Fisherman and MagicLine are the first games specially developed for 9210/9290 by Digital-Red. After being tested by internal personnel and our net friends (I could feel the quality of the games have been improved myself during the testing process), the games were finally announced a few days ago. They are the first 9210/9290 softwares developed for the Chinese market. Therefore, the release of games is worthy of cheering. In addition, the company has been contacting with our website for a long time and they also bring much convenience to users by helping our website to establish the on-line shop (available for users in China @ epocn.com). After experiencing these two games after they are formally released and testing period earlier, I hereby present you with the reviews on these two games.

MagicLine is presented at the same time as Fisherman by Digital-Red. This game has the similar rules of the traditional gobang (five-piece check). Everyone commonly thinks it’s a simple game while speaking of gobang. But the software engineers from Digital-Red have done a wide range of researches by adding many scoring rules and have also worked hard in its graphics in order not to bore the players with dullness. Therefore, many users think it’s easy to play and soon they will be addicted to it. Ha ha, I am not boasting of it. In fact, I am already addicted to it. Let me explain it step by step. The Startup picture of three 3D balls show up after installing it:

Press any key to start. The game automatically begins by its default difficulties and settings. This is the screenshot of its default. In the left is small sport car like a toy car:

The simple interface has only four buttons: New game, High scores, preferences, and Exit. Press preferences to open. There are five options. Ball view: it can be changed as Color balls or Fruits. Ball colors: it can be set as more colors as 5, 6, 7, and 8, that is, we can decide how many colors of balls as playing. The more colors we set, the harder game we play. Next balls: we can set it as 3, 4, and 5, that is, the amount of next balls will show up after erasing a line of balls. The more we set, the more balls they appear. Hence, we get a harder game. Line length: it can be set as more as 5, 6, and 7, that is, how many same balls to be erased in a line. The more we set, the harder it becomes. Finally Display: we can decide whether to display the positions and types of the next showup as small balls or not.

From the functional panel, you can select the default difficulties: Easy (five different colors with showing up of three balls a round, five balls in a line with the preview of the next round), Normal (six different colors with showing up of three balls a round, five balls in a line without the preview of the next round), Hard (seven different colors with showing up of four balls a round, sex balls in a line without the preview of the next round), and Unbelievable (eight different colors with showing up of five balls a round, seven balls in a line without the preview of the next round). In order to score high, you should understand some experiences that I played for a few days (combing some situations from Mac):

*If five (or six, or seven) balls are not in a line, the balls will keep coming up. Well, this is the common sense of playing gobang;

*If we select Display next mode in preferences, we can cover these small balls with the ordinary balls to prevent the small ones from showing up. This is an important tip. Thus, we can forecast its coming movements (and balls). Take the following screenshot for example, we should move a black ball onto the coming up (next to arrive) small purple ball, which is in the right side of the hand cursor, between the black balls. Thus, we can link the four black balls in a line and also block the purple one coming up;

*If select Line length mode (5-7) in preferences like 5 (at least five balls in a line to erase), five balls in a line get 5 points, six in a line get 7, seven in a line get 9, and eight in a line get 11. If choose 6 (at least 6 balls in a line to erase), six balls in a line get 9 points, seven in a line get 12, eight in a line get 15, and nine in a line get 18. If select 7 (at least 7 balls in a line to erase), seven balls in a line get 15 points, eight in a line get 19, nine in a line get 23. The harder level we select, the more we score!

*If score higher than 100 points, the background picture will change. It won’t change after 400 points.

*If the balls occupy all the 9*9=81 lattices, the main screen will be crossed and then the game is over. And if you break the record of the ranking board, a screen will pop up for you to sign your name on the board!

Hence, if you want to score high, there are lots of tips for you discover. With tips and intelligence, you are sure to get a good grade! And you will also love this plain-looking game!

However, because of its version 1.0, I still think some places are needed to be improved. First, the current version has a bug. That is, on other phones with different firmwares, if you try to dial a call without quitting or there’s a coming call while playing, the game itself will run into an error and quit itself. Though it will maintain the auto-save condition of the last time, I still wish it can be perfectly improved; second, the game itself doesn’t have the function of saving the files. More or less, it reflects its defect. The game has auto-save function after quitting, but if it can save several files for us to load anytime, or to feel the old excitements, it would be better. So far, if we want to save the file, we have to use File Manager to copy out from c:\system\data\linesave.dat to save to other place; third, sound effects are not available (inclusive of Fisherman). Wish the next version will be added in order to make it perfection both in sounds and graphics. By doing so, the recreation will be highly improved; fourth, the interface of the game is fixed on the 9*9 board, and it would be better if it has the bigger space for the players, thought it seems unnecessary. Still, wish it would be more interesting and more fun when its next version is released. Nevertheless, I am very fond of this game already and sometimes I will fish it out to play for a while in the elevator.

Magic Line can be downloaded from Digital Red's website.

Hope is the webmaster of Epocn, a Chinese (with an English translation) site for Nokia 9210 users. He kindly allowed the syndication of his review on All About ER6. The review has been translated from the Chinese orignal by Mac (a helper on Epocn), I have made a few changes, but wanted to leave it with the sentiments of the original reviewer and translator. Once again thanks to Hope.

Return to: Reviews Home | Communicator Home | All About ER6 Home