Racing by the Beach

I admit I'm not the most technologically savvy person. I don't have an iPod or Blackberry, but I do rely on my cell phone. I had no idea there were extra features offered on every cell phone. In fact, it was my son who told me that I have "Games." Huh??? Why would I want games on my mobile phone? I have a cell phone to make phone calls, not to play games. Well it turns out that it's a very good thing. My generation grew up on Asteroids, Space Invaders and Pac Man. To play a game like that on one's cell phone was unbelievable to me. We had these bulky machines with game cartridges. Today you can go to a mobile games website and download hundreds of fun games to your phone. My son was actually patient enough to teach me how to do this. I'm sure the majority of today's generation master this before pre school! So let me tell you about my first download. It was "Beach Rally, " a car race along the beach which is a lot of fun. I like games involving the race against the clock or an opponent. It's very simply to play. You use the number 5 key to accelerate, number 4 to turn left and number 6 to right. Number 8 is for braking, but I doubt anyone uses it. You're supposed to be racing, not stopping. Anyway, I discovered these mobile phone games are a wonderful feature. I had the misfortune of spending my day waiting in various lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles recently. To stop from going insane, I played "Beach Rally" most of the day. I knocked my son off the highest score list! Not too bad for a 40 plus woman who grew up in the Stone Ages of video games, don't you think?

Quad Race

What is a quad? Better question. What does a quad have to do with a cell phone or PDA? Finally, what do these questions have to do with you?

Well, now that you asked, there are some important answers. A "quad" refers to a vehicle that is like a motorcycle with four wheels. Unlike a car, it is completely open. Yet with four extra wide tires, the quad can race up and down hills on all sorts of terrain. Sand, gravel, dirt - -all of these are what a quad is built for.

So what do these vehicle have to do with a cell phone? The answer is that you can now play quad race on your cell phone or PDA. You use the arrow keys to control a video representation of a quad around an interesting course filled with jumps and other obstacles. As you travel around, you can earn "turbo boosts" by touching stars that appear all over the course. Usually, you have to do something interesting like jump (space bar) for a star. The more you touch, the more turbo boosts you will have. You will need these for the really long jumps that occur more and more often the more you play.

So just download the game onto your mobile device and you are ready to play anytime and anywhere. The best thing is when you use a mobile device, no one can really see what you are doing. So even during those boring board meetings, just pretend that you are ay the beach racing a four-wheeled monster instead of looking at sales graphs and shipping costs. Go home and try and better your scores on your home computer. Since the game is online, it is always available whenever you want to play. Otherwise, just download it.

Uphill Rush

Uphill Rush is a good find. It is a free mobile game that is fun and challenging. In a world where most free games are worth what you pay for them, it is refreshing to play a game like this which you could easily see actually buying.

It is a motorcycle simulation game. You can play in two different modes. the first mode is time trail. You play against the clock and try and better your fastest score down a course. The second mode is a race against computer controlled motorcycles. Either way, the game is a hoot with multiple challenging levels.

The course is laid out with all sorts of jumps, dips, and obstacles. You control your bike with the keypad and spacebar. Just like with a real motorcycle, for every action, you must balance it with a counteraction to stay upright. If you need to lean backwards to raise the front wheel, at some point you will have to lean forward to get that wheel back on the ground. Every action requires an equal counter-action after the obstacle is managed.

On the time trial mode, you will see a shadow bike taking against you. This shadow bike is simply a representation of your fastest time. That way you know if you are near to setting a personal record for the course. Of course, when you have a high score you can submit it and then everyone in the universe will know that when it comes to video motorcycles, you are a real champion.

The game does not get boring and you can have lots of fun for a few hours. Now that it is a mobile game, you can play it anywhere on your cell phone of your PDA. "Down" time has never been so much fun.

