A few months back, I posted about eyeSight and their eyePlay Engine, aswell as their motion controlled Ninja Strike game. Since then, I've been desperately trying to get atleast Ninja Strike on my N95 8GB. Now that I have the game and I've been playing it for a while, I would like to share my opinions on the game with you in this brief review.
Ninja Strike is a game where the player becomes an apprentice travelling across Japan in an attempt to free their Sensei who has been captured by rival ninjas known as the Kurai. The player must engage in tense bouts, sometimes having to dispose of upto 20 enemies in battle.
When I opened Ninja Strike for the first time, one of the first things to hit me was the music. It sounded great on my N95 8GB and helped in creating a more enjoyable gaming experience from the beginning. It would be nice if the gap between the loop wasn't so noticeable, though.
From the main menu, it's possible to resume/start a new game, configure the game controls/sounds, view instructions in the form of text or a (rather poor) 3gp video demonstration, view the highscores and finally, view the credits.
Ninja Strike can be played in one of two ways; using the camera or simply using the buttons on the phone.
Graphics:
Well, the graphics on Ninja Strike aren't anything to sing praises about but this doesn't really affect the game. Animations are smooth and characters look crisp.
Controls:
This is what it all comes down to. The eyeplay integration is without a doubt the most unique thing about this game and I must say it works pretty well! Initially, I had trouble getting my character to fire off his Ninja Stars when I wanted them to be fired because when you're moving your hand back into standby position (by moving your hands down) it's sometimes misinterpreted as the throwing action. Once you get used to the game this becomes less and less of a problem and you'll really be able to appreciate the accuracy of eyePlay.
As I mentioned earlier, Ninja Strike can also be played using traditional methods of control. Of course this is a good addition to the game but I feel it makes it not as much fun to play.
Difficulty:
The initial levels aren't too difficult and are really there to help you to become well accustomed to the controls of the game. However, when you reach level 3 you have to start keeping a close eye on your enemies and one finger on the number 5 button to ensure that you don't die which sets the difficulty up a notch and adds to the addictiveness of the game.
Conclusion:
I'm not really into mobile gaming, I don't even have N Gage installed on my N95 8GB. Ninja Strike changes that for me though, it's something I can see myself playing when I'm bored, even after I've completed it. If there was a game like Ninja Strike available on N Gage that incorporated some sort of real time multi-player functionality, I would buy it without having to think twice.
Get this game, it's great!
Sunday, 22 June 2008
Game review: eyeSight's Ninja Strike
Friday, 20 June 2008
What? Where's Anssi?
It seems WOMWorld have been sending around the above poster, asking "Have you seen this man?" What's the meaning of all this? Is there some sort of code to crack? Is Anssi really THAT dangerous? He looks like a nice guy!
OK, one of the first things I noticed is that Anssi is infact an extra in Human Snakes, here's another shot of him:
So, have YOU seen Anssi recently? Maybe Lisbon will be Stavros' next area of focus?
Only time will tell, my friends.
UPDATE: It's a slow sunday evening and I decided to get back into detective mode and carry on with this whole Anssi adventure. It turns out Anssi Makela is a Nokia employee and is pretty well known around the blogsphere. There's also hints("you are absolutely right... but there is more which I won't reveal just yet ;) stay tuned hehehehe ") at this whole campaign from 2 months back, so this could be pretty big.
Here's some links that may be of use in our hunt for Anssi in the future:
- Anssi's Jaiku account.
- Anssi's Flickr account.
- Anssi's Qik Account.
EmTube returns!
For the past few months, emTube (arguably the best YouTube client available for S60) has been rendered useless in streaming YouTube videos. This was likely because of changes on YouTube's end but unfortunately, Sebastian seems to have dissappeared and so no new versions of emTube were created....
However, I've been recently trying to get it to work again by manually editing user agent strings and xml files stored in the system folders but with no luck.
I tried again this morning and to my surprise I was able to load and play videos fine on my N95 8GB, no errors at all!
Is your emTube now working? Reports at HoFo seem to suggest so!
