When thinking about the perfect game for the Pocket PC Platform, it’s often a shot in the dark. Many action and sports games fail because of the lack of a good control scheme, as the directional pad on Pocket PCs are often unreliable. Puzzle games are fun, but only for a short time. Side-scrollers and shooters have had their day. An RPG might be the perfect gaming choice for the Pocket PC. Normally, I am an action and sports gamer. I play Halo 2 and Madden religiously on the Xbox. For many reasons, I felt that those kinds of games on the Pocket PC were just not fun, and I’ve tried many of them. In need of a good gaming solution for my XV6600, I decided to try Arvale, and I’m glad I did.

I’ll admit, I really didn’t want to like this game. I have always hated RPG’s with a passion. I thought that they were the kinds of games only the real nerds play. I installed it and found myself as Duncan, a gardener who has been called by the King to put some kind of Dragon back to his slumber. “Wow”, I thought, “an RPG game about a dragon, how original”. This game is set in the Old-Tyme era, back in the day. I’m not sure which day, but I am sure I wasn’t alive on that day.

The controls are excellent. You have three ways of controlling Duncan. The first would be with the D-Pad on your Pocket PC, and pressing the corresponding direction and the middle button as an action button. The Second, clicking with the stylus anywhere on the screen and hitting the “use” button at the bottom left for an action button. The third way is to hold the stylus on the screen and move it around to control Duncan.

I soon found myself talking to anyone I could, having converstations with strangers, guards, the King, and lots of hot chicks I met at a bar(who seemed strangly disinterested in me). They would give me requests, tell me to go here and there and bring items to them or deliver items to someone else. Easy enough.

I fought many battles with a variety of bad guys, like your standard wolves or your crazy Tree-Monster with a hard right hook. I started leveling up and got stronger, and better at fighting, and now I feel like I can take on anyone. I am awesome. Some of the battles are downright scary, albeit on a small screen.

This game is addicting. You won’t want to stop playing. I find myself playing whenever I can. The quests are given to you on your stats page and they tell you what you are supposed to be doing at all times. This is good because I am the type of guy who gets permanently stuck on games like Gilbert Goodmate.

Overall, this is the ultimate Pocket PC game. Hours and hours of gameplay. I’m talking 40+ people. You WILL get your money’s worth, that’s for sure. I’ve spent more money for games that I beat in a weekend. The sequel is probably even better, but I have decided to master this one first so I could get into the storyline more.

Pros: Control, pretty graphics, epic but funny storyline and dialogue, 40+ hours of gameplay, addicting

Cons: Why no arvale MMORPG for the pocket pc? We’ve all got internet connections!

clickclickPOP! Rating: 95 out of 100 (BUY IT!)

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 11th, 2005 at 6:09 pm and is filed under Pocket PC, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.