Ghost Ball

I will be shocked if there is anyone out there who actually enjoys this game. It's not even worth the time to download it to your mobile device. With literally millions of games and fun applications out there, there is just no reason to play Ghost Ball. Let me tell you why: You control a white ball. You move it with the pad or arrows. Meanwhile, colored balls crash into you. You need to try and avoid them. If you hit them or one of the sides, you lose. That's it. You can hit "retry" all you want, but I highly doubt you will ever last more than ten seconds. The game may pretend to be based on skill, but it is really blind lick that controls how things operate. The speed is simply too fast for anyone to be able to control. Especially if you are playing on a mobile device, you will break your thumbs before you get beyond the first level. Why anyone would design such a game is really beyond me. It is just not fun and even though it doesn't take much time to play and lose (and believe me, you will lose), it is still a waste of time that you could be using to play something actually fun. I mean, why not play an online blackjack game or anything in which you can use your brain rather than you thumb to try and win. Blackjack can be won, Ghost Ball can only be played until crying in frustration, you turn off your mobile in disgust and actually go back to work (or whatever you needed to do).

Bandit Ludo

Let's be honest. Bandit Ludo is nothing more than a video version of Parcheesi. While it may come in handy to have Parcheesi on your mobile device, is that really necessary? I mean I have never fully understood the concept of turning all board games into video games. The reason board games tend to be fun is that they are played on a board with competitors gathered around. Taking that experience and putting it on a cell phone is something else. Parcheesi and cell phones just don't seem to go together.

But enough of my rant, on to the game. The game is played on a board that looks like your standard Parcheesi board with I guess what you would call a "Mexican" look. Yes, you guessed it. Sombreros and guitars dot the background and add, well I have to be honest, absolutely nothing to the game experience.

You roll an animated die and move your pawns around the board. If you land on an enemy pawn, that pawn goes back to his start. You need to roll a "star" to move out of your home, and the first one to move all his pawns to the home territory is the winner. Now, since you re playing against the computer, this just means that if you move your pawns before the computer does you win.

There are a lot of free mobile games out there, perhaps too many. I think that Bandit Ludo may prove that point. It backs the maxim: Just because a game is fun, it may not be fun as a mobile game. Sorry, but playing Parcheesi on a cell phone? I have better games to play (see my review of Absolute Zero for something more fun).

First Light

First Light is a clever game. I have to admit that much. It is a simple concept, but it is very fun and will keep you coming back for more. Unlike most games that record scores, your score rises when you do well, but sinks when you mess up. Keeping a high score requires constant effort.

How does it work? Simple. You control a large white ball. You use the arrow keys to navigate around the screen. You bounce off the walls that frame the playing area. Small white balls appear at random bouncing around with you. If you can hit a small white ball with your large one, you get one point.

At the same time, there are small black balls that are also bouncing around with you. If you hit a black one, you lose a point. The point total is always shown in the center of the screen. It can get real frustrating as you chase down the white balls only to run from the black ones.

In the beginning, there is only one black ball. But each time you hit a white one and get a point, another black ball rolls into the playing area. When you have more than ten points, the playing area is crowded with black balls and navigating to the one white one that can win you a point takes patience, skill, and a quick hand. One small slip, and your point total starts to fall.

In this game, within a few seconds you can go from a personal best record to almost nothing. That's why when you have a large total and you want to end the game and record your score, you press the space bar. Otherwise, the game will keep going forever.

Absolute Zero

Absolute Zero is a modern update of the classic game Asteroids that can be downloaded to a cell phone, PDA, or other mobile device. It is really fun and does what games like these are supposed to do: It makes time fly by. After all, the reason you are playing on a mobile device is that you have some "down" time during the day. Playing Absolute Zero makes this down time just fly by (pardon the expression, it is a flying game.)

What are the differences between Absolute Zero and Asteroids. Well, first the graphics are nicer. In Asteroids, you just have three crude lines forming a triangle. This is supposed to be your spaceship. In Absolute Zero, your spaceship actually looks like a spaceship. You don't have to try that hard to imagine your ship flying through space blasting at asteroids.

Also, you have a double gun which gives you a slight edge in shooting. What is really different however is that the asteroids are no longer the main target. You have other ships going around trying to take shots at you. If you get hit you lose health. As you fire, you also lose ammo. Unlike Asteroids, there is no unlimited ammo available. Luckily, you can replenish both your health and your ammo.

To move your spaceship, just use the arrow-keys and watch your ship zip through space. The "Z" key turns on the tractor beam to pick up astronauts. The spacebar is what you need to press continuously to fire on enemies and asteroids. Asteroids will sometimes be hiding health packs or ammo. Run them over with your ship and you can reload and bring yourself back from near dead.

The gaming experience is both fun and challenging. Look, it's been thirty years since Asteroids was released. A new design every thirty years isn't so bad when you think of it.