Midnight bowling 2 - Gameloft trying for a strike, gets bedpost

First of all I've never played bowling (except on a mobile phone that is) so I obviously have no clue whether or not the game is representative for the emotions you feel while playing.Then again I believe those emotions should be different than frustration and boredom which is exactly what I felt playing Gameloft's latest creation.
"Why or why were you bored, you mighty game reviewer", you may ask. I'll tell you why.
First of all I should say the game looks as good graphically as you'll expect from the Gameloft game. It has all the bells and whistles like pseudo 3D and such, which makes me think they're using again a modified Asphalt engine. Or not. I'm not really sure what they are using those days anymore. Whatever it is the game looks great.
It has two basic problems however- stupidity and steep learning curve (combined with inconsistent game difficulty). Let's translate this into English:
First of all - someone lied to the guys from the creation team that all professional bowling players are sexy girls. Either that or there is a really huge amount of unused sexual energy in the team, which is probably OK, considering the male/female ratio in the game industry. Whatever the reason the game looks like someone somewhere said: "You know what makes a game great- GIRLS! Lets put some in" And guys- "putting girls in" doesn't always make a game great- believe me.
Second- the learning curve and difficulty. It's not normal to require better scores to be allowed to participate in a tournament than in the actual event. This stupidity makes the game a roller coaster of difficulties and in my opinion greatly damages the gameplay.
Other than that the game has some value in it and it gives a decent overall experience- the aforementioned nice graphics and sound, decent reward system and solid gameplay if you can somehow put aside the problems I told you about. I couldn't.

 

 

 

Graphic and sound 10/10
Gameplay 5/10
Value for money 7/10
Novelty 7/10
Total 7/10

The bottom line - Recommended? Not really but bowling fans will probably enjoy it anyway.

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Real Soccer 2008 - a severe identity crisis

If you go to the site of the mobile game developer Gameloft you will see that one of their most heavily marketed games has a severe case of identity crisis - in the menu the game is called Real Football 2008, while on the banner it proudly carries the alias Real Soccer 2008. Being born in a part of the world where soccer is indeed called football I have no problem with that, however this might not be the case for all the potential customers.But let's go to the review.
The game is supposed to give you full 3D graphics (although depending on your handset you might end up with a 2D version), more than 200 unique teams, high quality digitalized sound and the opportunity to participate in the 2008 European Nations Cup with all the regular teams.
What it really gives you is a fifa-esque experience. If you've played more than one game from EA games PC series you know what I mean - the game's main difference from its predecessor is the graphic style, which in that case went from cartoony to pseudo realistic. If you're one of the lucky guys whose mobile phone can support the 3D version, you'll have the chance to play a slightly less edgy version than the last edition. The game still looks better in 2D though, thus confirming once more that 3D graphics in mobile games are still more of a marketing gimmick than anything else. The "realistic" colors of both versions make things a little too dull IMO, not to mention a few really ugly visual elements that are sub-Gameloft quality standards in every way.

 

   2D V/S 3D  

Other than that, you have at your disposal double the teams from the last edition and a better sound, although the audio of a mobile game was never of prime importance - how often do you get to play a mobile game with the sound on?
The gameplay is the same as in the previous editions and you'll see nothing really different in the menus except the order of the items. No innovative minigames or anything...

Graphics   8/10
Sound     10/10
Gameplay 8/10
Novelty    3/10
Total        7/10

The bottom line: Real Soccer 2008 is a decent but not really great game. It falls short of being the greatest sports game on a mobile but it will be interesting to the fans of the series.

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