The US is proving to be an innovative market for connected mobile games, although many so far have focused more on the casual end of the market - puzzle, action and sports titles. However, Punch Entertainment has launched an ambitious game that claims to be "The Sims meets Facebook".
It’s called EGO, and revolves around players creating avatars, and then sending them off to fight, flirt, play and communicate with those of other players. There are virtual pet aspects too, in terms of feeding and training your avatar to build them up. The avatars are fully customisable with different clothing and body parts, while the game’s connected aspects include buddy lists, chat and even blogging.
This could be one of the more interesting areas in virtual worlds / MMOs in 2008, since Punch isn’t the only company working on this kind of thing. US mobile games publisher Digital Chocolate is launching a similar avatar-based romance ‘em up called AvaPeeps: Flirt Nation, while Finnish firm IronStar is launching MoiPal, which has less of a focus on the flirting part. By necessity, these games will be playable in short dip-in dip-out sessions, and the result could be a whole new spin on the MMO genre.
EGO website (via Pocket Gamer)
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22.01.08 at 15:01