MOBILE GAME REVIEW
Torino 2006Is the official mobile phone game of the Winter Olympics a winner? |
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The Winter Olympics are like the less successful brother or sister of the Summer games – the younger sibling that must sit quietly in the background while the older one recounts tales of derring-do, business success or personal conquest to the smiles, rapt gazes and nods of their proud relatives. It's a trying position to be caught in, and anyone who knows exactly what we're talking about has our sympathies.
It's also why we were avidly rooting for the Torino 2006 mobile phone game. We're enjoying the Winter Olympics coverage on the Beeb right now, soaking up the atmosphere of a sporting event not overblown with hype and egos. How perfect it would be to experience a similar vibe on our mobile phones in those spare few minutes before the ice hockey finals.
Well, we were not disappointed. Step up to the podium, Torino 2006 – you're in contention for a medal.
Comprising four events from the Winter Olympics, Torino 2006 enables you to do your country proud in downhill skiing, curling, the ski jump and two-man bobsleigh. Each one can be played as a one-off event in the game's training mode, or as a full-on competition, in which you perform in each event, one after the other, and build up a cumulative score.
Not surprisingly, it's the competition mode that provides the most satisfying challenge: with the exception of the curling, the events are quite shallow when taken on their own merits. The downhill skiing, for example, lasts just under three minutes, and there's just the one route and setting in which to compete. It's also the easiest of the four events in the game; you'll nail a gold medal on your second or third try, and it has very little replay value on its own. In contrast, skiing as the first event in the competition mode sees you working hard to shave seconds off your previous best in order to start building your cumulative score. It's a similar story with the bobsleigh and ski jump, the two hardest events to master; once you've got the hang of them, it's their importance in the bigger picture of your competition score that keeps them interesting.
Still, these events have limited appeal once you've nailed the technique, even when competing with up to three friends by passing the handset back and forth between you to take turns.
Like the 2002 Winter Olympics from Salt Lake (where the British women's team won gold), it's curling that's the real surprise here. Curling is the one event in Torino 2006 that bears repeated play on its own, particularly when you're facing off against a friend. The controls are simple: you pick the direction you want the stone to go in, how much curve (the 'curling' part) to put on, and how hard to push it. Taking it in turns, you and your opponent have four stones to use to try to get closer to the centre than the other and, while it's undoubtedly slow-paced, it's unbelievably gripping thanks to its chess-like tactics and strategy.
It's a revelation, and strong enough reason for us to recommend buying Torino 2006 for the curling and that alone. While the other three events are fun in the short term, they quickly out stay their welcome – leaving the curling to lift Torino 2006 into first and Pocket Gamer gold.
Torino 2006 |
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Saved by a sterling curling performance, Torino 2006 earns a place at the top of the podium
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Joined:
Oct 2007
Post count:
2
The developer of this game is not I-Play, it's Humagade.
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