Hands on with THQ Wireless' Sopranos Poker on mobile

Saints Row is set to be THQ Wireless' highest profile game of the year, being based on an upcoming THQ console game.

It's a top-down title where you run around shooting people and jacking cars. If that sounds to you a lot like the original 2D Grand Theft Auto games... well, you'd be right.

The game involves earning cash and respect by carrying out a series of suitably gangsterish missions, jumping in and out of luckless drivers' vehicles as necessary. The controls feel like they've been carefully considered for mobile – just one button to leap into a car, then left and right to steer.

I dived into the game without receiving any instructions, so it wasn't entirely clear what I was doing. Very quickly though it involved running down a street at full pelt while about seven cars had a massive pile-up behind me, which may or may not have been my fault.

Fun stuff, in other words. Grand Theft Auto hasn't made it to mobile yet, so Saint's Row's main competition will be Glu Mobile's unimpressive Driver: Vegas.

Moving on to more renowned gangsters, I must admit never quite got into The Sopranos. Not because it's rubbish – it's more a case of too many high-quality US drama series and not enough time. (Those 24 box-sets and Lost net downloads won't watch themselves, you know.)

But anyway, I know enough to say that poker at least plays some part in the TV show, which means a Sopranos Poker mobile game isn't just another example of slapping an easy-to-develop game genre onto a well-loved brand.

The game itself is shaping up nicely judging from my play test at E3. It has you playing Texas hold'em or five card draw against the characters from the TV show, and it runs smoothly enough.

There are a couple of cute features unique to Sopranos Poker.

Firstly, you can get more cash by selling items in the in-game pawnshop. And secondly, you can cheat every so often, looking at a random player's cards. However, if you get caught, you lose half your money. Get caught a second time and you're thrown out of the game (and presumably into a river with concrete boots).

Oh, and there are suitably Soprano-esque taunts too. Definitely worth keeping an eye out for if you're a fan of the show.