Five Games Actually Worth Playing: N900 Edition
The N900 hasn’t exactly been a gaming powerhouse – just check out the Ovi Store, where there’s a total of ten games for download. That number includes both free
and paid, and doesn’t look likely to change any time in the future. Fortunately, there’s some decent games to be had in the repositories, even though it’s hard to tell what’s actually good. So I’ve sifted through the junk and found five games worth playing.
Angry Birds
Not everything that comes out of the slim pickings Ovi Store is bad. Angry Birds is a new take on the old “Scorched Earth” tank warfare genre. But instead of a tank, you control a giant slingshot that shoots – wait for it – angry birds. The goal is to squash pigs with your limited number of birds. It’s a little easier (and harder) than it seems at first glance, because each level includes some kind of wood structure that can be toppled over like a Jenga tower. Hit one of those structures at the right angle, with the right amount of power, and you’ll knock it down and crush the pigs. Adding to the fun are special abilities that allow your birds to split into three in mid-air, or dive into targets, allowing you to break through harder materials like rocks.
It’s a great little time waster that makes excellent use of the touch screen. Controls are super simple – just tap and drag to pull the slingshot back at any angle, and let go to shoot it.
You can download Angry Birds for free from the Ovi Store. In fact, it’s the only thing even worth considering from the store.
Gweled
Did you know? This year is Bejeweled’s 10th anniversary. It’s not hard to see why the game has such staying power, considering it’s one of the most addictive casual puzzle games ever made. The mechanics are simple: getting three similar jewels in a row clears them out, shifting the rows downward with new jewels. There are combo bonuses and a timer that gets progressively faster, and Gweled also includes sound effects/music and high score saving.
If you’re looking for online multiplayer, check out Battle Gweled. Both versions are available in the extras repository.
Duke Nukem 3D
One of my favorite DOS games has been ported over to Maemo, and damn, it’s looking good. Everything that you always loved in the old Duke series is here, one-liners and all (the music pack is an optional 18mb download) – even accelerometer and proximity sensor support. You can aim using the touch screen, or just fire up the good ‘ol QWERTY to get things going with a wealth of key mapping options available. Note: you’ll also need to download a DUKE3D.GRP file which you can find on a number of web sites.
Duke Nukem 3D can be found in the extras-dev repository.
Numpty Physics
Numpty Physics is based on the famous Crayon Physics game, where you draw simple objects in order to solve puzzles. Your pen can produce different types of strokes that can connect objects, drop them from the sky, or just sit there in space. It’s got a slight learning curve, but for a free game, Numpty Physics shows an impressive amount of polish.
Numpty Physics can be found in the extras-dev repository.
ScummVM
Ah, yes. Everyone’s favorite adventure game emulator comes to the N900, bringing along a catalog of over a hundred games to the party. It’s hard to find something not worth playing here, whether its LucasArts’ classics such as The Secret of Monkey Island and Sam & Max Hit the Road, or Sierra’s oldschool King’s Quest series.
It was a tough choice deciding between ScummVM and DrNokSNES, but ultimately having an onboard keyboard and stylus made ScummVM better suited for the N900.
Honorary Mentions
Other games you might want to check out.
DrNokSNES: For console gamers, DrNokSNES provides some of the best SNES emulation (with sound!) I’ve seen on a mobile phone, with games running at a very respectable 25-30 FPS. It has all of the options you need: the ability to change default key mappings (even diagonal arrow key combinations), display options/zoom levels, and frame rate. On the fly, no less. You can also optionally hook up a Wiimote although this doesn’t seem to be much of a benefit.
Ur-Quan Masters: An extremely faithful port of the DOS/3DO classic Star Control 2. There’s a wealth of options available, but ultimately controlling your ships is less than stellar with the N900 keyboard.
DOSBox: Last year, I did a
writeup on DOSBox for S60 Fifth Edition, and on the N97 (and PC) it was superb. However, on the N900 I couldn’t map my keys using the included key mapper, and I’ve been too lazy to look up the N900′s keyboard scancodes.
Airport and Exploder Touch: Airport is a clone of those airplane traffic controller games, and while the idea is solid, the touch controls need some help. Exploder Touch, on the other hand, is barely even a demo: there’s no sound, music, or anything that shows any kind of real polish. But the idea is pretty cool: you try to blow up little dots that bounce around the screen with a well-timed explosion.
