Loose Threads: Which film/TV licences deserve their own portable game?

Good games based on blockbuster films and TV shows are as common as unicorn steaks at Tesco (you might have to go to Waitrose for those). It's an industry truism that by and large, cash-in games based on film and TV licences tend to be about as much fun as flossing your teeth with an electric eel.

But that is not necessarily so in the shining paragon of gaming progressiveness that is the handheld space.

Feeling rather clever for having spotted this trend, we asked you 'Which film/TV licenses deserve their own portable game?' last week. We then sat back with a self satisfied grin and the expectation that our glorious readers would write post after post about the forgotten entertainment gems that you so desperately want to see made into handheld bestsellers. What a lesson in complacency that was.

It seems we couldn't be more wrong and rather than pique your interest, our topic was met with cold indifference *sniff* and hence, nobody lent us their thoughts *sniff sniff*. It's okay, we can take it.

As a result, this week's Loose Threads is going to be about various other bits and pieces but before we go on, just for the record, we think that The A-Team is screaming out for a PSP game, The Neverending Story would be magical on the DS and that a Mad Max racing game on mobile would complete our drab lives emotionally and spiritually (yes, we were children of the '80s).

Anyway, onward we go. A forum newbie, GraPhreaX, posted a new topic called 'Build your own mobile game easily' which was essentially a shameless plug. It was a relevant shameless plug, however, especially in light of last week's Loose Threads topic, so we were delighted to hear about it:

"I've been working on this concept for three years with my two brothers and wanted to hear your opinion. We're launching it next week. Our site is www.muZui.com."

One of our forum cornerstones, Mandark, took a look and was impressed:

"The games look fun and the ability to make your own levels is a winner."

Seems like it's worth taking a gander at, then. There are five games to choose from on the site already and, promisingly, the concept sounds like it will evolve into something truly different as it finds its feet. We'll be keeping tabs and trying out the site more thoroughly over the next few weeks so expect to be able to read our thoughts in the forum.

Elsewhere, there were people looking for help with various handheld woes. Another fresh face, Thea, asked for some help with Bratz 4 Real on the DS:

"Does anyone know how to play the first mini-game in Bratz 4 Real? A Dance Routine – rhythm – we have no idea what to do to earn those blings required to get anywhere else in the game."

Any takers? Come now, surely someone's played it?

Moving on, we really ought to mention the chap who wrote to us with some PSP issues:

"I have a PSP which I use on my travels to while away the time and was delighted to find out that Sony have added a Sat Nav device to the PSP menu."

But…

"I cannot find any advice anywhere about the availability/release date. "With regional limitations of the UMDs will I be able to buy maps of the USA anywhere in the world or will I have to buy another PSP? "I also use Skype and again very few of the stockists including Sony's own shop know which headset is suitable for use with Skype."

We did a little digging and it seems the official Sony headset for use with Skype can be found on Amazon for about £20. We also managed to dig up the Sony PSP GPS receiver on eBay though it is only available on import from Hong Kong at a cost of about £45 including postage and packaging. (And we're by no means suggesting that's a good option, simply pointing it out.)

As far as we know UMDs are generally region free though if anyone knows of any specific regional issues that might affect the PSP's Go!Explore service, then it'd be great if you could let this reader know in the forum.

And so after last week's failure the pressure is on for us to come up with a topic that will have you screaming your opinions from the every rooftop in the land. How about this:

Will Google's Android be a real competitor in mobile gaming?

More details can be found nestling comfortably in our forum. That's it for this week, then, but click 'Track It!' to be sure to catch the next Loose Threads.