Russell Beattie

That's a screen shot from a game called MGS Karting. You have to see it in person to believe how incredible it is - the screen shots don't do it justice. It's better than any 3D app I've seen on the gameboy, even with the smaller screen. I downloaded the demo and though it's pretty big - like 500k total (1/4th of my phone's memory) it's an amazing little game to have! Here's the blurb from Handango:

Welcome to the hottest and fastest 3D racing game for your mobile handheld. Beautiful 3D graphics, amazing fast and smooth animations, furious game-play, blue-tooth match and fantastic sound and music, everything you would expect from a MGS game and more! See for yourself how much fun your phone could be with MGS Karting from Noumena Productions, this game will make your phone go beyond your expectations!

Features:

• 6 karts with different performances.
• 8 unique cartoon characters.
• Dozens of beautifully illustrated race tracks.
• Power-up items such as shrink missiles and engine boosters.
• Two tournament modes featuring six different cups of varying difficulty.
• Blue tooth match against your friends!
• User friendly interfaces and control. Supporting left-handed play.
• Mess of addictive driving fun!

For more information please visit:
www.nmprod.com

Isn't that cool?? BLUETOOTH RACING! If I find someone with a Symbian phone and Bluetooth we can race each other! This is awesome stuff, I can't wait to try it! I was talking about doing exactly this with the GBA in one of my earlier posts. I didn't realize there are people already developing this stuff for Symbian phones!! Cool beans!

Ready for this? Here's how the MGS Karting software stops copying: Each mobile phone has a unique serial number called an IMEI code: "IMEI stands for International Mobile Equipment Identifier and is the number every single mobile telephone is given, in factory, to be identified by." You type in *#06# and it pops out this long number which you then send to the publisher and then they give you an ID to use to unlock the demo. Very interesting.

I'm still waiting, however, for that ID. Handango says it may take up to two days. Ugh. It'll be worth the wait, but this process needs to be a lot simpler. They need to take the PC out of the loop all together... though it's easier to browse the games from the PC, I should just be able to put in my phone number when I finally purchase the game, and then they should send me an SMS with a link to the game and it should install instantly. Right now I have to download and sync, which is too much like the Palm, and since (as I said before) Nokia's syncing software SUUUUCKS, this isn't as easy as it should be.

-Russ