One of the nice things about being involved with the Smartphone & PocketPC awards over the years is that I’ve gotten the opportunity to play some games that I might not have had the chance or desire to otherwise. One such game is 3D Constructo Combat from Concrete Software. The game takes a rather unique twist on the “tower defense” genre and had the makings of becoming a PocketPC classic.

Basically, your goal over the course of several levels is to build more structures than your opponent. This is done by snatching up building segments and placing them on designated areas within the playing field. A building consists of somewhere between one to four segments and a roof, and you can have as many structures as you can find open foundations on the board. Of course, your opponent is trying to accomplish the same thing, and your building segments come out of the same allocation as his. So how do you get the leg up on your opponent?

Well, the easiest way is to place a segment on each foundation before he can. This isn’t a permanent fix, however. There are two weapons you can get, the bomb and the nuke, which will help you excavate the opponent’s buildings. A bomb removes the top segment from a given building, and a nuke removes the entire structure. There are also three different types of missiles that you can fire on your opponent to stop them in their tracks. The most amusing is the putty missile, which causes your opponent to bounce around the playing field for a couple of seconds. Finally there is a balloon power up, which you can use to send a weapon or building segment into space so your opponent can’t use it.

This is actually a pretty neat little game. The problem is that it feels like the game is only half done. The paragraph above really describes the totality of the game. Some more weapon types might have been nice. The option to have more than two players would have been interesting as well. There’s apparently a multi-player option via Bluetooth, but that’s supported on a very limited number of devices, none of which I have. I think this game would have been much more engaging with real opponents. The AI leaves a bit to be desired, as in the early rounds its main goal it to shoot you, so as long as you can get buildings built in between blasts, you won’t have trouble winning. In the later rounds, the main goal of the AI is still to shoot you. It just so happens that in later rounds all of the items seem to get dropped right by the computer, so when it’s done shooting at you it will actually pick up pieces and build structures. More diversity in the AI would have been welcome.

The graphics are decent enough. The 3D graphics render well on my device – a Verizon XV6700 – but I’m not sure that I’d use the phrase “incredible 3D world” as described on their web page. The landscapes are well textured, and the construction robots look good, though there’s no real detail to them. Explosions and such look okay too, but the overall feel of the visuals is what I might call “first generation” 3D. The sound effects are pretty good, especially the “boing” emitted when someone is hit by the putty missile. Sadly there was no music in 3D Constructo Combat, and it really could have used some.

I really liked the concept behind 3D Constructo Combat. Unfortunately, it’s a hard game to recommend unless you’re one of the few who has a device that supports Bluetooth mode, and happen to know someone else with such a device as well. The game is fun for a little while, but without some much needed variety, you probably won’t be playing 3D Constructo Combat for long.

Overall Score: 5/10
Product Page: 3D Constructo Combat page

[image courtesy of Clickgamer]