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Particle
.: By:
Corn Bread :: Device
used: iPAQ
H3650 :: February 14, 2002 :.
Update (February 16):
Note from the developer: "Here's a little known fact
about the game. If you get bored of the music files that I supplied with it, you
can take "almost" any .MOD file and throw it in the same directory as the game,
and it'll be played."
Original review:
Another day, another puzzle game to review.
There seems to be an endless barrage of puzzle games for the Pocket PC; some are
worth playing while some are boring as heck.
Particle has arrived and, as much as
I am tired of playing clones of popular puzzle games, I feel this game is worth
our time.
Similar to Doctor Mario, the purpose of
the game is to use dropping blocks called particles to get rid of the
atoms scattered throughout the board. You
can get rid of an atom by combining it with two particles of the same color;
particles can also be destroyed by combining 3 particles of the same color.
The
particles drop in rows of 4, with you being able to rotate them so that they are
either oriented horizontally or vertically. In addition, you can also alter the positions of the colors within a row. The
higher the level, the faster the rows of particles drop and the more atoms will
show up for you to destroy, meaning that this game isn’t exactly a walk in the park.
Fortunately, a leveller exists in the form of the Particle Cannon to
help you through those more difficult levels. As you destroy particles and atoms, the
Particle Cannon charge meter slowly fills up and, depending on the amount of
charge, you can fire it to destroy whole rows of particles and atoms.
The graphics aren't really very spectacular, looking as they do very dated,
almost like
a game made for one of the older Windows CE palm-sized PC's. The colors used in the game also
look very cheap and bland - I’ve seen Game Boy games with more attractive color
schemes! Particle won’t be winning any awards in the graphics department, that’s
for sure. Of course some may consider the graphics as having a “retro” look; if
that floats your boat, then you won’t mind the dated-looking graphics.
The animation of the falling particles looks
and feels kind of jerky, and it’s a shame that
Particle doesn’t have the smooth
movements of games such as
PsyTris and
Sunshine
Dice Palace. The special effects, on the other hand, are something worth taking note of. I love the
explosion effect used when you destroy a particle or atom. Using the
Particle Cannon to destroy rows of particles and atoms is always a sight to
behold.
The music and sound effects are mostly average, but still good enough to get
you pumped up for the game. In the settings menu, there is an option to enable
the Expander sound system. The Expander sound system is for those using
headphones, with the idea being that it gives you a richer and
fuller sound experience through the headphones than you would normally otherwise hear.
Kudos to the developer for thinking up an option like this, and I hope that more
games offer this kind of sound option in the future. The in-game volume
control is also fully featured. Whereas most other games only offer an on/off toggle for
volume, Particle has its own music and sound effect slider control so you
can adjust the level of music and effects individually.
The controls are highly customizable - you can assign any of the function commands to
the hardware keys, and there is also an option to use virtual keys that appear
on the bottom of the screen. But I would advise that you use the hardware
buttons instead of the virtual keys as it’s considerably faster and easier to use them
than the virtual ones. If you find the first few levels too easy, you can
automatically skip levels by using the difficulty level slider found in the settings
menu. There is also a well-written instruction manual to be found within the game.
Unfortunately, there is no high score chart - only the current high score is
displayed.
Particle is really another typical puzzle game in the vast sea of puzzle games
available for the Pocket PC. It's challenging enough to entertain you but doesn’t have that special “oomph!” to
really stand out from the crowd. Taking into
consideration, however, that the asking price of this game (at the time of
writing) is a mere $5 only, I suggest
you take a look at it. It's not often that we get a solid and entertaining puzzle
game for such a low price. If you’re a budget-conscious gamer or a Columns/Dr.
Mario fan, don’t hesitate to get this game. Just don’t expect to be blown away
by the graphics and animation - it does get rather boring to look at.
Particle is available for all major Pocket PC's
as well as the
Casio BE-300. It can be
installed in either the Main RAM or onto a storage card, and requires 645 KB of storage
memory. You can also get the desktop version of
Particle for $5, or you can
get both the Pocket PC (or
BE-300) and desktop version in a bundle for just $7.
Pros:
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Wide range of difficulty levels.
-
Customizable controls.
-
Enhanced sound while using headphones.
-
Sold at a very reasonable price
Cons:
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PocketGamer.org score: |
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Action Games :: Reviews
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