"That noise, it's very distracting, what are you playing?"
"It's a cross between an adventure game and carpet bowls..."
"....?"
Well, how else could I describe “The Big Roll in Paradise”? It's the latest game published by Nokia in their Ovi Store and developed by Infinite Dreams, it has a story-based approach sitting on top of a intriguing game. In this case, the game is the ball throwing spectacle of Bocce, and the story-based approach reads like something out of an Indiana Jones script.
The game of Bocce is a pretty simple game. One player throws a small jack, and then throws one of their four regular bocces towards it with an underarm throw. The second player follows. Then the player who does not have the bocce closest to the jack throws again if he has a bocce left (otherwise the other player throws his remaining bocces).
Then it's time to score up – only the player closest to the jack can score, and they will score up to four points, depending on how many bocces are closer to the jack than the first bocce of the opponent.
Wrapped up in that simple game are a huge amount of tactics and strategies you can use – for example, you might want to throw one of your bocces “long” to stop your opponent knocking the jack away to the back of the playing field should you be the closest; you'll need to avoid having your bocces clustered together because they could be smashed away; if you get super close to the jack you might want to roll a bocce “short” so that the jack can't be pushed away... lots to do and decide at each move.
Each round is therefore quite short (it doesn't take long to throw four bocces each), and each game is normally to five or eight points in The Big Roll, so they don't take long to play, but still have a huge amount of tactical depth to them. I like that in a mobile game.
Of course, in real life it's easy to throw a bocce – how does it handle in a touchscreen device? Pretty well. Firstly, you can look around the playing area by dragging your finger around the screen. A double-tap and you'll get an overhead view around the jack so you can see what's going on. To throw, you touch the bocce at the bottom of the screen – an arrow will appear on the screen as to where the bocce will likely land, and you can move this around by adjusting your throwing finger and where it touches on the screen.
This arrow does bounce around a bit – and a longer throw means it will bounce around more, so you'll need to release the throw at just the right time. And this arrow is only where the bocce will land after the throw, how it bounces, where it rolls, and what happens next depends on the surface of the play area, the type of bocce you are throwing, the slope of the land, the obstacles, and everything else in the environment. Here's what gives the game its touch of skill and where practice makes perfect.
From the physics of the throw, to the ability to decide on tactics; from the smooth 3d graphics to the realistic physics, the bocces game in The Big Roll is pretty much perfect. If this was all that Infinite Dreams had provided, I'd be pretty happy. Looking beyond just the game, perhaps some sort of league table or ranking points so I could see my improvements as I play through more games.
Nope, there's none of that. Infinite Dreams have crafted a huge adventure game of exploration, collection and discussion with other characters on top of their well written bocces game. It opens with you arriving at the island resort and being taught how to play bocce and use the games interface. After that, if you want to play someone, you need to walk up to them, have a little chat, and start the game.
And you will want to play them, because that's how you advance the plot and win objects. For example, one character might need to open the casino (so you can get access to some more minigames), but to do that he needs some earplugs. So you need to find another character with said plugs, play them at bocce to win them, walk back to the first character and hand them over.
There are twenty different challenging tasks you'll need to work through, most of them of the 'exploring the island and meeting people' type, but there are games in the casino, jigsaws in the ruins and more surprises I won't spoil (you mean you haven't reached them yet! – Steve). Tying this altogether is a wonderful B-movie style plot with hints of lost kingdoms, sunken treasure and (believe it or not) the fate of Atlantis. Cracking stuff!
Perhaps my only complaint is that the difficulty level seems set rather low – the opponents make some really dumb moves that are nowhere near the jack or any other potential target. Yes it makes the adventure behind the game more accessible but I'm hoping that the further you get, the harder it will become to defeat opponents.
There's also not a huge amount of danger in losing. For example, when one character offered me a Nokia N8 for winning (just in the game, unfortunately!), and then I promptly lost, she simply offered me the chance to play her again to win the N8. Like that would happen in the real world, unless she was compelled to give me it to drive the plot forward.
The Big Roll in Paradise is a wonderfully put together game. The atmosphere that is built up around the bocce game engine is marvellous, and does not get in the way of the core game. The plot unfolds at a good pace, and you don't need to pay too much attention to it, so casual players won't have a problem in trying to penetrate the story just to play the game. It looks wonderful as well, switching from a top down view of the island as you explore to a rich 3d environment you can interact with when playing against the various characters around the island, who all have their own tactics they'll employ against you.
Is it recommended? More than recommended to be honest, this is one great mobile game, and the sort of quirky title that can make people fall in love with a platform. Go and download, right now!
-- Ewan Spence, July 2010.
PS. One final thought... Symbian needs more games like this, and Nokia should not only find out how much to get more titles out of Infinite Dreams (including a touch version of Creatures of the Deep!) but also make sure they continue to develop for S60, no matter what it takes.