice new thing added to the genre. They also vary from an ice cube you have to hit before it blocks the whole screen to a wall that keeps advancing. The least interesting boss has to be, dissapointingly, the last one. It is another pad, like the one you control, but with poor and simple AI. It simply follows the ball on a set speed, so you can just use the metal brick to get a good angle and win.
The game has a weird habit of pausing to show what N-Gage Point Pickup you recieved when you get one, which is annoying, as the game seems to freeze at first. Also the game lags a little when changing networks.
Overall it is a nifty little game to play for 15 minutes or so, good for a bus ride. But it doesn't have the addictiviness it needs. The graphics are not-half-bad 2D and the sounds are scarce and unoriginal. If you are point hungry or a bick breaking fanatic this will keep you entertained for small sessions.
63%

Tetris
Bricks seem to be a fad with casual games. Tetris on N-Gage pretty much like the original, with a few new features. The game has 5 modes: Marathon, Ultra, 40 Lines, Clash and Versus.
Marathon is the clssic game of Tetris, except it ends after you get past level 15. But that is not an easy task. It can take a lot of time for a mobile game.
Ultra is different, it is a 2 minute game where the objective is to score as high as possible.
40 Lines sees how fast it takes you to clear 40 lines. This can be done in less than 5 minutes, but the trick is trying to get under 2 minutes. Thats tougher than it sounds.
Clash and versus are games againts a AI opponent. Versus has you two playing untill you drop, with the ability to send attack (more bricks) to the opponent. Clash has you dropping the bricks in turns.
All the solo modes have ranking boards, which can be the spice the Tetris fanatics need.
So it all really depends do you like Tetris or not. The strenght of this game is that it's on mobile and uses the N-Gage Arena rankings. Overall it is Tetris, on mobile.
70%

Midnight Pool
This is no Pool simulator, more like a casual arcade pool game.
It is nice to play with easy going gameplay. But the graphics could be so much better. Some might comment it looks laggy. Well the GAME doesn't lag, but the ball animation looks a bit odd.
The game is 3D so you can view the pool table from behind the cue ball or a birds eye view. Both are essential when aiming shots. You can also see the surroundings of the table a little when you aim, but they aren't anything impressive.
The game has a bar theme in it, and the atmosphere is quite nice.
The sounds are basic pool sounds: Ball hitting and being pocketed. There are some small sound clips of the characters taunting their opponents and short music clips, but they sound hastly made.
There is no online multiplayer, only rankings. But you can have a hotseat 2 player game with 1 phone.
Overall it is a casual, atmospheric pool game with rough graphics and unimpressive sounds. But it is still pretty enjoyable to play.
68%


Phew, 3 more reviews down! Only 7 more to go!
Theme change coming up next! Why? So I can add embbed features! :D
Get ready to see Reset Generation in the sidebar! (If a theme has one big enough...)
Theme change... DONE! Well it was done hours ago but oh well. :P