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EGO blends social networking and mobile games

Punch Entertainment's new title sounds super-innovative

EGO blends social networking and mobile games
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We're always keen on highlighting innovative new mobile games at Pocket Gamer, even if they're coming out in the US, since it's increasingly moving ahead of Europe in some aspects of mobile gaming - particularly connectivity.

Such is the case with EGO, a new game from Punch Entertainment. It's a social networking title using avatars, which will be playable both on phones and on the Web.

It's part of a new generation of similar connected-avatar titles. Digital Chocolate launching its AvaPeeps: Flirt Nation application in the US sometime this year, while not too long ago, we spoke to IronStar Helsinki about its game MoiPal.

Back to EGO though.

First up, you create your own EGO, which is like a virtual pet who needs to be developed by feeding and training. They can fight, play, flirt and communicate with each other, winning points to increase their level - allowing you to buy them new clothes, accessories and body features.

Punch says there'll be buddy lists, chats and the ability to blog using your EGO too. The website provides the basic version, which will be free to play, but the more advanced features will only be available in the downloadable mobile game version.

Punch is billing EGO as 'The Sims meets Facebook', and the company plans to live up to that promise by making sure there are spin-off widgets available to put on your Facebook or MySpace profile.

Available now in the US, Punch tell us they're looking for European distribution for EGO, so watch this space.

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.)