CLASSIC MOBILE GAMES

Mobile games aren’t exactly favoured by the retro community, but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t have some amazing titles on the platform throughout the Noughties. Retro Gamer is here to prove to you that old phones are the retro handheld that time forgot

Words by Zach Murphy

INTERESTING GAMES YOU'VE NEVER PLAYED

» [Mobile] There are some rather high-intensity battles in the game that’ll really keep you on the edge of your seat.

BIOSHOCK 2D

■ DEVELOPER: IG FUN ■ YEAR: 2010

■ Irrational Games’ BioShock drew in fans from a multitude of genres and backgrounds, and caused them all to fall in love with the same thing. BioShock had a lot going for it, with underwater Fifties aesthetics, utopian inspirations and an incredible narrative full of twists and turns. It was so refined and polished that it was hard to point out any particular faults with the game, and it went on to spawn two sequels, which have since been remastered and re-released across multiple platforms.

In 2010, a few years after the release of the original game, 2K teamed up with IG Fun to ‘de-make’ it for mobile devices. This led to a notoriously hard-tofind version for BREW devices, a now-delisted iOS game that had horrendous framerate issues, and perhaps most interesting, a 2D topdown reimagining of the game for Java-compatible mobile devices.

BioShock 2D features an array of plasmids and tonics from the main game, telekinesis and incinerate both make appearances, as does electro bolt. You’ll be switching between these and your more traditional weaponry on the fly as you explore the dark and dingy environments of Rapture, and they all control pretty well too. Tonics are pretty basic, granting you perks such as a larger health pool or the chance to find more bullets.

Weaponry is much more useful than the slow-acting plasmids though, and most of the weapons also have alternate ammunition types to pierce through armour and such. Starting the game off with your trusty wrench, you can stealth your way through by stunning your foes with a plasmid, then turning their head to mush with a well-placed swing of the tool. Gaining access to the shotgun and Tommy gun later in the campaign is a real highlight though, as they can make quick work of your enemies.