The Arcade: A Monthly Roundup of Freeware Games (August 2007)

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[This article originally appeared at Just Another Mobile Monday on August 15, 2007]

I cannot believe it is time for the August edition of the Arcade already.  Where has my summer gone?  Nonetheless, August has been an incredibly exciting month for me as, for the first time, I have been a member of the Board of Experts for the Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine Best Software Awards 2007.  This has been a huge honor for me, but also a lot of work.  At the same time, however, I have bee having a great time with it, as I have had the opportunity to try out some amazing games and programs (and a few duds) which I may not have otherwise tried.  If you have noticed that I have not been reviewing software lately, it is because I specifically have been avoiding software reviews during the time I am judging these awards.  But don’t worry, once the judging is done, I now have a number of software titles I plan to look at more closely.  More on the awards in September, when the judging is over and I can share more of my thoughts.  For now, it is on to free games and this months Arcade. 

 After last month’s troubles, I was hoping for a nice easy month with the software, but of course, that was not to be.  I found five great games, only to find that three of them would not load.  I found three new games, and two would not load.  This went on for some time until I eventually arrived at five fantastic games, all of which loaded and ran perfectly on my Windows Mobile 6 device.  This month, we will be taking a look at:

1. Kriegsgefangen

2. Nutcracker

3. Jumping Cube

4. Quest of the Styli

5. Abandon Hope Solitaire

Kriegsgefangen: This game, whose name I have not even attempted to pronounce, is an amazing first-person action shooter.  Now, I know what you are thinking here:  But, Doug, The Arcade is all about free games.  What is this game, with its amazing graphics and crisp gameplay doing here?  Well, I will admit that I have no idea how they did it, but this incredible game is absolutely free. 

So, what about the game itself?  Gameplay is similar to Call of Duty 2, which I reviewed several months ago.  You must travel through post-World War II Germany freeing the POWs from their German captors.  Watch out, the Germans will shoot back…and it those bullets hurt whether the game is free or not.

Nutcracker: Nutcracker is a second game which brings exceptional graphics to the Arcade (the screenshot really does not do it justice).  This time, the game takes place in the Russian embassy in London, where someone has planted a bomb.  Someone has to find and defuse that bomb, and that someone, of course, is you. 

Of course, the Russians won’t actually let you wander around their embassy.  Instead, you control the Nutcracker, a remote controlled vehicle which you can guide from room to room, exploring the embassy.  Unfortunately, all of the sentry drones seem to be malfunctioning at the same time, so you will need to avoid or destroy them in order to find that bomb. 

What I found most remarkable, was that despite the fantastic graphics and animation, the game required only five megabytes to run.  Five.  I know a lot of developers who could learn something from this one.

Jumping Cube: Jumping Cube is one of those great games which feels familiar enough to hold your interest, yet unique enough that it will not bore you.  And this will certainly not bore you. 

Gameplay takes place on a grid (whose size can be adjusted depending upon what level of difficulty you prefer).  One player controls the red squares and one controls blue.  The gray squares are open and ready for conquest.  The idea behind this strategy game is to obliterate your opponent from the board.   

Each colored square contains a sequence of dots.  Each dot represents a level of power, meaning the more dots on a square, the more powerful it is.  On each turn, you can take over a gray square by tapping on it, or increase the value of one of your existing squares (again by tapping on it).  When the number of dots in a square rises higher than the number of immediately adjacent squares (corners have two adjacent squares, edges have three, all others have four), then those squares will be overtaken — or jumped, switching to your color and gaining one dot.  This can (and often does) set off a chain reaction resulting in numerous squares switching sides.  The game ends when one player is wiped completely from the board.

Quest of the Styli: Quest of the Styli is an extremely well made arcade style space shooter.  The Styli are an ancient civilization who, eons ago faced imminent destruction when their sun burned out.  At the last moment, just when all hope was lost, the Styli were able to put the remains of their now dead sun into hundreds of tiny orbs, which they then used to heat the planet.  Life continued like this, until a coalition of enemies launched a surprise attack and stole almost all of the orbs.  Facing imminent destruction for the second time, the Styli quickly mobilized their forces in order to recover the orbs before their dying planet finally froze.

This is where the action of the game begins.  You must fly a Styli ship through enemy territories, dodging, weaving, and blasting your way through the enemy ships in order to pick up the orbs and return them to the planet.  The game features over 30 different levels, with numerous enemies and power ups.  It also offers full customization of your ship, as well as the ability to salvage destroyed ships for parts (thus giving you extra lives).  If you are a fan of arcade style shooting games, you will not want to miss this one.

Abandon Hope Solitaire: This is a card based solitaire game, which can be extremely fast paced.  Cards are dealt in 24 tableau piles, arranged into four rows of six piles.  The remaining cards are held in the stock.  To play, simply discard all of the Clubs by tapping on them (in any order).   Clubs are the only cards which can be moved in this game.  If there are no Clubs remaining on the table, then you may redeal up to three times per game.  A redeal will shuffle all of the tablau and stock cards.  The game ends when you have no moves remaining, or have removed all of the Clubs to the waste pile.

Well, there we have it.  Five absolutely fantastic games.  This is one of the most fun months I have had writing the Arcade, despite the troubles I had finding games that worked.  Like so many freeware games I have found, the quality of these was simply superb.  Now, I have to get back to judging the software awards.  That whip is cracking.  Next month, when judging is done, I will bring you my top five free games from the awards. 

To see previous editions of The Arcade, check out our archives, exclusively at Just Another Mobile Monday. 

If you are a game player or developer, and would like to recommend a freeware game for use in a future installment of The Arcade please email me here at JAMM.  All requests are welcome.

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