Three years back whenever someone mentioned “mobile phone gaming”, the usual instant thought that came into my mind was “inferior” and “simple” games. I had my fair share of games that looked and played like they were made for kids. Things have changed with the advent of MIDP 2.0, stunning graphics and “true” background music. From Ozura’s treasure trove of mobile games, I bring you Antopia: The Beginning and The Duel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Antopia: The Beginning

Antopia is not your usual puzzle game. A background story accompanies this game where the Queen of Ants charged her royal courts to search for the fabled Antopia (similar to our Utopia).

 

You play as one of these peopl-err, ants, in search of the lost land. Being one of the more experienced ants, you are placed to get your team and yourself out of the comfort of your ant nest.

 

To do this, you are required to stack your army of ant troopers one above the other to reach the top to get to the next level. Sounds simple? If you take into account there are points to gather at different arches away from your stack, catching scarce droplets of water to replenish your depleting life bar and losing a try each time you fling your ant army to the stack but missed, you’ll be in for quite a challenge my friends! There are more ways than one to stack your ants - you can stack the “ant tower” leaning to the utmost left or right and it still won’t fall. My advice: strategise wisely if you intend to get all the leaves for more points…

 

If you manage to get to the top, congratulations to you, but the challenge is far from over. At the top of each level, you’ll encounter a boss fight: a gigantic spider (well, gigantic to ants anyway) blocks your path, preventing you from continuing your expedition. Luckily, the fight is simple enough: avoid the acid/poison the spider’s spitting at you, wait till it attacks and when the spider’s withdrawing itself back to its web, go directly under it and press the jump button to counter attack. With enough hits, the spider will soon keel over. But remember to watch your health bar!

 

The Duel

 

The Duel is a chess game of sorts, but don’t let this game fool you into thinking “serious”, “boring”, or even “bland”. The Duel is none of the above!

 

You start off with 12 pieces on your side on the chess board with three varieties of fighters - street brawler, monk and martial arts master distinguished by their colours and outlook. In essence, they represent “paper”, “rock” and “scissors”. Yes, The Duel is a stylish version of that particular kid’s game. It’s back in a fun and engaging mobile game form. Talk about sentimental!

 

Basically, it wouldn’t be fun if you knew what fighters your opponents yield as they move forward, hence each rival fighter is concealed behind a straw hat and cloak. They are only revealed after you attack them or vice versa.

Board movements aren’t restricted - you can move forward, backwards and sideways, each side taking one step at a time at each turn. Attacks are accessible from all four sides mentioned.

 

During attacks, a short animated combat clip slides across the screen. In the advent your fighter and your rival piece share the same attack (e.g. scissors versus scissors), both you and the AI get to exchange the current piece to another fighter or choose to remain the same. This goes on until either side wins the one-toone combat. The winning piece will retain the selected fighter.

 

At the start, you get to shuffle your chess pieces around for a maximum of three times, after which you are to select your “king”. Like the traditional chess games, the winner will be determined by the extermination of their rival’s “king”.

 

Personally, I’m captivated by The Duel’s simple yet strategic gameplay. The colours, characters and combat sequence are made in anime-style, which adds to the game’s endearing draw.

Both these games are available from the game publisher’s site at www.ozura.com. Till the next time, happy mobile gaming!