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Imperial Ace launches on BenQ Siemens EF81 mobile

Embedded game offers disturbingly forceful vision – is this the game you're looking for?

Imperial Ace launches on BenQ Siemens EF81 mobile

Gathering together all the compatible phone information for a given mobile game is a bit like trying to hunt down every last rebel base. There are hundreds of handsets in circulation in the UK alone, with at least one new model being added a day.

The game publishers themselves struggle to keep on top of it all, so you can imagine it's a tricky business for us. But the compatibility list for THQ Wireless' Imperial Ace isn't going to stretch us too greatly. There's the BenQ Siemens EF81 and, erm, that's it.

Although a wider roll-out of a Java version is likely later in the year, for now this is an embedded game purposefully built to show off the capabilities of the handset. As such it benefits from being able to be far larger in size than normal files (which have to be delivered over the phone network) as well as being able to focus on just one handset, with its specific technical strengths and controls.

In other words, it should be more impressive than Yoda with a light sabre – and from the pictures we've seen that's exactly how it's looking.

As we original reported back in May, the game puts you in the seat of an Imperial pilot charged with scouring the galaxy in various ships to do the bidding of a certain Lord Vader – for example wipe out rebel troops, speak in a deep voice and behave in a generally anti-social way.

With 3D visuals depicting tense dogfighting action straight from the original movie and cut-scenes featuring some of the most famous film villains, Imperial Ace looks likely to live up its name. You can enlist yourself in the action right now by getting to grips with a new EF81, which launched earlier this week.

Those of you who are still not convinced (and rest assured, THQ Wireless finds your lack of faith disturbing) might want to hang on for reviews of both game and handset, which will be winging their way to you just as soon as we can get shot of this pesky Red 5 fella.

Click 'Track It!' to play wingman and get the heads up when we do.

Chris James
Chris James
A footy game fanatic and experienced editor of numerous computing and game titles, bossman Chris is up for anything – including running Steel Media (the madman).