Saturday, 14 June 2008
Further confirmation that WQVGA and VGA resolutions are coming to S60
I posted a couple weeks back that two new resolutions would be appearing on FP2 devices but as one should expect, some questioned the credibility of my source. Well, now there's evidence that even you(my readers) can verify for yourselves that proves that WQVGA and VGA will finally be appearing on S60 phones near you.
Recently, I got my hands on a N78 for a few minutes. Within 45 seconds I had it hacked and immediately began exploring the system folders. This is where my discovery came from.
If you want to check for yourself, just follow these simple instructions on your phone:
1) Using any file browser, navigate to Z:\
2) Go to System\Data\Templates.
What do you see? A bunch of folders with numbers for names. These numbers also have something strange in common... They're all resolutions supported by the OS of the phone. If you're using a Symbian 9.1 or 9.2 device, you'll see the following folders:
176x208
208x176
240x320
320x240
352x416
416x352
800x352
However, if you're on a Symbian 9.3 device like the N78 for example, you'll see:
176x208
208x176
240x320
320x240
320x480
352x416
416x352
480x320
480x640
640x480
800x352
See that? VGA and WQVGA resolutions are supported by FP2 and if FP1 is anything to go by, ALL resolutions in the templates folder will be used on atleast 1 device.
So, Nokia, when will we be seeing these new devices?
Thursday, 12 June 2008
Installing unsigned apps... For newbies
In all of my previous guides, I assumed my readers(like me) did not just want to install unsigned apps but also make their phones work how they wanted them to work, with the help of ROMPatcher for example. It has however been pointed out that this is not the case, some people just want to install unsigned apps. Because of the way my previous guides were made/written, they were confusing for the viewer so I've now made a newer guide that will ONLY demonstrate how to install unsigned apps, making the whole process absurdly easy.
Download the zip file HERE and copy the appropriate folder for your phone to your memory card.
If you're unsure of which version of Symbian your phone runs on, refer to my Devices List.
If for some reason you can't watch the video or it still isn't clear enough, here's a basic explanation of what you need to do:
1)Install Y browser and HelloCarbide from your Hacks(9.x) folder.
2)Open Y browser and KEEP IT OPEN BY PRESSING THE MENU BUTTON.
3)Open HelloCarbide and go to Options>Menu1>Yes
4)Open Y browser again and navigate to your Hacks(9.x) folder, copy installserver.exe to C:\SYS\BIN.
5)Restart your phone.
Please remember that any apps you install will be granted ALL capabilities. Don't go around installing naughty .sis files for goodness sake!
Sunday, 8 June 2008
Feature Pack 2 theme: Mountains
I've been trying to get these themes to work on FP1 for the past few days and now with P@sco's help I'm ready to release the first one to the public. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you... Mountains!
This theme will be included in some upcoming FP2 phones. Here are some screenshots:
These screenshots really don't do the theme justice. On my N95 8GB it really makes the screen leap out. Good job to whoever is responsible for this theme!
Things to note:
1)These themes don't seem to work on pre-FP1 phones like the N73.
2)There seems to be issues with some themes when in landscape mode (image looks pixelated)
I'll be adding more FP2 themes here as I finish on getting them to work so stay tuned!
Download Mountains now!
Saturday, 7 June 2008
Remap the keys on your S60 device
Something that many people ask about on forums is how to remap the buttons on their device. Thanks to Z-Mario of Symbian Freak, I now bring you news of a way to remap these keys as you see fit, including the gallery button that is hated by so many!
Download MagicKey HERE. Remember, it's unsigned so you'll need a developer certificate or to have hacked your phone.
Basically:
1)Open MagicKey
2)Press the right direction key on your D-Pad
3)Go to options and then Edit
4)Go to options and then to Add
5)Press the green call key so the numbers change to 999
6)Press the button that you want to map and the number will change accordingly
7)Scroll down to Maps to and choose the function that you want to map the button to and press OK.
8)Go back and then hit the left directional key
9) Go to options and select start on boot.
Enjoy!
