LittleNeutrino

MineCraft: Pocket Edition

Introduction

MineCraft: Pocket Edition is a portable version of the award winning PC Game of the same name. While there are some major differences between the versions (such as no mobs, or even sky) the similarities are enough to keep any seasoned minecrafter busy on the go. Pick it up if you have any phone with Android 2.1 or higher on the Android Market ($6.99 USD)

Pro's & Con's

I have played this game for several hours and there are many things I like about what they have done here. While we knew from the start that this was not going to be a full version of the game it feels very well featured. The title was originally released only for the Sony Xperia Play (due to its slide out gamepad) However; now that it has been released for general consumption there are onscreen controls. The controls feel smooth for the most part however, on my phone (The Droid 3) if you have the graphics turned all the way up and you are near water the frame rates drop pretty quickly.

There are still a lot of improvements to be made before this game can feel like a fully featured title. currently there are only 36 block types that you can play with. Of these you cannot even create a Door at the moment. The lighting in the game does not appear to function well or in some cases at all. Sometimes you place a torch in a dark room and it produces no light at all. There is also no gravity in this version as sand and gravel do not fall when the blocks below them are destroyed.

Verdict

All and all this is a nice release, although the price tag is a bit steep for the version that we have been given once the game is more featured and has had a few performance tweaks and feature updates the $6.99 USD they are asking is well worth the hours of enjoyment you are going to get out of it. Keep in mind there is also Quasi online play where so long as you are in close proximity to your friends you can play on one another’s maps.

Overall I would give the game a 3 out of 5, once they add more features and do a bit more performance it could easily be a 5