Classics for Good Reason

Here are some of the most influential works created for portable platforms. Best of all, they're still available if you want to add a classic or two to your devices.

Breakout: Among the most important games ever created, this challenges users to clear a wall of blocks using a ball, paddle and the best angle to rebound the ball to damage the wall and clear the level.

Dope Wars: This morally challenged classic was originally developed for calculators and has spread to almost every mobile platform imaginable. You play an aspiring drug dealer who must sell stock to pay off a debt. You must work to stay alive, battle police, check local markets for favorable drug prices and save as much money as possible.

Tetris: Created in 1985, this became one of the most popular and recognizable games of all time. Centered on the idea of creating order from chaos, players shift, rotate and move falling random shapes into place to create solid lines. Once lines are complete, they disappear, earning points and advancing the player to the next level.

A combination of simple gameplay, increasingly frenetic pacing and terrific music matching the pace keeps players coming back for just one more turn.

Bejeweled: It was first released as a Web browser game in 2001 and has been translated to other platforms. Players clear a grid filled with jewels by rearranging them to create a line of three identical stones. Then the jewels disappear, earning points. A timer keeps players on their toes, and bonus points can be earned by arranging more complex combinations that clear four or five jewels.

Snake: Snake took over calculators in the '80s and grew from there. Available on almost any platform, the game is popular for play that takes only seconds to master.

Full Article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/AR2008030601278.html

Stair Dismount

Made by the same group of mentally unhinged developers responsible for "Truck Dismount" - Stair dismount follows much the same formula. Set direction and power of the shove which will push a guy down a large flight of stairs with the aim of causing as much damage as possible.

Highly amusing and like Truck Dismount can be played in a window (at your desk at work).

Poor little guy didn't stand a chance.

Summary

Shove the guy down the stairs, laugh, repeat.

Where Can I Get It?

http://jet.ro/dismount/

SGR Rating


77%

Truck Dismount

I am not going to lie to you. This isn't a complicated game. The object of Truck Dismount is however quite brilliant in it's simplicity; you set up some ramps, adjust speed and placement of a guy in a van, then set the previously mentioned van to go with the aim of causing as much damage as possible to the poor little dude in the cab. Let me attempt to illustrate with video, what words cannot quite seem to describe:

You get the idea.

I dunno what it is with me and games which involve trashing motor vehicles but I digress... The graphics are good enough to make the scene amusing. Beating your high score becomes more difficult as you become more skilled in setting up the crash, and lulz are had all around. I can't really fault it.

Summary

Crash a dude into a wall, laugh, and try and cause more damage next time.

Where Can I Get It?

http://jet.ro/dismount/

SGR Rating


75%

Team Fuchikoma win compo

Team Fuchikoma bagged the win at the awards night of the first Pinoy Indie Games Competition held recently at Temple Bar in Greenbelt 2 with their game Teddy’s Happy FuN TiEm Wonderland garnering the top scores.

“It was a solid game,” said Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP) president Gabby Dizon. “When I tried it out, I had a feeling this was going to be one of the top contenders.”

The gameplay of Teddy’s Happy FuN TiEm Wonderland consists of a giant zombie-like monster teddy bear rampaging through the city collecting power-ups while crazy hang-gliding ninjas try and stop him. Members Joseph Cunanan, Carlos Nazareno and John Tiangco took home their Intel Core 2 Quad machines as their prizes. They beat out 13 other competitors from various colleges for the win.

Full Article: http://blogs.inquirer.net/hackenslash/2008/03/13/fuchikoma-bags-win/

Death Puck

Put simply, Death Puck is Air Hockey with a weird attitude laid over blood and gore. And if that wasn't good enough for you; it's actually a highly entertaining game.

The essentially game premise is real simple; score 15 points against your opponent by smashing the puck past him with your paddle on what the game refers to as "the table of honour", but what everyone else in the world refers to as "the air hockey table".

First to 15 wins. Simple and boring right? Na-ah.

Death Puck takes it a lot further than that. For starters the game has various modes; 'Tournament' in which you face all of the preset characters (one of whom for reasons best known to the developer is 'Joe Stalin'...), 'Quick Match' mode in which you can choose which opponent how many points the game will last and on which table you will play it, 'Survival Mode' in which you see how many opponents you can beat with just 15 points allowed to be scored against you and 'Streak Mode' (or "moding of the streak" as the game sound effects call it) in which you see how many opponents you can beat in a row.

