The Pocket PC Wargame Genre

It’s been a distracting Pocket PC wargame session with Handmark’s Warfare Incorporated for Pocket PC.

I experienced flashes of Command and Conquer pangs of nostalgia as I started erecting power generators to keep my turrets active. It was the only thing holding the enemy AI units at bay.

You’re on planet Icarus and you’re fighting for resources against the OMNI corporation. You have to build storage houses to store the gem-like patches on the map for the real-time strategy PPC wargame.

Once you’ve upgraded to the gills with the money you’ve earned, you get to use some high-powered weaponry.

You’ll find Warfare Incorporated extremely engaging and more difficult as the campaign missions continue.

Soon enough, I had been sucked into this mobile real-time strategy game universe on my iPAQ.

I had been RTS gaming without realizing it when my dad came home with The Ancient Art of War by Brøderbund in 1984 for his desktop PC.

This desktop PC game caused quite a stir in the gaming community back then, with rudimentary gameplay balancing that became a more complex staple in subsequent incarnations in the genre.

It took a while, but we’re at the point where great real time strategy games on our PDAs don’t just have to be desktop-to-PDA ports like Age of Empires as attested to Warfare Incorporated’s presence on the RTS gaming scene.

I protected my mobile Dominion HQ with a few scout ships during a “crossing the plains” mission in the trial download, then unleashed a can of vehicular whupass in the subsequent savage, unequal battle during the next mission.

I pinned the enemy AI down and made short work of his power generators, disabling his turrets.

I then amassed my rocket-propelling infantry and my better class ships instead of some wussy light-armoured scout ships.

This led to some laser filled enemy-building-burning action, of which I’m not too proud. The AI humiliation was thorough.

I’ve been RTS battle-hardened on my desktop PC as my colleagues habitually attempt to decimate one others’ forces in Age of Mythology, Rise of Nations and C&C Generals Zero Hour, amongst others.

Now we can keep the real-time game party going on our PDAs with a release unique to the Pocket PC platform.

Let’s hope for more original real-time wargame Pocket PC releases like this and fewer desktop to PDA game transitions in the future.

Damian Julien is a Pocket PC gaming authority and long time general gaming hobbyist and reviewer.

He is an IT specialist by trade and has posted numerous articles on Pocket PC emulators, gaming and trends in the industry.

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