Ever wanted to play platformers on your Pocket PC? So far, unfortunately, few REAL platformers have been released for the Pocket PC; they are as follows:

1. Atomic Dreams,
2. SuperTux,
3. Gold Miner Joe,
4. the free OpenJazz,
5. Bayside Studios' Quigley's Quest 1.10,
6. the not-sold-any-more Rayman Ultimate by Gameloft,
7. the non-WM5-compliant, now-free Tommy Kombat,
8. N.I’s great Retro Games collection,
9. Momentum Games’ pretty good platformer-alike, brand new Meltdown
10. and the to-be-released Titus’ Prehistorik clone Prehistoric(it, unfortunately, has just been delayed to March).

This means all new, decent platformer releases are a must for real Pocket PC game freaks.

Fortunately, Jadeware’s new game Grizzly Adventure is a pretty good platformer game – if and only if it flawlessly runs on your Pocket PC. Read on!



Availability, compatibility

The homepage of the game is here. Alternatively, here’s the Handango page.

The title is supposed to the compatible with WM2003 and later operating systems (sorry, no-pre WM2003, contrary to what the official homepage states).

Unfortunately, it seems to have severe problems with VGA devices. As far my VGA test devices are concerned, I’ve tested the game on my Pocket Loox 720, WM5-upgraded HP iPAQ hx4700 and the A12 Dell Axim x51v. Of the three, it’s only the Axim that could run the game with an adequate speed and tolerable playability. The Loox was unbearably slow (even with Picard’s GAPI hack) and the iPAQ was only a tad faster (with stuttering music). It should be pointed out, however, that the x51v was still slower and less pleasing-to-play than the QVGA HTC Wizard.

As far as QVGA devices are concerned, I’ve tested it on my HP iPAQ h2210 and HTC Wizard overclocked to 240 MHz. The game had very annoying stuttering problems on the former (while it, basically, ran the game otherwise OK); the Wizard ran the game without any problems.

That is, before paying anything (fortunately, it’s pretty cheap - $7.95 only) for the game, make double-sure it does run on your Pocket PC without major problems!

Note that there also is a Mac and a desktop Windows version. Unlike the desktop version of MANY Pocket PC games (4Pockets and OmniGSoft titles, for example), it does make use of the increased screen estate – give it a try.

Installer

It should be pointed out that Grizzly Adventure uses a non-standard installer (screenshot here). This, as usual, presents a lot of problems: lack of user-deployable CAB files, lack of Mac / Linux compatibility, not possible to re/uninstall from ActiveSync, a current connection is needed to install and so on.

I really hope the developer switches to using standard CAB files.

Also note that the starting link it creates is linking an ogg music file in Programs. You must manually create a link to GrizzlyDemo.exe in the main directory of the title, which is \My Documents\Grizzly Demo when installed to the main storage.

Audio

There is pretty good in-game music in OGG format; this also means it can be freely copied / swapped. They’re played back in mono during the game. There are three different, pretty good in-game music tracks (also see the \audio subdirectory in the home directory of the game) and another menu music. There are sound effects too in the game.

All in all, the audio department is OK.

Verdict

It’s a pretty good and, what is even more important, cheap platformer IF it runs on your Pocket PC well. Give the trial a try to find it out - it's worth the trouble.

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

    

Thanks for the review.

Paul