The head of games at Helio, Leo Jun, was kind enough to send us a preview copy of the new Oregon Trail game from Gameloft. Yeah, yeah, I know. Lots of game talk recently, however, there is some cool new stuff upon the horizon.

Most people remember the Oregon Trail from the old Apple II (If you don’t, check out the Wiki article on it). It was probably the best game in the late 80s on that system. If you’ve never played, it revolves around a family traveling along the trail to Oregon back in the 1800s, and you have to hunt for food, avoid diseases, snake bites, drowning while crossing rivers, and essentially getting to Oregon.

Gameloft’s refreshed version definitely does not disappoint. They did an excellent job of reviving the Oregon Trail series, which I was kinda worried about (Since sequels, especially mobile ones aren’t usually great). They kept the core gameplay pretty much the same and added new mini-games, side-quests, and graphics without ruining the classic style of it. I also found some parts of this game hilarious, such as the bear attack animations, the snake bites, and other things I don’t think I should spoil. Everything you would expect and more is there from the original game, such as hunting, and navigating the river when you miraculously make your wagon float and oxen swim. Some new things such as fixing the wagon by whacking nails, and fishing add to the gameplay in a positive way.

This is definitely a hot game so I’ll make a post once it hits the Helio store. It’s just got a few tiny bugs in it, so it shouldn’t be too much longer before it’s released. Stay tuned!

The Shroud, which can be best described as the old-school Harvest Moon and Zelda joining forces, has made it’s way onto Helio with GPS exclusivity.

Complete with quests, puzzles, farming, monsters, and GPS integration, The Shroud appears to be a well rounded game with lots of stuff to do. If you are a fan of RPGs such as the original Zelda and Final Fantasy, you will most likely enjoy this game. Fans of Harvest Moon will especially enjoy this game, as it primarily revolves around Taro, a young farmer who has to tend to his parents farm and earn money by selling crops and raising animals. To add a bit of a twist, there are also monsters and “The Shroud” who will escape from the mines to make things a bit more difficult. A la Harvest Moon, there is a calendar with mini-games on certain days, such as chicken racing and fishing tourneys.

Another cool feature is Your World Games has the ability to add new quests, and create new downloadable content for the game. GPS hotspots (AKA “Breaches”) are defined by real-world coordinates, and provide you with a task, or even the ability to head to the mines without the troubles of being ravaged by monsters.

Overall, The Shroud seems like it has a lot of potential. And at only 2.99/month, it’s not a bad deal at all. We also have the honor of having one of The Shroud team members on our forum! Click here to go to the thread, post your comments, dislikes, likes and whatever else you think about the game there. Want to download it? On your GPS-enabled Helio device, go to the Helio Store > Games > All New or RPG and select “The Shroud”.

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A week ago or so, a new game appeared on the WAP deck called Tank Wars: Annihilation. You may have come across the games Worms and Gunbound in the past. Both awesome games where you pick a tank and your objective is to target projectiles at your opponent, while factoring in the wind, angle, distance, and power. That’s pretty much what Tank Wars is, but packed into mobile form.

Tank Wars is indeed probably one of the best mobile multiplayer games I’ve played. You can play against the computer, or jump on in a online game. The only downside is that online is 1v1, but that’s alright, it’s still pretty great! If you want to check out some ingame play, Guppy Games has a flash video posted of it on their site, just click the Tank Wars banner at the top of this post.

If you’ve decided to download it from the games store on Helio (.99 to rent for 7 days, 5.99 to buy), then post your gamertag that you are using here in the comments of this post. Keep an eye out for your fellow Helions!

Remember back in April we did that “New Games Roundup”? Well, here it is again!

Prince of Persia Classic by Gameloft - Bringing back all the memories of the classic Prince of Persia. The great thing about this is that you can play it in landscape mode.

Speed Racer by Glu Mobile - Just in time for the movie release. Go speed racer, go!

Brick Breaker Revolution by Digital Chocolate - Very similar to Arkanoid, except with spruced up graphics and some really cool additions.

Penguin Fun by Skava - Mini games involving penguins, what could be more fun than that?

There is also a special promo going on right now, the following Gameloft titles are 50% off, hurrah!

Tropical Madness

Gangstar: Crime City

Turbo Jet Ski 3D

Sexy poker Top Models

Catz

Big Range Hunting

Since Helio has recently been pumping up their games catalog, we thought it would be a great idea to detail the new releases about every two weeks. This isn’t meant to be a review system or anything, but that section of the site will be coming soon.

Tornado Mania! by Digital Chocolate - A mad scientist has created a tornado machine, oh nooo. Play in ‘Utopia’ mode, where you suck stuff up and regurgitate it back into your own city. Or, you can just destroy stuff.

Space Monkey by Glu Mobile - Space Monkey is a monkey who likes collecting garbage in space. A pretty simple and fun game to kill some time. You rotate him around to collect the garbage, but there are some things he doesn’t like, such as batteries. Whatever monkey, I always go into space to collect batteries.

Rockin’ Stone by Gamevil - Rockin’ Stone is a game where you are a somewhat energetic little rock, skipping along a river. Can become quite challenging.

Swordfish Tournament by Knowledgewhere - The first GPS based game available on Helio. Pulls map data and shows you places to “fish”. Walk into an area that has fish and there you go!

Helio and Gameloft have teamed up again for a Helio exclusive contest with some really cool prizes.

The Rules:

You must be a Helio member.

One internet entry per person.

You must be over 16 to enter the contest.

What do you have to do to enter, you might ask? You can enter two ways. Over the internet (only once) or by purchasing at least one of the following games:

Guitar Rock Tour

American Popstar: Road to Celebrity

New York Nights: Success in the City

Meteos Astro Blocks

Asphalt: Urban GT 2

And the most important thing: the prizes. They will be giving away DJ Consoles and iPod Nanos each week. Remember: If you download more than one of those games, you will be entered for each you buy. Contest ends at 11:59:00 p.m. EST April 18, 2008.
For the rest of the rules, head on over to the rules page.

Just a side note, Gameloft doesn’t have the newer Helio phone models in there, but just pick PN-8300 (Pantech), SPH-A303 (Samsung) or SPH-A503 (Samsung) and everything should be alright.

Enjoy! Let us know if any of you Heliocity users end up winning!

Just in time for the lovey-dovey day, Helio has discounted some awesome games for everyone. The following games are all 50% off, and we see some pretty nice titles included.

- Might & Magic II (Landscape Game)
- Paris Hilton’s Diamond Quest
- Sexy Poker 2006
- Miami Nights: Singles in the City
- Catz
- Shrek the Third

Just $2.99 to purchase the game, or $1.99 to upgrade from a previously rented version of it. You have until 2/18 to get these games at the discounted price. Just hop onto your Helio and either navigate to the game from the browser, or take the easier way of just dialing PLAY (7529) and hitting the Helio flame button to go directly to the list of the games.

Thanks to Mr. L for the information!