The island of Ibiza requires little introduction. The hedonistic holiday home of hard-partying clubbers has achieved near legendary status for its 24/7 music, booze and drug-fuelled antics, not to mention an, erm, relaxed attitude to romance.
We've already had countless albums, club nights and reality TV shows dedicated to the island, but now it has landed its own mobile game too, in
Ibiza 2006.
Well actually, this isn't the first phone outing for the party island. That honour belongs to last year's
Ministry of Sound: Ibiza, a
New York Nights style romance-em-up created by Kato Studios (whom you might remember from the
Capoeira and
Maradona games) and published by THQ Wireless.
Ibiza 2006 is in essence the sequel to that title – yet although it's also developed by Kato games and is set on the same Balaeric island, pretty much everything else has changed, including the ditching of THQ Wireless as publisher. There's no Ministry of Sound involvement either.
More interestingly, there's a brand new graphical style, marking a vast departure from the original and indeed just about any other mobile game we've seen (aside perhaps from Telcogames'
Another World).
The gameplay promises to be equally distinctive, featuring a story-sequence interspersed with five mini casual games, each representing an element of the player's adventure on the island. Hence you'll need to dress to kill, fix a cocktail, perform a sensual dance, drive the masses wild with top tunes and use your PR skills to work the crowds if you're going to join the island's fashionistas.
With up to ten levels for each of the five mini games, it's certainly an appealing cocktail on paper, although whether
Ibiza 2006 can live up to Kato's billing as The Game of the Summer remains to be seen.
We're already up all night trying to get through a coach load of new mobile games, but we'll try to keep a few evenings free for a trip to Ibiza.
