Enigma Games, a less-known Pocket PC, MS Smartphone, Windows PC and Blackberry developer (with two previous titles for all these platforms: Jacks (ClickGamer link) and EFL: Strategy Football (ClickGamer link) and two titles for Windows only: the RPG Aveyond and the pool game 3D Live Pool), has just released a Windows Mobile port of their, previously, Blackberry-only Warriors.



Gameplay

An excerpt from the blurb:

Game Information
• 12 Classes (Guardian, Gladiator, Paladin, Rogue, Mage, Cleric, Wizard, Sorcerer, Stormcaller, Elemental, Ninja, Archer)
• 4 Methods of attacking and defending (Mental, Physical, Ranged, Mind Control)
• 3 Levels of AI (Rookie, Advanced, Expert)
• 136 total characters
• 15 unlockable hidden teams
• In-Game Strategy guide
• 4 vs 4 combat system (3 vs 3 for Mobile)
• Immersive combat and interface sound effects
• Online score and ranking system
• Multiple Tournament modes allowing for a more competitive strategic experience
• Play in fullscreen or windowed mode

Gameplay
• 5 round tournament style play (3 rounds for rookie level)
• Turn based strategic battles
• Play the Practice mode to enhance your knowledge of the characters and develop a core strategy for victory
• Use unlocked teams to unlock more powerful special teams and increase your status as a great Warrior
• Characters have the option of attacking enemies or aiding allies (some classes do no have the aid option)
• Balanced gameplay that allows for a variety of team combinations and unorthodox victory strategies.

Personally, I haven’t found the game very interesting or challenging. This may have been caused by just playing the pretty useless trial version, which only allows for playing one round in both practice and tournament modes and, therefore, doesn’t allow for really developing any character / strategy or getting known to enemies. I will, however, ask the developer for a registered version to see whether it’s indeed as addictive as they and the other reviews (see the links at the bottom) promise.

Contributing Editor Nurhisham Hussein at Pocket PC Thoughts wasn’t sold on gameplay either; see his comments here.

I also recommend the two reviews at the bottom of this article if you want to find out more about the game.

Availability, compatibility, bugs

The official page is here; the title is also available at ClickGamer and Handango. There is also a (pretty useless, game progression-wise) trial available, unlike with the previous games of the developer.

The official forum of the game is here (currently with three Blackberry-only threads).

There is also a Blackberry, a Smartphone and a desktop PC version (screenshot of the latter here). The latter doesn’t differ much from the Pocket PC version, except that it works OK and has no bugs, unlike the Windows Mobile port.

Unfortunately, compatibility-wise, the Windows Mobile version of the game is a typical example of rushed-to-the-marked products. It not only has major VGA compatibility problems (it’s not compatible with VGA devices at all – yes, I’ve tested it on all my four VGA devices), but refuses to run even on some? a lot of? QVGA devices; for example, on my WM2003 iPAQ h2210. (The game is supposed to be WM2003+ compatible - sorry, no Pocket PC 2002-compliance.)

In addition, even on the only one Pocket PC I could run it on (a HTC Wizard), had some problems.

1. The logos have originally been optimized for Landscape but the game shouldn’t be started in there (you can’t click anything and, as with Portrait mode, you can’t use the D-pad to move the highlight either in fighting menus, only in the main menu and its submenus). In portrait, the main logos are heavily misplaced (example here and here); fortunately, this only applies to the logos, not the game itself: fortunately, while the logos are displaced and the main menu only uses the upper 240*240 of the screen; the upper 120 pixels in the game itself are at least filled in with some background.
2. If you don’t use an A2DP or a wired stereo headphone for listening to the music / sound effects, then, you’ll facing severe volume problems: the game overrides the system-level sound setting after entering any submenu (for example, the settings) or the game itself (from the main menu) and always switches to a very loud sound level – even if you have muted your device in the system-level audio applet. With A2DP, this problem is, fortunately, non-existing. Fortunately, if you disable the music/sounds in the game, you won’t encounter this problem – even after restarts.

All these problems / bugs are quite typical of newbie Pocket PC developers. Hope they will be ironed out in later versions.

Music, sounds

The title has a highly repetitive in-game and menu music – the same as in the desktop PC version. That is, nothing to write home about – you may end up having to disable it. (If not because of the sound bugs I’ve elaborated on above.) The attack sounds are pretty low-quality too.

Multiplayer?

These kinds of games (where two parties play each other in a typical turn-based scenario) would benefit a LOT from multiplayer (please read the Multiplayer Bible for more info). Even mediocre games can be much more fun when played against friends. Unfortunately, it seems multiplayer won’t be added: the GamersInfo review asked for multiplayer some 8 months ago and, still, there’s not any sign of it.

Verdict

Personally, I don’t really like this game. It may have been a great title on the Blackberry, a platform which certainly lacks good games (very few developers develop games for the platform; for example, the great iDreams folks, while they support a lot of smart phone platforms, don’t support Blackberry either), but not on the Pocket PC, where there are a lot of much stronger titles – also titles that do support multiplayer and have no bugs / severe incompatibility problems.

Currently, I don’t recommend the game. I will, however, let you all know if the registered, unlocked version is indeed as good as promised – then, at least some QVGA users will be able to enjoy it.

Other reviews

Check them out for some additional info on the game. Note that the version they refer to didn’t have sounds or the pause functionality either; the Pocket PC version does. The latter, however, doesn’t have save functionalities either.

GamersInfo
Mobile Game FAQS

Microsoft MVP - Mobile Devices, 2006, 2007. See my PPC & SP blog HERE.

    

Thanks for the review.

Paul

   

It's a pity they don't have multiplayer mode. This looks like it could've had a lot of potential.

UPDATE (01/10/2007): PocketGaming.de frontpage. I also recommend the posts HERE at PocketGamer for more info.

Microsoft MVP - Mobile Devices, 2006, 2007. See my PPC & SP blog HERE.