Mauro Rilla is a well-known Visual Basic.NET developer. He has released many .NET CF-based applications / games so far. His latest title, MR SpaceBR1, is a space shooter.

As I have very bad experience with .NET CF-based action games (see for example IBE Group’s uselessly slow Star Invader), I really wanted to see how this game performs.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much to write home about; all comparable space scroller shooter titles (except for, naturally, Star Invader) are much better (see their list in the Star Invader review).

Availability

The game’s main homepage is here. It costs $9.99 / 9.99e and has a one-day trial version.

Control

It’s D-pad only – no stylus control is possible. Only the worst space shooters do this.

Compatibility

It runs on few of my Pocket PC’s. First, it doesn’t seem to support pre-WM5 OS’es at all (the homepage also states it’s WM5+ only); it complains about the inability to initialize D3D on both my iPAQ 2210 and PL720. Interestingly, the same happened on the, otherwise, as compatible listed, WM5 HTC Wizard. (I’ve tested the title with CF2 SP1)

As far as my other Pocket PC’s are concerned, it was uselessly slow on my WM5 Hx4700 and ran pretty OK on my Dell Axim x51v.

Verdict

While the speed of the title was tolerable on the x51v, the lack of stylus-based control (and the pretty high price and limited device compliance, taking the price and much superior quality / controllability / compatibility of the alternatives into account) is pretty much a showstopper. Not at all recommended - there are LOADS of much superior shooters.

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