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!

It’s finally official. After months and months of ongoing rumors, SKT/Helio and Virgin have finally come to a conclusion of what they are going to do. Virgin Mobile USA will be entering into the postpaid (contractual) market via Helio, and the Helio name will be turned in to Virgin Mobile. Read Virgin’s press release here, or Helio’s statement here.

I’d also like to clear up some common misconceptions really quick. Helio will not become prepaid. And the Ocean 2 is still on track for release.

Since there are a lot of numbers and tech talk in the press release, we think it’d be easier to just list it all out in a nice and easy to read list:

Virgin Mobile will be able to negotiate lower rates from Sprint, which will then hopefully be passed on to us.

“Helio” now has exposure and more growth opportunity to the 4.6 million users of Virgin Mobile, along with new distribution channels that Virgin already has deals with.

Our exclusive applications will remain, such as Youtube Mobile, Myspace etc… We expect that nothing will really change on this part (all games and apps will still be here)

SKTelecom will own 17% of Virgin Mobile USA, which equals two spots in the Board of Directors. So even while Helio, the name, will be no more, SKT will still have some direction and authority.

SKTelecom will be providing an additional $35 million into Virgin Mobile. Virgin Group will put down $25 million.

They plan to keep using Helio’s awesome offerings, and adding even more. Essentially, this is Virgin Mobile’s high-end postpaid service now, with the prepaid being low-end/mid-range.

Due to a lot of the proprietary software that Helio uses for it’s handsets, we don’t expect Virgin Mobile to suddenly change everything we know, as it would be a big ol’ pain for them and for us.

In addition to the press release, we are also told that Helio House (the corporate offices of Helio) will remain, albeit slightly slimmed down, but products, services, and other teams will still be there.

Jin Woo So, who is the President of Global Business at SKTelecom commented, “This transaction and our long-term, strategic investment in Virgin Mobile USA continue SKT’s strong momentum in the U.S. market, and will allow Helio and Virgin Mobile USA to realize significant synergies and strategic benefits. Virgin Mobile’s scale, strong brand power and expertise in prepaid with Helio’s leading technology, innovative services and experience in postpaid will together form a powerful new platform that will bring new value and flexibility to customers. We believe the strength of the business model will serve to enhance the value we built at Helio, and we look forward to a long-term partnership.”

Helio has also posted up their own statement, which covers just a few topics.

Everyone’s services will still work as intended, there won’t be any interruption.

New members can still sign up for Helio

The Helio brand will unfortunately eventually be phased out.

This deal does NOT affect your contract, meaning, if you leave, you still pay the $175 ETF

What does all this mean? Basically, our bill may now come from Virgin Mobile USA, and future handsets may have the Virgin Mobile logo, but I wouldn’t expect anything to go downhill from here. Since Virgin Mobile has so many customers, the discounts they will receive on handsets and airtime will be great. You can say goodbye to the little blue flame if you want, but I think the only thing we will be missing is that, the logo and the name Helio. It’s a sad day for everyone, especially those whose jobs were cut (my condolences, we’ve met a lot of awesome people at Helio!), but here’s to hoping that it’s just going to get better from here on out. If need be, we’ve made a difference before, we can do it again.

Virgin Mobile’s press release

The day has unfortunately come, corporate owned Helio retail stores and kiosks have finally been put to rest these past couple of days, but this has no affect toward third-party retailers selling Helio. This move comes in part of Helio’s long rumored talks of merging with Virgin Mobile. While there is still no official word from either Helio or Virgin Mobile (there should be one soon), the stores have closed to focus their distribution in other areas that are making more profit.

Here’s a reminder of what some of the Helio retail stores looked like, they are pretty awesome looking, and it’s a shame to see them gone.

A little birdie also told us that Helio/SKT and Virgin Mobile have still been in talks up to this point, and may very well be in talks up until the news hits the wire. Is that good or bad? We’ll know when that information is revealed. We’re hoping good though!

In light of all the negativity that has been fueled from the uncredited/inaccurate Engadget and Gizmodo articles, some Youtube videos have been uncovered by our forum members of a Helio employee videoing quick glimpses of the Ocean 2, along with other oddities, and then deleting them.

The employee in question seems to just be wandering around recording random things and uploading them from his device, most likely an Ocean 2 as well. While most of the videos were just walls, floors, people (and the inside of a bathroom stall?), there was definitely some nice shots of the Ocean 2 in there. We’ve taken some screenshots of the good ones to make it easier, since these videos are no longer up.

Click on the images to enlarge them

If you haven’t noticed, we’ve kinda been going review crazy lately. Well, not exactly crazy, but more reviews than we’ve done in a long time (Oops, we’ve been slacking!). Shortly after the Helio Ocean skins were added into the Helio Store - Order Accessories page, they added in these odd things called Golla bags. Turns out, they are actually pretty cool. Helio has been nice enough again to send us some to review. And since I can’t wear them all at the same time, (I could, but it would look kinda weird) we are going to hold a contest to get rid of them.

>> Click here to check out the full review <<

CONTEST ENTRY INSTRUCTIONS:

Post a comment on this news article

In that comment, tell me if you want the Cube or Adele Golla (Pics in the review)

Also tell me what kids show logo I photoshopped at the top of the article (Hint: It starts with Gullah Gullah…)

When you comment, make sure your e-mail is valid so I can contact you

Two winners by random selection. One for the pink Adele Golla, and one for the black Cube Golla. Contest ends Monday, 06/16/08 at 11:59pm

Oh boy, was this a fun one to review. Helio sells this “Garmin Car Cradle” from their online store (under the “Order Accessories” link), and I had no clue what it really did or was even like until Helio graciously sent us one. When I first opened the box it came in, I was sort of wishing that I still had no idea what it did or was like, as it doesn’t come with an instruction manual, and all these scary pieces were just taunting me in the bags. Without an instruction manual, it was a doozy trying to assemble it. After finally getting it all together and figuring how to make it suction to the window, it actually isn’t half bad. Overall, it’s very useful, especially since you can use it with a multitude of devices.

>> Read the rest of the review here. <<