Windows Phone Thoughts: PDAmill GameBox Classics Reviewed

Game 5: Snake
The object of Snake is to eat the right fruits as fast as you can, but avoid running into the walls, yourself or your poop (a direct result of eating). Users can turn on "poop-free mode" (I'm not making this up!) or "no junkfood" if they wish. Just like the other five games, Snake has cool background sounds, sound effects, and well designed graphics. Unlike the classic version, this game has levels and goals. You might be asked to "eat 7 apples", and after winning a few rounds the background and obstacles will change. Your snake will make comments as it scurries around the screen - "yum", "yuck", and "ow" in a cute cartoon voice. PDAMill didn't have to add these extras, but I'm glad they did!


Figure 10: (Main Menu) Snake -- a classic game with added extras.


Figure 11: You'll have to excuse my pitiful score. My Axim X5's directional pad isn't too hot at this kind of gameplay. Those two items on the screen are a pear (good) and poop (bad).

Game 6: Fireball
No, it's not an exotic drink, racehorse, or household surface cleaner - it's another great arcade game! Fireball traces its roots back to Breakout© and Aquanoid©, but contains many more features and effects than your average ball-and-paddle game. Second only to Jewel Master, Fireball is one of my favorites. Players must move the paddle on the bottom of the screen to bounce a ball back at small, colored cubes. Some cubes will disappear on the first hit, other take two or three hits, and other won't disappear at all. Every now and then a breaking cube will let a small green circle fall down in reach of your paddle. These falling extras (turned on and off in the options menu) can change the size of your paddle, add extra balls, change the speed and direction of the ball, and do other cool things that I won't tell you.


Figure 12: (Main Menu) Fireball has new variations on an old concept, and awesome graphics to boot!


Figure 13: Here I the "super combo", which lets me shoot blocks and keeps the ball in the top 3/4 of the screen for about 10 seconds. Sweet! 8)


Figure 14: A handful of the goodies you can earn. What do these do? You'll have to download the demo to find out!

Conclusions
I really can't say enough good things about this suite of games. PDAMill has obviously spent a lot of time revamping a handful of classic arcade games, and they've brought them to market at a very decent price. The interface is clean and functional, the background music and sounds are fantastic, and the graphics are first rate. I found myself playing all of the games way beyond the sixty seconds my screenshot program needed. This is a five star application, and should be on everyone's list of "must have" games.