Hands on with Vivendi Universal's mobile games

Vivendi may be one of the newest mobile publishers on the block, but it's been part of the wider video games world for years, bringing us the likes of Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot. And it now seems intent on making up for lost time on mobile, displaying a raft of titles at E3.

Of the six games previously announced by Vivendi, we got to grips with three on the show floor.

Navy Challenge is an isometric version of Battleships that throws in some nifty new features. In Vivendi's version you can call in air strikes to cause wider hits or turn your radar on to detect your opponent's ships, and there's torpedoes and cruise missiles too. You can also move undamaged ships around between turns to further flummox your foe. It's a neat game that looks good and plays well.

Meanwhile, Red Baron is a spiffing World War 1 flying sim that puts you in the cockpit of a French pilot taking on the German air force. Yes, including the Red Baron himself.

Red Baron looks to have plenty of depth. Vivendi is promising historically realistic planes to unlock, and different enemy behaviour depending on who you're dogfighting.

When I played it, the large maps made a particularly strong impression – there's ample room to fly and chase enemies. However the downside to this is that it can occasionally be a bit hard to see what's going on, due to the resultant small graphics.

It's fun to try out the spin and feints though, which are designed to help you get away from the enemy or just look bally flash, which is equally important. (Did French pilots say 'bally' too?)

Last and certainly least is Flying Toaster, which is quite possibly the worst idea for a branded mobile game since Munsters Pinball. The game is based on the flying toaster that was once a staple of workplace screensavers, and the resultant game is a sideways-scrolling shoot-'em-up where you have to grab toast and bagel power-ups, and avoid falling cows and hamburgers.

From our hands on playtest, the gameplay isn't looking like it will outweigh the embarrassment of paying good money for a game called Flying Toaster. It's too basic for adults, while no one under the age of 30 feels nostalgic about the toaster anyway. (Nowadays a screensaver means Crazy Frog shaking his genitals on your mobile screen.)

Whilst at Vivendi's stand I also managed to sneak away with some screens from SWAT, a law enforcement shooter, which looked like wholesome violent fun. We'll be donning our flak jackets to bring you more on that soon, along with a closer look at the remaining Vivendi titles.