REVIEW: Mobile gaming controller serviceable, but to what end?

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week we’ll review a new wireless application or service from the user’s point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and what doesn’t in the mobile content industry. If you wish to submit your application or service for review, please contact us at [email protected].
Applications: Mobile games using a Bluetooth controller from Zeemote
Running on: Nokia 6131
Yay: We’d rather do origami wearing oversized mittens than use a mobile-phone keypad to play a video game. Zeemote’s handheld joystick not only allowed us to control the action, it delivered accurate and immediate movement thanks to the Bluetooth connection. And a few of the games were pretty cool too.
Nay: Playing for more than a few minutes can drain your phone battery quickly. More importantly, though: Is anyone really going to carry around an extra device just to play a mobile game?
We say: A remote joystick may be appropriate for a hardcore gamer who doesn’t mind carrying an extra piece of hardware to fully enjoy all that mobile games have to offer. We’re just not sure that person exists.
Most mobile games suck.
In a world where you can build virtual metropolises from the ground up or get airsickness as you sit on the couch playing a flight simulator, video gaming on a mobile phone is an experience to be endured, not enjoyed. The screens are too small, the games ill-conceived, memory too limiting and keypads too clumsy.
That last pitfall is where Zeemote comes in. A startup out of Bedford, Mass., Zeemote was founded in 2005 and officially launched its flagship product two weeks ago at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, Spain. The company’s controller is designed to be used in one hand — while the other holds the phone, presumably — with a thumb-controlled joystick and buttons for the index and middle fingers.
The lightweight device is well-designed and fit comfortably, although it took a little getting used to. And connecting devices is a snap: Launching a game allows the user to search for nearby Bluetooth-enabled hardware, and the joystick was identified and the link was made in seconds.
We test drove five of the nine games currently available from Zeemote, and a few were pretty impressive. “Pub Darts 180,” developed by FinBlade, proved a simple, addictive offering, allowing users to control the action with a single button. “Heli Strike,” a scrolling combat game from FishLabs, is a complicated shoot’em up with a host of options. And “Sonic the Hedgehog” was true to the original, with eye-catching graphics and a breakneck pace.
But while the remote control performed well, it wasn’t enough to make up for all the other shortcomings that plague most mobile games. It was absolutely vital for Sonic — controlling the spastic rodent with a phone keypad would have been excruciating — but the game overwhelmed the platform anyway, cramming too much action and eye candy onto the phone. The mouse was also effective for Heli Strike, but not enough to make a console-type game mobile-friendly. And while the device made “Planet Riders” a surprisingly playable mobile racing game, the screen kept going dark — slipping into idle mode when the phone’s keys went unpressed for a few seconds.
Interestingly, the remote joystick failed to add much to Pub Darts, the most compelling title we played. Like some other one-thumb games, Pub Darts is all about timing, challenging users to hit a key at the right moment to place the dart in the desired location. Using the Zeemote controller was sufficient, of course, but we could just as easily have used any of the phone’s keys, or even the power button.
Sure, the remote control effectively smothered out some of the rough edges that make some mobile games such a miserable experience, and it’s easy to see how developers could build some pretty cool games by incorporating the device from the ground up.
Asking users to carry an extra piece of hardware is setting the bar pretty high, though. And whether the thing adds anything to simple, casual games — you know, the kind best suited for mobile — is doubtful.