Darxun Games may be known to Palm OS and Symbian (S60/UIQ) owners. They have already produced two pretty good 3D games for these operating systems:
Head2Head Street Racing and
3D Zapman. (Of the two, I could only test the latter on my freshly hard reset test
Palm Tungsten T|3, which I was pretty happy with, despite it only having HiRes resolution (while the T|3 is a HiRes+, that is, a 480*320 device). The former wouldn’t leave the trial screen after starting a game.)
Now, their last, just-released title,
Cybersaurus, not only supports those operating systems but also Pocket PC. That is, this is their first Pocket PC game of Darxun Games.
(A screenshot of an enemy firing at me)
The game, at first, is pretty similar to
Jimmy Software’s
X-Ranger. The latter game may be well known to many - it’s pretty aging, albeit running good even on today’s Pocket PC’s (I’ve recently tested it on my WM2003SE and WM5 - some of them VGA – devices. Note that if you have an older version – for example, 1.0 – you will need to get the latest, 1.0h version to be able to play it on VGA devices). Of course, X-Ranger isn’t a
Mechwarrior-like, while
Cybersaurus at least has some resemblance (while, of course, not having everything a real Mechwarrior clone should have).
(A screenshot of being annihilated by an enemy)
I’ve tested the game, in addition to my Palm Tungsten T|3 (it’s, as with the other games of the developer, unfortunately, HiRes, that is, 320*320 only), on all my test Pocket PC’s. It worked on all of them, except for my
Pocket PC 2002 iPAQ 3660 (the game is incompatible with pre-WM2003 operating systems). The other devices (
WM5 iPAQ hx4700, Dell Axim x51v, HTC Wizard; the
WM2003SE Pocket Loox 720 and the
WM2003 iPAQ 2210) worked OK. On the slow(er)
HTC Wizard, the in-game sound was a bit stuttering (along with the in-menu music) and, on the
iPAQ hx4700, the four application buttons can’t be used for continuous pressing (for example, turning or constantly firing).
Speaking of buttons, you definitely will want to override them (
Options/Key setup). Right now, the left/right buttons of the D-Pad aren’t used on any Pocket PC’s / Palms; other hardware buttons are used to turn left/right.
Incidentally, the characters the game uses are a bit on the unreadable side; this is particularly visible on the key assigner setup screen:
Verdict and personal opinion on the game – would I buy it?
Well, I’ve found the game pretty boring. Of course, I need to add that I’ve never been a Mechwarrior fanboy myself. You may like the game more though. Give it a try.
While the game is promising (again, if you're a die-hard Mechwarrior fan), some kind of in-game music would certainly be welcome. Also, adding 2700G support would be really nice.
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