Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Review Conditions

SPB Quads was installed on two devices, a Nokia 5800 XPressMusic, an S60 5th edition device with Symbian OS 9.4.

Installation

Installation is simply via the Nokia Application Installer available in the Nokia PC Suite.

First View

Realizing the potential of the Quadronica, which is one of the brain training modules in SPB Brain Evolution, SPB has created an entire new game SPB Quads, based on the same theme. Lets check it out.

Game Play

SPB Quads is a classic arcade game, with multiple levels, that rapidly increase in complexity.

The entire screen is filled with 600 tiny cubes of various colors. The objective of the game is simple – collapse rectangles with four corner cubes of the same color and gain points. You get more points if you collapse larger rectangles. When you are racing against time to collapse as many rectangles as possible before the countdown completes, the adrenalin increases to great levels and it makes for addictive gaming.

Bonus points can be gained with six different types of bonuses – Item Freeze, Atom Bomb, X2, Dynamite, Time Freeze and Eye bonus.

The game offers two modes – Ever Mode which is the endless strategic and Time Mode which is time limited.

Rectangles can be collapsed by touching the opposite corner cubes or 3 out of the 4 corners.

Graphics and Animation

Quads comes with great animation. The cubes on the game screen have a three dimensional effect and the rectangles collapse with a blast towards the bottom of the screen. The bonuses are all animated to attracted. If you don’t pick a rectangle for a few seconds, Quads help you by pointing to a rectangle.

Music Score and Sound Effects

Pulsating music plays in the background as game sound effects for collapsed rectangles and bonus points add to the overall sound effect. There is no complaining in this department.

Interface

Here’s another example of how the menu driven UI model of S60 can be avoided to create an excellent user experience and navigation. I thoroughly enjoyed playing SPB Quads.

The game is both finger friendly and stylus friendly. I had no problems using both forms of input.

The interface to enter your name gives a weird keyboard that makes you search for various alphabets and numbers. It could have been the qwerty keyboard for ease of use and familiarity.

Publishing scores online

The curiosity of finding out how good you are, not just among your friends but anyone who has played SPQ Quads, on any platform, all over the world cannot be avoided. SPB maintains a database with all the highest scores where you can check and publish your scores. There are quite a few maniacs out there with scores that are phenomenal.

Weaknesses

SPB Quads doesn’t allow multiple logins to be created. When you finish playing, you can pick a user name and upload the highest score. It would have been great if you can set a user name before you begin and have multiple use names.

Conclusion

With uncomplicated but engaging game play SPB Quads is good stuff and I’ll give it 4 of 5. SPB Quads can be downloaded here for $9.95.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Review Conditions

PeeMonkey Toilet Trainer was installed on a Nokia 5800, a Symbian 9.4, S60 5th edition device.

Installation

Installation is via the Ovi Store. Just select the URL, that is sent to the mobile from the Ovi Store via SMS, and installation begins.

First Look

With over one million downloads in the iTunes Store in 2009, PeeMonkey Toilet Trainer from happylatte and Beiz Ltd comes with a huge reputation to the Symbian S60 platform. Lets see how it goes.

Game Play

PeeMonkey has a simple goal for the Toilet Trainer. A monkey with an unstoppable bladder is sitting on a slippery cake of soap is trying to pee into the toilet. But the slippery soap is making him slide back and forth the wall as he is peeing all over. Your goal is to make sure the monkey pees into the toilet. A watermark indicates how much longer you can train the monkey.

With a simple plot, the game keeps interest levels high as you play longer, by making it more difficult to direct the peeing into the toilet. The peeing speed is measured in km/h. When the game starts, the monkey pees at 1 km/h and the speed increases constantly. I could go upto 30 km/h after which the watermark is breached.

Scores at the end of a game can be submitted to the online database. There are some unbelievable scores out there. But unfortunately, I couldn’t submit my score because every time I clicked submit, the application got killed.

Graphics and animation

There is little scope for great graphics or animation but the little animation of the water level or the pee flow is quite realistic.

Music Score & Sound Effects

Only a single track is used in the background during the game but then the duration of each game doesn’t go beyond a few minutes so it doesn’t get boring to listen to it all the time. There is no option to disable  sounds, so keep it low when you play in a crowded place.

Interface

PeeMonkey can only be played in the landscape mode. The application automatically rotates to the landscape mode and doesn’t throw an error if you go back to landscape mode. I have seen other games like SIMS3 that can only be played in the portrait mode and will throw a warning if you accidentally go to the landscape mode. All game operations is using the built in accelerometer on the Nokia 5800.

Conclusion

With a game play that simple but engaging, PeeMonkey Toilet Trainer is a great time killer when you are on a long commute or waiting in a line.  I hope the bug in the submit is solved soon.

For just 3 Euro, PeeMonkey Toilet Trainer  is great bargain and can be downloaded at the Ovi Store. Its good stuff and I’ll give it 4 of 5.