I can hardly believe it is October already.  The leaves are turning funny colors, a chill has entered the air (albeit unseasonably late) and the ghosts, goblins, and ghouls are starting to line up around our neighborhood.  Trick or Treat time is almost upon us.  What are you and/or your kids dressing up as?   Mine will be a Power Ranger (Red) and Superman.  My new daughter will probably get a jump start and dress as a princess or a sunflower.  Well, in the spirit of the month, I have five fantastic treats for you.  And, as always, the best part is they are free.  So, put on your sheet with the holes cut out of it and I promise, no rocks in your candy bag, just these five great games:

1.  Bubble Breaker

2.  High Noon Drifter – Dead Man’s Gulch

3.  EnLight

4.  Pocket TicTacToe

5.  SHEALD Maze

Bubble Breaker:  Bubble Breaker was the first Pocket PC game to be developed.  I can definitively say that, because I owned one of the original Windows Mobile devices (the HP Jornada) and Bubble Breaker was already included as part of the Operating System.  When I bought my latest device, the Sprint Mogul, I was happy to find that Bubbles was still included in Windows Mobile 6. 

More than just a fun game, however, Bubble Breaker served a traditional Microsoft role by its inclusion with the Windows Mobile Operating System.  A little background here.  Longtime Windows users may recall that Solitaire was originally included with the Windows Operating System in order to help people learn to control the cursor with this “new-fangled” mouse.  Today, of course, the mouse is commonplace, even a necessity, and the idea of someone not knowing how to use it is almost laughable (heck my two year old can do it). 

When Windows Mobile hit the scene, the folks at Microsoft expressed the same concern about people learning to use the tap and hold functions as they did with the original mouse.  As such, just as Solitaire was included with the Windows Operating System, Bubble Breaker was include with the Windows Mobile Operating System in order to help users learn the tap and hold and stylus functions.  Thus, like Solitaire, Bubble Breaker allows you to have fun while learning how to use the operating system.  Nice.  Sneaky, but nice.

Since that time, Bubble Breaker has become almost a cult classic, addicting hundreds of new users a year (not a real statistic).  Gameplay is simple.  You are faced with a screen full of randomly arranged colored balls.  Find groups of two or more balls and tap them to make them disappear.  The remaining balls will then fill in the space.  How the other balls do so, however, depends upon which of the four different modes of play, you choose.   Remove larger groups of balls for extra bonus points.  Remove all of the balls from the screen and you will win the game.  Of course, there is no link for this one since it already shipped with your Windows Mobile device.  So, as long as you have a Windows Mobile device, Bubbles is loaded and ready to play.

High Noon Drifter – Dead Man’s Gulch: This is a fantastic Western-themed shooting gallery.  It features three difficulty levels, aptly named The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. 

The town of Laredo has been overrun by Bandits.  You control the gun of Jake “Six Gun” McLoud, the bounty hunter hired to free the town.  Along the way, you will also want to find the ten gems and shoot them for a special bonus.  The game features some fantastic graphics and animation, including scores of shootable objects along the way.   So head on over to Clickgamer to download the game, but be careful you don’t shoot any townspeople along the way.  You will get penalized for shooting them.  Note that you will need to register the game in order to unlock all of the levels and features, however, it is free to do so.

EnLight: This is a deceptively difficult puzzle game.  All you have to do is turn off all the lights on the grid.  Sounds easy, I know.  To change the status of any light, just tap it.  Now, I know what you are thinking here, just tap all of the lights and you win the game.  If it was that easy, though, it would really not be much of a puzzle at all.  And here is the rub.  When you tap a square, not only will its status change, but also the four adjacent squares will change status.  Plan your moves carefully, and you will be able to turn off the lights and move on to the next level.  Once you advance through the stages, you can go back and replay any level which you have already completed.

Pocket TicTacToe: Not a lot to say here.  This is your standard X’s and O’s game.  The graphics were simply drawn, but extremely appropriate for the game.  I mean, come on, this is a game which I have played by drawing in the dirt with a stick.  It would be nice if there were a two player mode, however, trying to beat the computer lends quite a bit of excitement.  The AI in this game is excellent and extremely challenging. 

SHEALD Maze: I have always been a fan of mazes, so I was extremely excited when I stumbled upon SHEALD Maze for inclusion in this month’s edition of the Arcade.  It is a fairly simple maze generator which is a “ton o’ fun” to play.  Each time you start a new game, a fresh maze is randomly generated.  You can control the difficulty by changing the dimensions of the maze.  Select 10×10 for a relatively easy game.  For a real challenge, however, up the ante to a 25×25 grid. 

At the start of each game, a green square marks your starting location, while a green “X” marks the exit.  Obviously, your job is to lead the green square to the exit.  As you move, you will notice that we leave a blue trail marking your path.  If you make a mistake, just go back to the intersection you wish to change and start over from there.  The blue line marking your progress will be erased back to that point.  Finally, by default there is a timer which will record how long it takes you to finish each maze.  For an added challenge, you can change this timer to a countdown clock, forcing you to finish the maze quickly. 

I have to say that I was extremely impressed by the games I looked at this month for The Arcade.  For freeware games, they featured excellent graphics, smooth gameplay, and even some original ideas.  Stay tuned to the Arcade, of course, we will have five new games in November, but then in December, I will be running a “Best of The Arcade” feature.  Rather than featuring five new games, I will feature the best of the best, the top five games which I have looked at so far.  Of course, I will need your help in this.  Leave a comment or email me at the address below your picks for the top five games featured in The Arcade so far.

To see previous editions of The Arcade, check out our archives, exclusively at Just Another Mobile Monday.

If you are a game player or developer, and would like to recommend a freeware game for use in a future installment of The Arcade please email me here at JAMM (doug [at] justanothermobilemonday.com, but replace at “at” with a “@”. All requests are welcome.

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