'Jack' proceeds to thrash me. That's right, that's blood splattered against the screen.

On top of the modes Death Puck has incorporated various player 'special moves', executed using mouse button combinations during the game (when your "power bar" reaches full); you can use a 'super shot' or make the opponent paddle shrink; apparently there are more but I am yet to find them! Don't think this gives you too much of an advantage, the AI have special moves of their own; which are equally annoying and great at the same time - the table shaker (the Sam character) and Stalins, puck shot (which sends the puck hurtling at your face...) are in particular effective.

There is also an option to turn the table "3D" but I didn't have any 3D glasses so I couldn't test that out correctly. I am assuming it works to some extent given the nature of the game.

The Death Puck cast and table designs on the 'Quick Match' Screen.

Deathpuck looks great - a bit weird, but great none the less. From the intro to the menu's and the table designs (which are somewhat random) it really has a stylish feel to it. It's a rare Indie game that looks this nice for such a simple premise. We like that. It sounds pretty good too - a bizarre electro techno feel to the in game music. Someone thought about this game. A lot. Just check out the advert for the game.

As for the game play, rarely do I scream "TAKE THAT YOU F***ER!" at a computer game, but Death Puck had me shouting abuse at pixels. It's highly entertaining - no doubt.

Summary

A highly entertaining air hockey sim with blood, general gore, special moves and style.

Where Can I Get It?

http://www.lucifergamestudio.com/deathpuck/

SGR Rating


85%

Shareware on the iPhone?

With Apple’s introduction of an iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) last week, it seems everyone and their brother is hopping on the iPhone bandwagon or considering the jump. There are still some issues about software distribution to be worked through, however—particularly when it comes to shareware.

Just to recap last week’s happenings, Apple plans a June release for the iPhone 2.0 software, which will include new features and capabilities including an App Store—a way for users to buy and download software for their iPhone. With the possible exception of enterprise users downloading software needed by their companies, this will be the one way for iPhone users to get legitimate software for their system.

Full Article: http://www.macworld.com/article/132455/2008/03/shareware.html

Stars!

Without a doubt Stars! is one of the best strategy/empire building games I have ever played - despite the fact I remember playing it as far back as 1996!

The basic premise of the game picks up where a lot of Empire Building games (like C-Evo) seem to end; you have just achieved the ability to colonise other worlds - you start the game with an unmanned probe and a colony ship commanded by a race of your own design - with pro's and con's according to what traits you choose (examples of which are "Inner Strength", "War Monger" and my person favorite "Space Demolitions"). It is then your duty to colonise other worlds, research technology to aid you in this noble quest, build up a trade infrastructure and build fleets of custom designed warships and planetary defenses to protect your newly forged empire against the rampant AI - which have amusing sci-fi satirical names; such as the Turlindrones and the Kirks.

Stars! is highly customisable; you can set the "win parameters" to be many things; colonise 100% of all planets, wipe out all other races - there is a great degree of customizability within Stars! right from get go up through to actual combat. Every aspect of the game can be altered from map size to planet and player positioning criteria - you can even create "Battle Plans" for your combat units to refer to when engaging specific enemy targets. You can also set the difficulty (easy, medium and impossible effectively) and traits of the AI; some "hyper expand" some hide within small but well defended Empires - some wander around rather aimlessly. You have to get to know your enemy within each individual game. Hardcore stuff.

One of my ship designs, I called it a Battlestar, you see what I did there?

Stars! features some of the most strategic in depth game play I've ever be drawn in by; wars can last weeks playing a few hours a day, and long term battle plans have to reflect this. But at no time does it ever feel 'forced'. You plan because you need to, and the planning remains just as enjoyable as the final alien annihilating big push.

You can also play it with friends via email.

So, this game sounds great huh? Well, there are two problems. The first, it looks like this:

Fear my Empire... That's the bits behind the blue lines and er... blue dots.

Second of all, it's almost impossible to find on-line for download. Indeed after writing this review we couldn't find a link for it at all... Doh.

Summary

Fantastic game.

Where Can I Get It?

We can't find a download site online, but drop us an email and we might be able to send you the original shareware version.

