The ten most anticipated pre-Christmas 2008 mobile releases
How to make the bleak winter months fly

"They forgot about Dre!" barked rapper Marshall Mathers in 2000, referring to his friend and fellow entertainer Dr Dre. But if Marshall - whose real name is Eminem - were a mobile gaming journalist in 2008 he may well have rapped the words, "they forgot about Java!"
"What's with this N-Gage? I'm enraged / I must say it's deranged / Check this, it's Tetris / On Nōkia only, oh dear it's lonely / That App Store's a crap shack / It's whack and Steve Jobs is a crack- "
And so on.
The best thing would be to sit Slim Shady - as he is known by close family and friends – down and patiently explain to him that while, yes, mobile gaming has been overshadowed to some extent by N-Gage and the iPhone this year, it's nothing to worry about.
In fact, the presence of these highly specialised rivals has invigorated the mobile gaming market, and Java gaming – still a highly profitable enterprise – is performing more vigorously than ever before. To assuage the fears of the once-impoverished Slim, we've assembled a list of the top ten games to look forward to between now and Christmas.
Slim Shady, this flavour's going out to y'all.
The ten most anticipated pre-Christmas mobile 2008 releases
10. Wizards of Mickey Developer: Disney Publisher: Disney Released: October Wizards of Mickey - originally a comic series - is a title that makes almost no sense, and the game itself is only slightly more coherent. To get a rough idea, it's like Advance Wars – or Mobile Battles if you prefer a mobile reference - but starring a cast of original Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald, Goofy, and others. Though no stranger to witchcraft, Mickey has surprised us in this latest appearance by turning his hand to tactical combat - not, it has to be said, his most obvious setting. Nevertheless, from the brief contact we've had with it over the last few months it looks promising. It's set to cast its spell this month. |
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9. Saints Row 2 Developer: G5 Mobile Publisher: THQ Released: October As with its home console big brother, Saints Row is doomed to live in the shadow of another franchise that looks, if you squint, exactly the same as it (see number 3). The difference is, on mobile Saints Row came first, and it was really quite good, albeit with niggling flaws relating to the driving and the combat. From what we've seen, Saints Row 2 addresses these flaws to a large extent, and while we can't say for sure that it won't come up with a few new ones to replace them, this imminent sequel is appearing at exactly the right time to make life difficult for I-play's Autumn blockbuster. Will it be a case of grand theft thunder? |
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8. Guitar Hero: World Tour Developer: Hands-On Publisher: Hands-On Released: Done when it's done When we reviewed the last Guitar Hero game on mobile, we gave it the benefit of the doubt. It had flaws, sure, but there was the seed of something great beneath its tinny exterior. With World Tour, the series is looking to blossom. Chief amongst the highlights is the multiplayer mode, which lets you take on your friends in real-time, battling over the 15 pre-loaded tracks to achieve axe-supremacy. It'll also be possible to play drums as well as guitar, closing the gap slightly between the mobile and celebrated home console versions of this epoch-making franchise. The catch? All of this is US only, but hopefully the features will also be present in the UK release. |
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7. Developer: Gameloft Publisher: Gameloft Released: November Eagle-eyed readers will spot that number 7 on this list used to be a mysterious game called God of War: Wrath of Olympus, which we'd discovered but hadn't been told about officially. The original text is below*. Well, since this story went live we've learned that the game is in fact called Hero of Sparta, Sparta being an ancient Greek city full of lunatics, as documented in the film 300. The game is going to be a mix of side-on and top-down action, and I've left the God of War references in because it's safe to assume, despite the difference in ancient civilisation, that there will be some parallels with Gameloft's previous effort from that franchise. Which is no bad thing. |
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6. Space Monkey Developer: Glu Publisher: Glu Released: December If you want clear evidence of how strong a start the iPhone App Store has had, it's in games like Space Monkey, which came out on iPhone first and left the Java version to follow several paces behind. The advantage of this, though, is we know it's a corker, and as appropriate for mobile as it is for Apple's device. The premise is simple: you play as a monkey whose job it is to clean up debris in space, which you accomplish by moving his hands and feet into the path of drifting garbage, avoiding harmful objects like batteries. Not only is this game unique, but it contains a monkey. How can it miss? |
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5. Tomb Raider Underworld Developer: EA Mobile Publisher: EA Mobile Released: November When a man thinks about Lara Croft, he's apt to reach into his pocket. Soon he'll have a good excuse. EA Mobile is bringing Underworld, widely billed as the first 'next-gen' Tomb Raider game, to mobile. It's not going to be like the last one, either, which to be frank was a rather drab effort from Eidos's now-defunct mobile division. This time it's in 3D, and from what we've seen it looks extremely promising. The characteristic clockwork levels are fully intact, and you make your way through them on a single axis in a 3D environment, which could either be highly restrictive or make for a slick, streamlined experience. Time will tell. |
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4. Gish Developer: Hardwire Publisher: Hardwire Released: Done when it's done We first covered this a few months ago, and since then we've been following its progress with interest. You see, it looks a bit like SolaRola, which is good because SolaRola was our favourite game of last year. But, more importantly, it looks like an evil version of SolaRola, and everybody knows that naughty is better than nice. The reasons to be excited don't stop there, however. Gish - originally a web game in which you play a large ball of tar endowed with the ability to grease-up or become usefully enraged - has won awards on its native platform, and will be compatible with Zeemote's JS1 Bluetooth controller. |
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3. Car Jack Streets Developer: TAG Games Publisher: I-play Released: October The universe is full of strange patterns and paradoxes. For instance, one of the best things about home console blockbuster GTA IV was the in-game mobile phone, and now a clone of GTA may well become one of the best things about real-life mobile phones. We've been tracking the progress of Car Jack Streets, from Dundonian veterans of the original Grand Theft Auto, TAG Games, since it first blipped onto our radar at the end of last year, and we're expecting greatness from its diurnal cycles, sandbox gameplay, and car-based violence. |
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2. Galaxy on Fire 2 Developer: Fishlabs Publisher: Fishlabs Released: November Fishlabs is semi-legendary in the mobile gaming world for not only turning out games of such technical splendour that you wouldn't believe your phone could run them, but going a step further and making them highly playable as well. In fact, it was Fishlabs who claimed our most recent and much-coveted platinum award. It also collected a gold award for its astonishingly beautiful space shooter Galaxy on Fire two years ago, so you can see why we're excited by the prospect of its sequel, due out some time before Christmas. Oh, and there's also going to be a free ad-sponsored trial version, so it won't cost you a penny. |
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1. Peggle Developer: PopCap Games Publisher: PopCap Games Released: October Get this for a statistic: every iPod on which Peggle is installed expends just over 70 per cent of its battery life running that game, and it runs it for an average of 315 minutes a day. Possibly. There's just no way of knowing. What we do know, however, is that Peggle works perfectly on the iPod, and so there's no reason to expect anything less from the imminent mobile version. For those of you who've not yet played PopCap's infamous mesmeriser, it's a version of the Japanese game Pachinko, in which the player watches a ball rattling downwards through an array of pegs, gawping helplessly. Fear it. |
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