Mobile Games Roundup
PES! Galaxy! Nebula! Pac! Pop!
Pro Evolution Soccer 2011
- Windows Phone 7 - £3.99
- Also available on Android - £1.86, iPhone and iPad £2.99 (unified binary).
Judging by the various travesties already perpetrated against mankind, it's hard not to suspect that football and mobile gaming weren't meant to be.
But Konami's respectable attempt at least goes some way to proving that it is possible to create an engaging game of football on touch screen devices - even if this offering ultimately fails to get anywhere near replicating PES in any meaningful sense.
The challenge, as ever, is trying to instil any kind of free-flowing play on a platform where control precision is hard to replicate. By default, Konami sensibly strips the controls back to an old school two-button configuration - but even that proves to be an unsatisfying solution.
Far more playable is the accelerometer-based system, where tilt the devices itself dictates the direction of your movements while context-sensitive taps provide the full array of passes, shots and crosses.
With less inherent room for error, you're able to start spraying the ball around with a higher degree of confidence. However, the game is perpetually let down by slack AI and one of the most superhuman keepers ever seen in football gaming history.
If you can put up with its long list of foibles, there's enjoyment to be had from PES 2011 on mobiles. But any resemblance to real brands, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
6/10
Dark Nebula - Episode 2
- iPhone - £1.19
Tilt and roll games are ten-a-penny on iPhone, but not many of them make you forget to have your lunch. Even fewer make you forget your own name, or what day it is.
As the "second highest rated application of 2010" and one of Apple's own 50 best apps of all-time, it's easy to see this effort from developer 1337 Game Design has garnered such lofty acclaim.
Hours are casually tossed aside in the process of ensuring that a ball safely reaches its destination, via moving walkways, spiked traps, bounce pads, industrial crushers and laser fire.
Sometimes you'll find yourself turning the tables on your aggressors. Charged up with your own spinning weapons of hate, you get to smash everything in your path, and take down their generators.
Inevitably, completion is only part of the story, and maximum glory is only possible if you manage the dual feat of avoiding damage, while also picking up the various shinies glinting in your peripheral vision. They're not essential, obviously, but you wouldn't want to be a lesser being and only scoop a bronze, would you?
The only downside is that it's all over in a measly 19 levels. At that price it's hard to complain, but just as Dark Nebula gets into its stride, it's over. Until the next episode...
8/10