Hands on with Mega Monsters on N-Gage

Nokia is developing an enviable quality bar for its first party N-Gage titles what with Creatures of the Deep, One and Reset Generation.

So when we were given a chance to get to grips with a new title that was not only destined for that stable but was also honed by the fair hands at legendary developers Firemint (of Fast & Furious, Flight Control and shortly Real Racing fame) we literally leapt at the chance.

Or more accurately we loped, bounced and smashed tall buildings out of the way at the chance. As you'll be well aware if you followed our previous news and screenshot coverage, Mega Monsters is all about precisely this kind of rampant urban destruction.

It's an enticing premise, combining as it does the classic antics of Rampage with sensibilities of Tornado Mania, but can it deliver upon our super-sized expectations?

It has to be said that first impressions are incredibly good. The stylised graphics look even more polished now than in early screens and the lumbering animation of the lead characters together with the teeming incidental detail (like ant-size people and occasional screams) serve to convey the feeling of scale wonderfully well.

Indeed, it's entertaining simply to watch the world go by as you wreak your terrible carnage.

The only slight concern we had was about the difficulty of the game itself, which seemed a little on the easy side. However, as we only saw two or three of the early levels we're prepared to accept this as temporary. The developer promises greater complexity - if not necessarily difficulty - in later levels.

Each of the five monsters (Panda, Dog, Cow, Turtle and Rabbit) has different strengths and special attacks.
You can customise them throughout, adding extra speed, power or other moves.

The customisation isn't just about powers, either: there are 100 items of clothing in the game (from Hawaiian shirts and sun glasses), some of which can only be discovered by exchanging with friends.

You can also customise the landscape, thanks to a neat feature which allows you to upload your own photos onto the destructable billboards in the game.

The controls are remarkably simple. You essentially rotate your character to flail at things in your path. The result, though basic, is oddly cathartic. Beyond this core movement you can pummel or use special moves (such as the Panda's 'peace' move, which makes all enemies fall in love and behave with due harmless eccentricity.)

There are four different multiplayer modes based around who can destroy the most or the fastest or specific objectives. You can't have the players on the screen at the same time due to the threat of lag, but you can see the footprints and aftermath of you co-players' action. In the game we played, we marauded into a military base and had tanks unleashed upon us. Future levels invoke the airforce, with helicopters, fighter-jets, bombers and bi-planes to contend with.

If you want a reference, Godzilla is as good as any, along with her fellow specimen of megafauna, King Kong. It's all about the simple joy of being huge and bringing catastrophe to hapless human communities.

If there's a better premise for a game, we'd like to see it.