SGR Rating


95%

Welcome to the SGR

This is the first news post, on the first day of this the SGR site being live - so hi there to anyone that may be reading this, we're glad to be here, we've been planning this a little while now. We hope you like it.

This site exists because we couldn't find another one like it - no other site out there exclusively reviews shareware titles, indeed, no site we could find seriously reviewed shareware titles at all - and being a group of hairy palmed shareware fanatics we thought it our duty to change that as soon as possible and bring everything we know and love about PC shareware games, old and new, to the rest of the internet!

The first question on your lips is; "What do we define as shareware?"

Traditionally shareware was a free to copy free to own pay for if you feel like it kinda deal. Things have changed in the past decade, we at this site (regardless of what anyone else says) define shareware as any digitally delivered game that although might request you purchase a serial does not deal in the highly realms subscription and irrespective of copyright allows users to pass the software between them to try it out before they choose or choose not to purchase a serial and legitimise their copy of the game! That's quite a mouthfull, but you get the idea.

Digital Delivery. Free to pass on. These are the two things we stand for at SGR!

At this stage we expect to be posting a few reviews a week (there is a hell of a lot of shareware out there to get through) - and as much news on shareware games as we can dig up as and when we find it, interspliced with the odd article/rant about the gaming industry and specifically the future of shareware and independent games. We might even do some audio/video podcasts in the near future!

We hope you all enjoy the ride. Tell your friends. And don't forget that if you want to contact us the address is simply sharewaregamereview [at] hushmail.com - we could do with tips on new games, and tips on shareware related news!

Cheers,

The SGR Staff.

Wormux

Worms is one of the games I remember loving as a kid. The original game that is; the original original one on the Amiga where you could draw your own maps in 'Deluxe Paint'. Wormux thus came as a bit of disappointment to me.

Why? It's buggy - it crashed a few times just as I was getting into it. Additionally you can't make your own teams! One of the best parts of the original was naming your opposition after people you didn't like! Why not have that option in this rehash? Wormux to me also manages to somehow be considerably less responsive than the 16bit Amiga version of the original game - it's a tad clunky and I can't work out why.

It looks great... :/

The upsides? It looks great. It sounds great. They've gone to a lot of trouble to make it look really pretty, and you have to acknowledge it. It's very stylised and I do like that in a game.

Summary

If you liked worms a lot you will like this a bit. If you don't know what worms is you might like it just that little bit more, a playable, very pretty little game you can run in a window.

Where Can I Get It?

http://www.wormux.org

SGR Rating


60%

Stunt Playground

I am not a massive fan of 'motor sport' games but I do like breaking things - at speed if possible. Baring that in mind I think Stunt Playground is a fine little game. It does exactly what the title suggests; stunts in a playground of your own devising.

Put simply there are a number of preset arenas and a number of vehicles (eight in total if you count the bus, which you shouldn't) to choose from including a MONSTER TRUCK - which is always a bonus. The object, as such, of the game is to drive round the arena and make the vehicle do cool things/crash/land safely. Whatever floats your boat. You can also record 15 second clips of these antics to share with your friends. Like this one...

That's right. I can drive and everything.

There is a whole lot a really board person could potentially do with this game, and in small doses it is quite amusing. The ability to build and then save out arena's is probably the thing that'll get people to come back again and again. And the stupid crashes of course.

Monster Trucks are AWESOME. Fact. Flying Monster Trucks... doubly so.

Summary

Making cars do retarded things your thing? Look no further.

Where Can I Get It?

http://walaber.com/index.php?action=showitem&id=7

SGR Rating


70%

Regnum Online

Let me start this review with a simple statement. Regnum Online is a rare rare thing; an MMO, indeed a MMORPG which is a) free and b) not shit.

The basic gist of the game is familiar, you play a either an 'Archer' a 'Mage' or a 'Warrior', you can complete quests, train new skills, progress in levels and generally become all round bad ass. There are also the customary selection of races; Elves, Dwarfs etc etc, some of which are specific the three kingdoms which make up the game map along side, and here is where it gets interesting, the "No Mans Land" between them.

It's here that Regnum becomes more than just another Online RPG and something of a "Kingdom Death Match" game. You see, you can't kill players from your own selected kingdom. You must instead rage vicious and largely Spanish (the primary language of the game) cyber war on the other two kingdoms in the no mans land. You can capture forts and the like in the no mans land but the basic rule is that no one controls it - it's a 24/7 medieval capture the flag game. This is something I like a lot.

