California Games
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| California Games

When you think about it, Californians are quite sporty. It's strange – if we lived on the sun-kissed west coast of the United States, we'd certainly spend our leisure time on the beach, only on our backs, turning a nice shade of lobster-red. You certainly wouldn't find us fannying about with hacky-sacks, frisbees or surfboards.

For some reason, no publisher has seen fit to release a Super Sunbathing Brits mobile game. Not yet, anyway. But Hands-On Mobile has launched California Games, a collection of mini-games all based on popular West Coast sporty pastimes.

Grizzled gamers among you may remember the game in its original incarnation on the Commodore 64 computer. But for those of you who don't, this mobile version includes six events: BMX, Flying Disc, Footbag, Surfing, Skateboarding and Rollerskating.

You can play in several different ways: You can practice an event to get your skills up to scratch, compete in single events to try and set a new high score, or take on a tournament involving all six. Besides playing alone, you can also engage in a pass-the-handset multiplayer option with up to eight of your chums.

Considering it's an old game, the graphics look fresh and bold on a phone handset, suiting the restrictions of a mobile screen well. But the game inevitably stands or falls based on how fun the different events are to play.

Surfing is the Marmite of the bunch – you'll love or hate it. We spent hours playing it in the original version, and we love it here, too. You have to build up speed, leap into the air and spin around above the waves to score maximum points. It's tricky, but rewarding.

By contrast, the skateboarding, where you're trying to do tricks on a half-pipe, is a bit annoying. More positive is the BMX mini-game, which is quite fun, although the rollerskating proves tedious. Thankfully, Flying Disc makes up for that, with you chucking a frisbee as far as you can, and then legging after it to pull off a diving catch.

Finally, Footbag sees you juggling a hacky-sack (they were all the rage when the original California Games first came out, honest. We had six of 'em!). The controls are simple, with you moving left and right, then pressing the button to head, knee or kick it depending on your position. It's probably the mini-game with the most long-term depth.

What you think of California Games will depend on whether you played the original, as this mobile version benefits from being looked at through rose-tinted spectacles. If you're fresh to it, several of the events will probably seem dull and basic. But that doesn't stop it being a classy conversion that'll please retro gamers no end.

California Games

This retro game's a bit creaky, but still fun for the most part, especially if you played the original as a kid
Score
Stuart Dredge
Stuart Dredge
Stuart is a freelance journalist and blogger who's been getting paid to write stuff since 1998. In that time, he's focused on topics ranging from Sega's Dreamcast console to robots. That's what you call versatility. (Or a short attention span.)