Berlin - Mobile gaming platforms seem on different paths this season, with more hardcore fare like Call Of Duty and Silent Hill on the Vita, while the 3DS sports games full of cuddly bunnies and mice.
To match Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 - Activision's latest release for home consoles - the company has brought out Call of Duty: Black Ops Declassified for its handheld Vita.
Unlike the console and PC versions, the handheld game offers few options for solo play. There is no storyline to hold together missions. Instead, there are individual missions with time limits, as well as a mode in which one opponent after another has to be sidelined.
The options expand in multi-player mode, which provides the kind of experience Call of Duty fans expect, even if there are twists. Up to eight players can play on five maps and in five modes, sometimes fighting one another. Fighting successfully brings experience points, which can be used for promotions and better weapons. The game costs about 45 euros (about R450).
Unlike its predecessor, Silent Hill - Book of Memories, from Konami, isn't a horror adventure, but more of a role-playing game with action. Players start off with the book of memories, which predicts a gruesome future.
To avert those misfortunes, the character has to fight his way through the monsters populating the small town of Silent Hill night after night. Up to four players can work together, gathering weapons and solving puzzles. Just about every villain who's featured in past versions of Silent Hill makes an appearance. The game costs about 30 euros.
But fans of family games need not fear: There are games for them, like Rabbids Rumble from Ubisoft for the Nintendo 3DS. The game's rabbits once again challenge players to a series of mini-games across seven worlds as they try to gather together 100
rabbits on the run. Multiple players can play together online. The game costs about 34 euros.
In Disney's Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion for the 3DS, the world's most popular mouse enters a castle full of illusions. It hearkens back to the game Castle of Illusions and, similarly, it's also a jump-n-run adventure that leads the player through a series of Disney classics, from Peter Pan to Aladdin.
Every level has new characters. Challenges range from jumping to solving puzzles. Mickey also carries a magic brush he can use with the lower display of the 3DS to create useful platforms or just delete obstacles or opponents. The game costs about 42 euros.
Sony's Smart as . for the Vita revives the concept of a brain workout, with a series of daily thought, math and logic puzzles. Solving one puzzle opens up a new level of challenges. Downloads should mean that players never run out of content. The game costs about 29 euros.
Meanwhile, the Angry Birds have teamed up with Star Wars, with the birds now dressed up as Luke Skywalker and Han Solo and the evil pigs dressed up as Darth Vader and his storm troopers in Angry Birds Star Wars. But the point of the game remains the same: the birds have to undermine the pigs' wobbly buildings, just this time they do so with a light saber.
The game sells for 89 euro cents on iOS devices and 99 cents for Windows Phone 8 machines. The Android version is free, though it comes with advertising. - Sapa-dpa