There are two ways advertisers are getting involved in mobile gaming. The first is by placing ads in and around games, through partnerships with the likes of Hovr and Greystripe.
The second is by commissioning rubbish advergames that slap a company's logo or branding elements on top of an existing puzzler. Sadly, Dr Pepper's new iPhone game
Matchcaps falls into the latter category.
It's basically
Bejeweled, except instead of matching gems in groups of three or more, you're matching circular logo thingies. The game's been designed to run on the iPhone's Safari browser, rather than as a download. That means that if you've got an iPod touch, you can play it, too.
But really, how is this kind of thing expected to boost the Dr Pepper brand among gamers?
Bejeweled is several years old on mobile, yet has more features, a progressive scoring system, and even looks better.
Still, if you've got an iPhone or iPod touch and want to check it out for yourself, head to
www.drpepper.com/matchcaps and see if you think we're being unfair.
