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The Friday Five: Duke, Pac-Man, Karoshi, Fable, Atari

For iOS, DS, Windows Phone 7, and PSP

The Friday Five: Duke, Pac-Man, Karoshi, Fable, Atari
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iOS + DS + PSP ...

Welcome to the inaugural Friday Five, a weekly roundup of the most exciting new releases in the world of handheld and mobile.

Each Friday we'll be picking out the best new games on platforms like iPhone, Windows Phone 7, PSP Minis, 3DS, and Android.

This week we've got a new side-scroller with gaming's number one meathead, the latest retro-remix of Namco's dot-gobbling game hero, a suicidal salaryman who's made the leap to PSP Minis, and a treasure trove of vintage Atari games.

Pac'n-Jump
iPhone and iPad (Universal) - 59p - Namco Bandai

Namco knows how to catapult its franchises into the 21st century. Instead of relying on endless sequels or stodgy old remakes, the Japanese company has remixed its most classic games for today, splicing in the compulsive 8-bit gameplay with social leaderboards, quick-fix game modes, and pulsating strobe lighting.

It's worked for Pac-Man Championship Edition and Galaga Legions, and it pays off here too: in the Doodle Jump-inspired Pac'n-Jump. It might just seem like the same old, iPhone-tilting time waster, but Pac-Man's iconic visuals and rules infuse the game with some juicy retro style.

There are enemies guarding certain platforms, but grab a power-pill and you can gobble them down. Dots and cherries fire you skyward, and chewing on enough pixels will unlock further stages.

This cute, nostalgic hybrid of Pac-Man and Doodle Jump has Game Center support and extra modes (inspired by Dig Dug, Rally-X and Galaga), too. Not bad for 59 pennies.

Duke Nukem: Critical Mass
DS - £17.99 - Deep Silver

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Duke's magnum opus, the eternally tardy Duke Nukem Forever, may have been delayed a further month, but you can still get some hands-on time with the main man in the mean time. Deep Silver's covertly releasing this action-adventure on DS today.

Evil alien Proton and his extraterrestrial buddies swoop down and try to steal Earth's most precious commodity: smoking hot babes. The planet's noted womaniser, machismo-man Duke Nukem grabs his skin-tight vest, dark shades, and borrowed one-liners to track them down.

Critical Mass looks to be a globe-trotting 2D side-scrolling shooter, which has Duke hopping around the Egyptian pyramids, the Eiffel Tower, and more. There are also hybrid 3D elements grafted on for cover-based shoot-outs, sniper sections, and fiery boss battles.

We hope to get a review for you, soon.

Atari's Greatest Hits
iPhone and iPad (Universal) - Free - Atari

If you grew up in the '80s, this absolutely endless collection of 100 Atari classics - from Adventure to Yars' Revenge, and everything in between - will be like a marathon down memory lane. Especially as every game comes with a gallery of posters, adverts and photographs, and you can flick through your collection as a spiral of vintage arcade cabs and boxes.

You get ancient tennis-sim Pong for free with the app, but you'll have to shell out for the rest as in-app purchases. You can purchase extra cartridges as 59p packs of four, or drop £8.99 for the entire 99 game collection.

Some games work better than others with the touchscreen controls, but if you've got an itching to play your favourite old games on your iPhone or iPad, this is the far and away the best app for the job.

Karoshi
PSP Minis - £2.49 - YoYo Games

The jet-black comedy Karoshi had to rethink its gruesome subtitle when it graduated from niche PC platformer to handheld app. It's hard to get away with a game called Karoshi Suicide Salaryman on the iPhone or PSP Minis.

But the blood, guts and mind-bending logic puzzles that usually end up with Mr Karoshi's untimely demise have stayed intact. It's your job to help this unhappy Japanese worker to pop his clogs by guiding him towards spikes, falling boxes, live electrical currents, and other dangerous objects.

Hilariously enough, this suicidal salaryman carries a handgun through most of the levels, to shoot switches and the like. Why he never turns the gun on himself is the game's biggest mystery.

It's a shame that you have to pay a premium to get the game on PSP, but if you've abstained from the iPhone or Android, what are you gonna do? Play the free PC flash version? Yeah, right.

Fable: Coin Golf
Windows Phone 7 - $4.99 - Ideaworks Game Studios

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While the Windows Phone 7 is a powerful OS, Microsoft knows the limitations of mobile. There's no point trying to squeeze a hectic shooter like Halo or an epically grand RPG like Fable onto the tiny screen, because it will be hampered with endless compromises and concessions.

Instead, the megafirm's game branch has set to work on handheld spin-offs of its greatest properties. Take the socially-aware tower defence game based on Crackdown, and now Fable: Coin Golf - an addictive hybrid of snooker and crazy golf that might ditch the swords and sorcery, but retains the series' sense of humour and gorgeous fantasy setting.

Our Windows Phone 7 expert Keith Andrew gave the game a 9, citing the, "quality that's been infused into every element of its presentation". Better yet: do well in the game and you can feed your hard-earned loot back into Fable III on Xbox 360.

Mark Brown
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is editor at large of Pocket Gamer