Battleship
by Handmark, Price:
$19.99
Reviewed February 2004 by Jon Maksin
Unless you have been living under a rock,
you've probably heard of and/or played Battleship at
some point in time. After numerous translations onto countless
devices, this classic game of naval warfare has made its
way onto PocketPC & Palm OS devices and the transition
has been executed almost perfectly.
Now, for those people who have never played Battleship before,
this game could not be simpler. You start the off by placing
five ships on the board. These ships include an aircraft
carrier that can take five hits before sinking, a battleship
that can take four hits, a cruiser and submarine that can
take three hits each, and a destroyer that can take two hits.
After all pieces are placed, players take turns calling shots
against their opponent. In the original board game, players
call shots by saying things like “B7” or “D9”.
The other player then responds by saying “hit” or “miss” depending
on where they have their ships placed. With the Handmark's
version, calling out “B7” and “D9” has
been replaced by the stylus. Just tap the board where you
want to fire and the game takes care of the rest (I told
you it was simple). Along with the standard mode, Handmark
has also included salvo mode. Salvo mode has players calling
as many shots as they have ships. If one player has five
ships and the other has only three, the winning player will
obviously have a significant advantage. Best of all, this
version supports virtually every multiplayer option you could
want. Multiplayer on one unit? Yep. Infrared? You bet. IP?
That too. To top it all off, the computer opponent is no
slouch either with its two levels of difficulty.
Not only does this version play well– it
looks great too. Handmark has captured the look of the original
exceptionally well. The ships all look like their plastic
counterparts. The board is reminiscent of the original, and
the menus are all well done and have a distinct naval look
to them. Along with the clean graphics come great sounds
too. Sonar pings away in the background, shots whine in flight,
ships explode when hit, and sirens sound when ships are sunk.
Handmark has definitely outdone themselves
when they brought Battleship to the PocketPC and
Palm handhelds. If you love this game and you want to take
it on the road, you can't go wrong with this one. You won't
have to worry about those hundreds of little red and white
pegs that always seem to get jumbled together and lost. Best
of all, you get the benefits of the original Electronic
Battleship without having to program all of those coordinates
into it. I'd wager that it's safe to say it's time to retire
my old Tiger handheld Battleship game– This
game blows it out of the water.
Playing Hints and
Tips
Victory comes to those who use strategy
over random shots. Anticipate where the enemy will place
its ships and where they will fire. |
