Here it is, my most dreaded post for a long time. God knows how many times I told Ricky “I will write the 3 Astraware game reviews” and how many times I actually sat down to write them but gave up because I was being too harsh, which is something I don’t like. But I finally thought that if I’m not harsh then I’m being dishonest, which is something I am not.
Any regular reader of Symbian-Guru knows by now how excited I was about Astraware joining Symbian developers and producing games for S60 and UIQ, and how impressed I was with their first 2 releases: Boardgames (read review) and HE: Titanic (read review). The problem is that I can’t say the same about their 3 following games Solitaire, Westward and Big Box of Blox. See, while Boardgames and HE: Titanic were perfectly adapted to S60 and easily controlled by the d-pad; the 3 newer games seem to have just been ported from Windows Mobile or Palm OS with no effort to improve the experience. I think this is due to the fact that Astraware aren’t coding the games, but handing their codes to Handmark who are simply porting them. Handmark is simply the parent company, and has no input on the actual coding of the games for Astraware.
How does this translate in the games? Well, the details are almost invisible on the smaller S60 device screen, the games are a total PIA to handle with the D-pad since they were built for touchscreen handsets in mind, and the overall user experience is a big FAIL. So if in the past I recommended buying Boardgames and HE:Titanic, I’m afraid I can’t say the same about these 3 games, and here is why.
Astraware Solitaire
Astraware Solitaire offers 12 different games in a UI very similar to that of Astraware Boardgames. This is one of the reasons I was excited about it when I first tried it. But as it turns out, there’s a toolbar at the top of each game that you can’t remove nor access on S60 (maybe you can on UIQ): 1st letdown. The second letdown came from the lack of consistency in button presses and the somewhat counter-intuitive handling of the D-pad: sometimes you press down and it doesn’t go down, you press right and it goes down, like in Pyramid.
As a great comparison, I would love if Astraware took a look at Top Hits Solitaire, a game that comes for free on the E71 and E66: there’s an option called “Show Key Tips” that allows you to control each card by pressing the number shown on it, it works like a charm and allows you to play the game really fast. Granted, Astraware’s offering has a huge array of options and settings that will please casual gamers as well as advanced players, and I think the game would’ve rocked on a touchscreen but with a D-pad, it’s like meh. I would definitely recommend Top Hits Solitaire over it, as it has better controls and much nicer gameplay, offers more games and costs 25% less.
Astraware Solitaire on the left, Top Hits Solitaire on the right.
Big Box Of Blox
Big Box of Blox is a Columns-inspired game which was fully reviewed by Ewan Spence at AllAboutSymbian a while ago. Ewan nailed the problems with it pretty well: the blocks detail is very small and you need a lot of concentration on the small screen to be able to play it, also the game gets really tough really fast which means that it’s almost impossible to make any game last more than 2 minutes. If you always find yourself losing quickly matter how hard you try, then the game loses its appeal. Another problem with Big Box of Blox is that usually any Columns board is tight but tall (see here for example), but the board on Big Box of Blox has Tetris-like dimensions (not very tight, not very tall), which contributes a lot to the difficulty level of the game.
I was very excited about Big Box of Blox since it’s the first Columns game for S60 3rd Edition and I have been a fan since 2000 when I bought my first computer and it had the game on. If Astraware releases an update to Big Box of Blox, correcting these 3 problems, then I would instantly recommend it, as they have a real winner on their hand: there are many game modes with lots of quirks, each game features lots of options, and it’s fun to play.
Westward
Now how in the hell did Astraware release Westward for S60 3rd, I don’t understand! The game is impossible to play without a touchscreen, it’s hard to scroll around the screen with the D-pad, some functions take ages to reach, and you need tons of dedication if you want to play this one for a long time. Also if you decide to take a couple of days off and come back, then there are some things that you forget how to do, and the Help menu doesn’t really help (pun intended) you remember those. All tips and tutorials that appear the first time you play SHOULD be accessible all the time, so that you can still pick up the game a few months later and play it again without a problem.
As you must have noticed, almost all problems with these games would be solved if they were played on a bigger touchscreen. I know that Astraware has a lot of beta testers, but I really wonder how no one raised the fact that these games are almost un-playable on S60. I wish if the developing team took a moment and saw how the games are handled on S60 handsets and released updates and improvements, especially to the gameplay. Everything else is perfect, the usual Astraware quality, but if gameplay isn’t up to par, then the whole experience is ruined.
