Ivy The Kiwi?: The First Proper Game For Windows Phones?

By Benedict Wee

Windows Mobile 6.5 is far from the revolutionary mobile operating system we've come to expect, especially when compared to Google's Android or the iPhone, but that isn't stopping Japanese mobile game developer PROPE from creating a stunningly beautiful puzzle-platformer starring our very own mascot.

In Ivy the Kiwi? you help a lost kiwi chick find her way home by drawing vines along its path to help it climb out of holes, avoid predators and in certain cases, launch into breakable walls. There are 50 stages in total to complete with an online ranking board to compare high scores.

Perhaps this might be the game that will help Windows Phones get a foothold in the mobile OS wars but nothing is standing in the way of the game coming to the other smartphones in the market and to handhelds like the DSi and PSP via downloadable content.

Ivy the Kiwi? gets released in December on the Windows Marketplace but there's currently no exact date nor price for the game.

Video Game Preview - Half-Minute Hero

By Benedict Wee

Platform: Sony PSP

Genre: Action/Puzzle /RPG

For: Anyone who loves fantasy role-playing action games but do not have enough time for them. Also people with ADD.

Set in an old-school 8bit fantasy universe, Half-Minute Hero puts you into your usual role-playing stereotypes tasked with the all too familiar burden of saving the world. Players get to encompass different roles to complete various missions such as a warrior who fights monsters, a dark lord who summons demons, a princess (with an army) that shoots arrows and a knight/mage duo who explore dungeons.

What sets them apart from your cliched action/role-playing fantasy game is that each mission is given a severely limited amount of time to complete. 30 seconds to be exact. The time constraint gives the game a puzzle-like feature which will see you zooming from place to place in desperate attempts to find the quickest way to finish the mission.

Half-Minute Hero will allow people with busy schedules to squeeze in a couple of minutes of game-time into their lives and the 8bit-style graphics gives the game a nostalgic feel, which is appropriate as aforementioned busy people are probably working adults who've played similar looking games when they were younger.

The game gets released in the US on October 30th.

Video Game Preview - Scribblenauts: Best Handheld Game Evar!

By Benedict Wee

With major game announcements such as Halo 3 ODST for the Xbox 360, God of War 3 for the Playstation 3 and Metroid: Other M for the Wii it is easy to forget that a good game is not based on its blockbuster title but rather the creative streak and intuitive gameplay that got them popular in the first place.

Enter Scribblenauts; an emergent puzzle action game for the Nintendo DS by the developer 5th Cell who brought us innovative games like Drawn to Life and Lock's Quest. The game casts you as Maxwell who is tasked with collecting items called "Starites" by solving puzzles. What's unique about the game is that you solve puzzles by writing words on the bottom touchscreen of the DS.

Say for example a Starite is up in a tree. You can write the word "Ladder" and a ladder will appear for Max to climb the tree. Or you can input "Beaver" and a beaver will appear to cut the tree down making it easier to retrieve the Starite. The only limit of ways to solve the puzzles is your imagination.

Video Games | Scribblenauts | E3 09: Developer Walkthrough

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

The game's release date is September for the United States.