GW Series Review

3D gaming is not for everyone, but there are games for those who appreciate traditional old-school handheld games. The GW series by Mobile1UP offers a classic gaming experience, similar to Tiger Electronic’s Handheld LCD games. Unlike the classic LCD games with its monochrome LCD, linear gameplay and basic sound, the GW series updates the traditional look with modern 2D cell-shaded art.

The GW Pack comes with six games, each one with a basic challenge to progress & win.  We review ‘em all, after the break!

GW Lab game challenges you to quickly catch the falling balls from the top or bottom shelf. The balls will fall faster, pushing the player to quickly decide which ball to catch first.

GW Monkey game requires you to move the monkey around and juggle the falling fruit. The fruit will fall faster with a random monkey visitor holding the fruit for a short period of time, while you juggle the other fruit.

GW Escape game have mad scientists jumping out of the building. The player must aid a mechanical trampoline and bounce these scientists to safety. (In my opinion, you’re more than ‘mad’ if you’re jumping out of a building.)

GW Jetpack have troopers jumping out of a plane, trying to jetpack to safety. But to help these troopers reach safety, you must maneuver the landing pad and catch them. There’s moments with difficult troopers that float around a bit before landing.

GW Monster has some lab monsters that MUST be destroyed. You must lead the trooper through the monsters extending arms and plant TNT devices and set off the trigger. I personally enjoyed this game the most; it has more freedom to move around and requires more actions to progress in the game.

GW Retreat has some troopers that need to escape the lab. You must aid the trooper to safety while the safety chord is extended, but you must watch out for falling monsters.

All these games can be downloaded at $2 each or all 6 in a bundle for $5. Even with the nice visuals and easy gameplay, I feel that $2 for each game is a bit high. $5 for the 6 pack is not bad, but if you decide to buy one of these games, I believe you’re better off buying the whole pack instead.

The art direction is unique. Most players will feel warm & fuzzy as they remember playing Batman on the old Tiger Handhelds. It’s colorful and mimics the details of the traditional LCD display, showing a watermark of the unlit graphic cells. There’s no music or even simple sound effects, it’s similar to the beeps of a digital watch. The controls are somewhat hidden and will display as translucent color circles, but players can disable these markers by tapping the check mark on the game’s home-screen.

There’s not a lot of replay value, since the game’s have a very simple structure. The principle of most of these classic LCD games is to learn its pattern, and most of it is pretty repetitive; catching falling objects or dodging obstacles. What GW does differently is provide better visuals on a larger screen, and retaining a classic style.

I did notice that the GW Series bundle app lacked an option to go back to the main menu. If I want to switch to a different game, I either need to lose or exit & re-open the game. Another feature I would like to see included is a leadership board. The re-play value would earn an extra brownie-point if the scores were shared, this can encourage a lot of users to continue playing and possibly interest others to join in. Also add a two-player mode, where the users swap turns for the device.

I would also like to see more support for the application(s). Unfortunately the GW apps do not have any contact forms or address, except their www.mobile1up.com main website. It would nice to see some methods to submit your issues or comments through the application, instead of searching the site.

Otherwise, if you’re looking for a good time-waster, I would suggest picking this game up in the App Catalog. Its not as spectacular as a 3D game, but the attention to detail and art direction offers a pleasant experience for your webOS device.

Learn more about GW Series at App Roundup!

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