Russian mobile game publisher comes in out of the cold

As Pocket Gamer's global expansion continues, we're brought into contact with a raft of new game publishers and developers from far flung lands. And today the spotlight falls on Russia, from where publisher Q-Plaze plans to launch a veritable cornucopia of new titles this summer.

First out of the blocks is an apparently 'long-awaited' sequel to roleplaying adventure game Age of Heroes (it's not exactly long awaited by us since we haven't played the original, but we'll take their word for it this once).

Age of Heroes II: Underground Horror does not, as you might expect, take place on the Northern Line, but in a far away fantasy land where a necromancer Ortega (that's you) must unite heroes and raise the dead to help the, deep breath, Gnomes, fight off the forces of darkness.

With two worlds of quests and battles to explore and 20 levels of character development, the game at least promises to occupy pocket gamers for longer than a copy of Metro. Whether it's a worthy challenger for Glu's Ancient Empires 2 strategy crown willl be revealed just as soon as we get our test copy in.

Whilst playing as a 'good' necromancer might seem to go against the grain, there's a rather more familiar hero (albeit an unlikely Russian one) in AliBaba and the scary Dev (no we're not sure what a 'Dev' is – a crazed mobile developer, maybe?).

This colourful-looking platform game seeking to compete with the likes of Prince of Persia is based upon an Arabian thief, who has to use his agility and magic carpet to evade obstacles, enemies, and Disney lawyers en route to rescuing his princess.

AliBaba and the scary Dev boasts nine levels, lots of different enemies to dispatch (including vultures, statues and merchants) and an equally wide selection of combat moves (there's 270 animation frames in there).

Last, but by no means least, Real Soccer 2006 – World League Cup is based on some football tournament or other and offers some interesting new features such as a proper one-two pass system, the ability to save classic goals to replay later to friends, and an option to change the game length mid-match.

All the usual options like team formations and tactics are apparently present and correct too, along with tournament, friendly and quick game modes. QME also confidently boasts about the quality of the in-game AI.

With the three titles above set for release anytime now and a host of other titles in development (Alien Nations, Age of Pirates, 3D Mystic Ways, 3D Towers of Maya and the prosaic-sounding 3D Karmasutra), we can expect to hear more from the Russians later this year.

Of course, we'll want to play a few before deciding if that's a good or bad thing. Watch this space.