The usual suspects... apart from the goat thing. We dunno what that is.

There game has other features; including some content you can pay for (notably Horses need to be hired with featured game credit - you never 'need' a horse, they just make moving from A-B somewhat quicker) and what I consider to be a very nice atmosphere.

The game interface is also pretty spiffing.

Summary

A good free online game. Has the feel of something you'd have paid for a few years back. Nice people, albeit largely populated by Spanish speakers. Great fun without the time and investment needed by a lot of RPG games these days.

Where Can I Get It?

http://www.regnumonline.com.ar/index.php?l=1&sec=6

SGR Rating


81%

C-Evo

C-Evo is billed quite simply as a freeware empire building game for Windows. In my opinion that sells it somewhat short. This is a great game.

As with other empire building games you start with a small settlement and some eager manly outdoors types willing to go and make you another one. You improve your technology and eventually progress to "space travel and the colonisation of other planets" which is the eventual goal of this game.

There is a wide variety of technology to be developed and explored - I am pretty sure I had steam powered nuclear attack cruisers at one stage in a game. On top of this there are a number of political systems to implement - each with their own pro's and con's. You can even create your own 'tribes' (including the in game graphics for them) allowing personalisation of your nation; which just adds to the longevity.

The creators of the game would probably like me to now go on and on about how great the AI is and how it "doesn't play to the player's actions" but has "it's own agenda and plays as another human player would" - I am not going to do that despite the fact that they seem to think that that's this games main 'selling point'.

If you want to win, I suggest making a starting position like this one.

Indeed I am of the opinion that the fact the computer 'plays like a human' makes the game extremely hard for a casual gamer to get on with. News flash for developers; the computer has the ability to make 45,933 (et al) choices per turn for each and every one of it's cities and units etc; most humans, can't be bothered! This life fact gives the AI somewhat of an advantage over all but the most hardcore gamer and is likely the reason that a lot of empire building games adopt the 'reactive' AI over the 'human like AI'. I digress...

Regardless of it's difficulty C-Evo is a very entertaining game. You can even make your own maps to play on; designing the geographical features of a whole world which you can then march all over with fascist boots or liberate in a girly democratic manner. It's up to you.

Summary

Great game if you like empire building. Don't get too attached though for reasons best known to the developer there is an arbitrary 3000AD time limit - you lose your empire no matter how well you are doing. Doh.

Where Can I Get It?

http://c-evo.org/

SGR Rating


85%

Battlecruiser Millenium

On the surface of it this game sounds very cool indeed. You get to fly one of a number of large 'carrier like' space vessels (this is what convinced me to give it a go in the first place - I was searching for some modern incarnation of the classic game "Carrier Command" - the fact it supposedly had Elite like qualities made it all the better) and do whatever you want in an expansive universe. You can even choose from a number of races and careers. So far, so RPG-Tastic right?

The game in actuality falls short for one primary reason; it's way too big for it's own boots. Although the concept is sound, free form roaming space combat and exploration, the actual implementation falls several light years short of it's intended target.

But bluntly; nothing happens in this game.

Sure you can fly to a planet, spend some time convincing the somewhat over complex and fiddly interface you want to take a shuttle down to the planet, then convince the shuttle to let you deploy a tank, then drive around a bit... in the nothing. But nothing ladies and gents, is still nothing. I spent 45 minutes flying from one part of an empty planet to another. Why? I have no idea. I think in my total of eight hours playing the game (and willing it to be good) I came across one spawn of "enemy". That is not a good use of my game playing time really when I could be fragging badguys left right and center (strategically or otherwise) on any number of other similar games where, and this is the kicker; ACTION ISN'T AN AFTERTHOUGHT!

A Satallite Dish... in the middle of the expansive nothing that is this game.

I'd dearly love to be able to say that this game is great. But it just isn't. It should have been. Perhaps it was just several years too late? It's really hard to tell. Either way...

Summary

If you enjoy wasting time on a massive game, with no game satisfaction what-so-ever, give it a pop - doesn't sound like you? Don't bother. It looks pretty enough and runs well; it's just a pity there is no game to actually play.

Where Can I Get It?

http://www.3000ad.com/downloads/bcm.shtml

SGR Rating


35%