What most game purchasers look for is: good game play, re-play value, and genre. What do you want in a game? Immersion or distraction?

Do you want to immerse yourself in another world with competitive levels and even multiple players connected via Bluetooth or the Internet?

The games that challenge you to push rocks, avoid snakes, get goods, slay dragons, and often start with a story line, "The old world was ruined by a disaster …" are getting more engaging and more visually attractive than ever before. Technology has enabled the shift in turn-based games to "real-time strategy" (RTS) games, which test your ability to out-think, out-plan, out-gun or decide when to out-run the game programs’ artificial intelligence (AI) or your real-life team mate/opponent in real time.

Advances in graphics technology, 3D rendering engines, mobile device processing power, and memory bandwidth have radically improved the look and game play of action-oriented games. Anthelion 2 Celestial Vigilance by PDAmill won Pocket PC Awards Best Action Game of 2006 and 2007, and I can see why: It has an elegant interface and unusually listenable music.

Another advance in mobile game technology is motion-tracking technology. Lawn Darts by Concrete Software is one of the games I've tried recently that uses the camera on your Windows Mobile device to detect your arm movement. The experience is similar to playing action sports games with Nintendo’s Wii game machine; except you could toss your Lawn Darts anywhere you take your mobile device. A 2007 survey by Nokia notes that mobile games are played on the move (61 percent) about as much as they are played at home (62 percent). Don't try Lawn Darts in a crowded theater or on a bus.

Instead of gearing up for adventure or physical challenges, would you rather throttle down and fill in a few idle moments waiting for the bus, for the line to move, or for your next appointment? If so, you’re part of the trend towards "casual games," which are defined by the Casual Gaming Association as being just for fun, demographically neutral, and offering a few minutes of distraction. That’s ironic, because one of the fastest growing mobile game categories is "brain training."

According to Telephia, in the last three months of 2006 more than 17 million U.S. consumers downloaded a mobile game, which is 45 percent more than the same period in 2005. You can start your search for mobile games in the Games and Entertainment section of the Windows Mobile Certified Software Catalog. For more information about downloading software, read Getting Apps on the Go.

Two other online sources I recommend are www.ClintonFitch.com and www.SmartPhoneThoughts.com. Although neither of these sites is for games only, both of these sites provide reviews, demos, clear specifications, and product descriptions.

Before I enter my online shopping credit card numbers to download even a US$9.95 game, I read reviews and download the demo or trial version. Besides finding out if I like the game play, I make sure the game plays well on the device I’m using. One thing I particularly like about the Smartphone Thoughts site is the tab for "Compatible Devices."

As with choosing any new software, be sure to read the specifications to find whether the game you want to download is compatible with the Windows Mobile device you own or want to buy next. First, check the version of the operating system, the edition, and whether or not your device has a touch screen.



You do have to be careful not to be caught up in the "name game." For all Windows Mobile 6 editions, the term "smartphone" refers to devices that are phones; "PDA" refers to devices without telephony. You will find many variations across the Internet on use of the term "smartphone" and "Pocket PC."

Other specifications you need to look for are the minimum requirements, such as:

As you search for games or any applications, look for the Designed for Windows Mobile logo.

The logo assures you that the software has been independently tested to verify that it works well with the Windows Mobile operating system and incorporates new functionality and features outlined in the Designed for Windows guidelines.

Some online retailers and bloggers rate games according to "addictive" quotient. That makes me cringe.

Here are three of the award-winning best sellers:

As anyone who has wrestled over whether or not to buy Park Place or put more hotels on Baltic Avenue knows, games have a learning value. Many years ago, my younger son Aaron "invested" an astonishing number of quarters into video arcade games. Watching him play from time to time, I could see both his eye-hand coordination and his strategies improve. Today, he is Senior Director of Outsourcing for an international electronic game company and I can certainly see the long term return on his investment. My older son Erik put his passion for games — board games to role-playing games, you name it — to work and founded a retail game store, where he grew a diverse and supportive community. The parents who dropped by the store soon appreciated the learning value of games in building strategic, math, communication, and collaboration skills.

According to Jesse Schell, veteran of Disney’s Imagineering Lab and a faculty member of Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center, games are a problem-solving activity with a playful attitude. Educators are now taking increasing advantage of the learning potential of electronic games on mobile devices, both in the classroom and as extracurricular learning activities. Since 2003, the game industry’s Serious Games movement, which includes mobile learning, has drawn an ever-larger crowd at the Serious Games Summit portion of the annual Game Developer Conference. The top 2007 winners of Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine’s Best Software Award in the Pocket PC: Kids' Games category went to Spb Numbers and Countdown! from Island Labs. That’s right: Two of the three kids’ category winners were not cuddly cartoon games, but math games.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is a non-profit, self-regulating body that assigns content ratings, as well as enforces advertising guidelines and helps ensure responsible online privacy practices. On the ESRB Web site, you can search by age rating, software platform (such as Pocket PC), and/or content. The content ratings are quite specific, including mild violence, extreme violence, blood, blood and gore, animated blood, etc.

The usual cautions apply about downloading anything to your computer or mobile device. You wouldn’t eat a sandwich that a stranger handed you on the street, so don’t feed a download to your computer or mobile device unless you trust the site where you found it.

Look for more multi-player games, as studies show that connecting with people — either as teammates or opponents — is what consumers want. The technology and bandwidth are already in place, and the market is picking up the pace. I’ve also noticed the rise in portals, such as Spb’s AirIsland, that support the community playing a mobile game. Playing a game on a little mobile device is no longer just a personal gaming experience; it can be another avenue to social networking. As Erik the Game Wizard says, "Have a game day."