iPhone and iPod Touch Games Round-up 3

The Oregon Trail

Developer: Gameloft
Price (as reviewed): £2.99 / $4.99 from the App Store

Hailing for the noble UK, we missed out on what our American pals assure is a cultural classic game, but the good news is that we can now take a look at the iPhone version of this pioneer simulator. If we were from the US this is probably something we’d be all nostalgic about.

Re-imagined by Gameloft, The Oregon Trail is a game with a simple aim; you must lead your family across America successfully. It sounds simple, but it certainly won’t be easy – along the way you’ll have to contend with disease, starvation, bandits and more minigames than you could shake an oxen at.

Still, minigames aren’t always a bad thing (honest) and The Oregon Trail proves that excellently, providing plenty of very quick games for you to tackle either when disaster strikes or when you decide to stop and hunt or fish.


There’s a surprising amount of depth to the game too, even despite the minigames. There are optional quests to undertake, a dozen different routes to try and tackle, the constant attempt to balance your speed against the needs of your family and oxen. Then, as if all that wasn’t enough, the cartoon art-style means that it’s all presented with a real sense of humour and charm – there’s nothing to warm your cockles like watching one of your children get carried away by an eagle.

Verdict: A tad slow to get going but good once it does, The Oregon Trail is a recommended title for anyone with an interest in history factoids, childhood dysentery or adventure-sim hybrids.

Zenonia

Developer: Gamevil
Price (as reviewed): £3.49 / $5.99 from the App Store

If there’s one thing that the App Store has been missing then it’s a classically styled RPG. There ar plenty of cheap casual games and awful racing games populating iTunes, but there’s not been anything that might compare to the classic 16-bit stylings of Zelda. Or, at least, there wasn’t until Zenonia anyway. Developed by Gamevil, Zenonia faithfully captures the feel of those old NES-age RPG adventures and early Final Fantasy games perfectly.

Perhaps too faithfully in fact, as just like in those early classics there’s a somewhat flabby script that jibber-jabbers on endlessly. Zenonia is full of people who are all to happy to talk about their feelings, as if they were under the strange delusion that we actually care about them and don’t just want to hit some critters with a sword.


Zenonia has a fairly lengthy and sprawling story which can terminate in one of several endings depending on your choices throughout the game, but the basic premise sees you as a mysterious child found by the generic Holy Knights after a battle with the Dragon Clan. 15 years later your adoptive father is murdered and you begin your quest for answers and vengeance after selecting one of three different classes.

The game and gameplay are both pretty expansive, with a solid skill tree and magic system and a fairly decent control system once the latest updates are hammered in. There’s at least 40 hours of supposed gameplay here too which should be more than enough to keep hardcore players occupied on long car journeys.

Verdict: Riddled with clichés and huge speeches, Zenonia is never-the-less a solid RPG that deserves the attention of genre fans.