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Hands on with NTT DoCoMo's 'Chokkan' motion-sensing mobile games

Bowling and racing with the phones that think they're Wii controllers

by Stuart Dredge

Motion-sensing is big news in the console world, thanks to Nintendo's Wiimote and Sony's Sixaxis controllers. But in Japan, it's also a hot new feature for mobile games.

Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo has launched a range of what it calls Chokkan games (it's the Japanese word for 'intuitive').

So far, three phones run the games: the Mitsubishi D904i, Panasonic P904i and Sharp SH904i. They don't all use the same motion-sensing technology, mind. The D904i uses an internal gyrosensor, while the others rely on technology from GestureTek to use the camera to calculate the handset's motion.

But the important thing is the games. I had a go on two. The first was a bowling game, which is basically a mobile version of Wii Sports' bowling mini-game. You hold down the Select button on the phone, swing it like you were bowling a ball, and release the button (then, obviously, pull the phone up to see how you did).

Here's a video demonstration from the helpful guide at NTT DoCoMo's demo centre, who saw me struggling to both bowl and film at the same time, and stepped in:

The other game I played was a new version of Sega's classic motorbike racing game, Hang-On, where you steer your bike by tilting the phone. It works really well, and would certainly be less embarrassing to play on the train than the bowling title. Here's a video of me trying it out (this kind of tilting gameplay is easier one-handed):

It's not just these two, of course. There are loads of Chokkan games coming out. There's Instinct Alcanoid (Breakout), Instinct Tennis (a 3D Wii Sports Tennis-style game), Instinct Boxing (likewise), Shake Shake Instinct Dancing (a Dance Dance Revolution-influenced game where you wave your finger to make your character boogie), and Aerobatic Hero (a 3D flight sim), to name just a few.

In total, well over 50 titles supporting the technology are coming. The P904i even has a preloaded game that's basically a Katamari-style roll-'em-up, although I didn't get to play that.

Sure, motion sensing sounds like a silly novelty when it comes to mobile games, as your first thought is inevitably of Wii-style all-action games where you leap about. Although there will be some of those, there are many more instances where motion sensing can be a useful, innovative and subtle (if crucial) part of the gameplay.

So what about us Europeans, then? Well, Sony Ericsson is shortly to release a motion-sensing phone, with a big-name racer preloaded to take advantage of the technology (we'll tell you which one as soon as we're allowed to). But that's just one model. Having played with NTT DoCoMo's take on the technology, I sincerely hope more western manufacturers and game publishers follow suit as soon as possible.